Big Yellow Taxi series Part One 

Title: Don't It Always Seem To Go
Author: MagsRose
Email: magsrose@comcast.net 
Category: Gen
Rating: FRC
Summary: This is another Emma story. 
Disclaimers: No infringement is intended. None should be implied. No money is being made and nothing but time has been spent. This is simply a major case of 'what if'.
More Disclaimers: Emma is mine. My assorted friends and relations belong to themselves and have derived nothing but entertainment from being fictionalized. 
Acknowledgements: Thank you, thank you, thank you to Amy Jonas who points out the holes before I fall into them.
Background: In May of 2001, Frohike discovered that he had an eleven-year-old daughter and that her mother was dying. After some initial hesitation, he brought the girl, Emma, home. 


Chapter 1


Langly was supposed to pick Emma up from the YMCA after swimming. He was late. But then he was usually late when it was his turn to play chauffeur. Emma offered more than once to drive herself but she knew no one would take her seriously. Metro was no good, too many transfers, so Emma was waiting for her ride. 

Several other kids were waiting, too. It was a hot day, so most of them were still in their bathing suits with damp towels draped over various body parts. Emma talked and joked with some of them. The new counter guy was taking a smoke break but stood near the garbage can that had the big ash tray on the top and a huge 'This is a Smoke Free Facility' sign above it. It was the last stop for smokers on their way into the 'Y' and the spot to come to when you needed a cigarette. 

The old counter guy had quit a week earlier and no one missed him. He was a grouch. The new guy was funny. He told jokes and didn't get upset when you forgot your ID card and he had to look your name up on the computer before he could let you past the front desk. He didn't even complain if you asked for an extra towel. 

By the time most of the kids had been picked up, Emma and the last few swimmers were laughing uproariously at a story he was telling. Soon, Emma was the only one left and she appreciated the fact that he was willing to keep her company until her ride came. He said that he felt better if she didn't have to wait alone and that it was his job to make sure all the kids were safe.

He asked her questions about herself, her mom, her dad, any other family, where she lived, who her friends were, etc. Like any child her age, Emma enjoyed being the topic of the conversation. She talked about her dad and the guys and the paper they published. She talked a little about her mom and that fact that she had died. She talked about her school, her hobbies, living at the warehouse, the Highland Games, etc. She liked having an attentive audience. He really seemed interested in what she had to say.


Langly looked at his watch. Oh, man, Emma was going to be in a mood. She hated waiting so long but he had gotten tied up with a project and lost track of time. There was no way he could admit that to her though. It would really set her off. Please don't let her be the last one standing there! When Langly pulled into the parking lot, he was relieved to see that she was not alone by the front door. Some guy in a YMCA shirt was talking to her. His back was to Langly but obviously this guy was keeping the brat amused until he could scoop her up and deliver her back to the warehouse.


Expecting Langly to arrive in the VW bus, Emma didn't notice when he drove into the parking lot in her dad's unobtrusive Honda. Langly was further frustrated to get stuck behind someone who had to stop in the middle of the parking lot to open the trunk so her kid could toss in his gym bag. This required the woman to get out of the car, key open the trunk and rearrange the groceries in the back so the bag would fit. Why the hell didn't they just throw the bag in the backseat?

Langly scowled at the car blocking his road. Maybe Emma had noticed him and would think to come out into the parking lot to meet him. He looked over to where she was waiting. She was laughing again. Well, at least she was in a good mood. He looked more closely at the man. He had turned a little so that Langly could now see a partial profile.

Wait a minute. 

No, dear God, it couldn't be! 

He jammed the car into reverse and with a squeal of protesting tires he backed up the way he had come in. Turning the wheel hard, he swung the car around and threw it into drive going around to the other side of the parking lot to get to the front door. 

The noise and crazy driving attracted the attention of everyone in the parking lot. Parents grabbed their children's hands and pulled them to safety. Emma was shocked to see that it was her dad's car that was the cause of all the commotion. Langly slammed on the breaks bringing the car to a halt, bouncing off the curb as he did so. He jumped out of the car yelling Emma's name. "Emma, get in the car!"

"Langly, what is it?"


"Don't say anything! Just get in the car."


She ran to do as she was told. Safely in the front seat, she watched as Langly confronted the counter guy. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, if it isn't the Blue Boy."

"Whose life are you trying to destroy now?"

"Hey, I'm just doing my job here."

"Yeah, right. If I ever catch you near the kid again, so help me god, I'll kill you."

"How was I supposed to know she was your kid?" the counter guy smirked.

Emma listened to the conversation in horror praying that Langly would just get back in the car. She leaned towards his still open door and called out to him. "Langly, let's go. Please!" She didn't understand what was going on but obviously the two men knew each other and Langly hated the other guy. "Langly!" This time she shouted his name. He turned and got back into the car. Emma scooted over to her side and fastened her seatbelt. Langly put the car in drive and sped out of the parking lot
. 
"Please, slow down," Emma begged. "You're scaring me."

He eased up on the gas, allowing the car to decelerate to something that more closely resembled the speed limit. Langly looked over at Emma a few times before saying, "Don't ask, Emma." 

"I won't."

He reached across the seat and patted her arm to reassure her. "Don't worry about it. It's going to be okay. Really, it will."

Emma wasn't sure who he was trying to convince.


When they pulled into the alley behind the warehouse, Emma noticed that the VW bus was not there. That meant Frohike was still out getting his pictures for the next edition of 'The Lone Gunman'. Jimmy had gone with him so Byers let them into the warehouse. He was surprised when Emma walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him. He let the door close and stood holding her, stroking her damp hair. "Emma, what is it?" She buried her face in his jacket without saying a word. Byers turned to Langly who was watching with a worried look on his face. "What's going on?"

Langly bent down to be at Emma's eye level. "Come on, Em, I meant it when I said it was gonna be all right." She loosened her grip on Byers enough to turn her head to face Langly. "Why don't you go upstairs and change out of your bathing suit? You're getting Byers all soggy." 
Emma backed up a bit to see if Langly was right.

"I'm sorry, John," she told him when she noticed that his shirt was a little damp.

"That's okay. It'll dry."

"I'll go take a shower before I change. That'll give you guys a chance to talk."

Byers watched in confusion as Emma left the room. He turned to Langly hoping for an explanation. He got one but didn't like it. "When I got there to pick her up, she was talking to Morris Fletcher."

"WHAT!?"

"You heard me. It was Fletcher."

"What was he doing there?"

Langly shrugged. "It looked like he was working there."

"What did Emma have to say about it?"

"I didn't ask her."

"What did you say to her?"

"Nothing. I didn't want to freak her out anymore than I already had."

Byers listened for a few seconds. He could hear the shower running upstairs. "Frohike called. He and Jimmy should be home any minute. I'm going to see if I can get in touch with Yves."


With the smell of chlorine washed off her skin, Emma felt physically better. She dressed quickly and wondered if she should wait upstairs until one of the guys came to get her. She didn't have to wonder for long.

"Emma! Emma, where are you? EMMA!"

She stepped out of her room. "I'm right here, Dad!"

He ran up to her and gripped her arms tightly asking questions faster than she could answer them. "What did he say to you? What did he do to you? Did he hurt you?"

"Dad, stop! Nothing happened!" He loosened his hold on her arms but did not let her go. "Until today, I thought he was just a nice man that worked at the YMCA. Who is he really?"

Frohike hugged her tightly before releasing her. He took a deep breath and forced himself to talk slowly. "He's someone we've had problems with in the past."

"What did he do? Langly got really mad at him."

"It's a long story but what it boils down to is that he can't be trusted. He's a professional liar." Frohike rubbed her arms where he could see red marks from his fingers. "He uses people to get what he wants. That's why Langly got so upset when he saw you talking to him. The last time we dealt with him, he tricked us into helping him find Yves." 

"What did he want with Yves?"

"She would have to tell you that but I don't think it would be a good idea to ask anytime soon. We need to find out why he's back in town and what he's after."


They went downstairs to join the others. Langly was busy at the computer. He had hacked into the YMCA's main server to see what he could find out about Fletcher. "Emma, do you know what name he was using?" 

"His name tag just said 'Lance'. So, that's what we called him."

Langly continued searching. He found the employee information for the particular 'Y' at which Emma went swimming. There was a Lance listed but, of course, the information was all bogus. 

"That's it! I'm going out there," Frohike announced.

Byers held up a hand. "No, you're not!"

Frohike glared at his friend. "Are you going to stop me?"

Jimmy stepped in to play peacekeeper. "Come on Frohike, Byers is right. It's not a good idea for you to get anywhere near that jerk."

"I'll do it," Byers offered. "I'll go and see if he's around."

"What are you going to do if he is?" Frohike wasn't convinced that this was a good idea either.

"Cause a lot less trouble than you would. Besides, I seriously doubt he's still there. I think he's made his point."

"And what would that be?"

Byers looked over where Emma was listening intently. She moved closer to Langly turning her attention to what he was doing. Byers lowered his voice so that only Frohike and Jimmy could hear. "That he can still get to us if he wants to."

" I should've beaten the bastard's head in when I had the chance," Frohike said.

"And land yourself in jail? What good would that do you or Emma?" Byers asked.

Frohike turned to see that she was watching them again. He nodded at Byers, "All right, you go but take Jimmy with you."

"Like I'd let him go alone," Jimmy said.


Yves got there late that evening. Since Fletcher had worked for her father in the past she had taken the time to be sure that none of her father's other cronies were around. She found nothing to indicate that her father was trying to track her down again. In fact, he was in Korea. There was some deal there he was working on.

But the situation still bothered her. Like the Gunmen, she had to wonder why Morris Fletcher was in town and stalking Emma. 

Byers and Jimmy had talked with the people at the YMCA and hadn't found out much more than Langly did on the computer. Fletcher had lied to them all. His conversations with his coworkers pretty much echoed his employment application. He hadn't worked there long enough to really get to know anyone and he had unexpectedly quit after having an argument in the parking lot with a man who had long, blond hair.

They debated the subject for the next several hours. Langly was hard at work on the computer most of that time searching for other signs of Fletcher and what he was up to. He hit a point of absolute frustration near midnight. The others got him to give it up saying that his keyboard did not deserve such abuse. 

Yves had an idea that she felt would solve one aspect of their current problem for a few weeks anyway. She got up, walked over to Emma's room and looked inside. The girl was sound asleep. Yves shut the door and returned to where they were all sitting. She sat down next to Frohike and turned to face him. "Frohike, I want to make a suggestion that I would like you to consider carefully before giving me your answer."

Frohike reluctantly agreed, uncertain where this was going. "What is it?"

"I have some business in the UK that I need to take care of. I'll be gone for quite a while so I'm afraid that I can't be of much help with Fletcher. There is one thing I can do to help insure Emma's safety though."

"What's that?"

"Let me take her with me."

Forgetting his earlier promise, Frohike answered immediately. "NO! It's out of the question!" 

"Let me finish." Frohike frowned at her but allowed her to continue. "I've already contacted Pat and Rosalie. We'll be able to meet up with them in a week. She can travel through Scotland with them after that. They have to be back in the states for their grandchildren to start school in September so Emma wouldn't miss any either." Pat and Rosalie were old friends of Emma's who had spent some time with her earlier in the summer.

Frohike was listening now but still wasn't sold on the idea. He knew that Emma wouldn't like being gone for that long but it would be better than being shut up in the warehouse where security was tight until they were certain it was safe for her to go out again. He had been meaning to install a security system at the house and now he certainly had a good reason. And with the reward money they received from recovering the stolen artwork, he could afford to do it right. 

It would also give them time to track down Morris Fletcher and see what he was up to.

Yves could tell he was seriously considering it. "Pat and Rosalie are expecting your call."

"How were you able to contact them?"

"I pay attention. I knew they'd be in Disneyworld right now. It wasn't all that difficult."

Frohike paused studying Yves's face. He looked at the other guys then said, "Let me think about it."

"What?" Langly glanced from Frohike to Yves and back to Frohike. "You can't seriously be considering this! You can't just send her away! She'll never go for it."

"I said I'd think about it! But no matter what I decide, I know she won't be very happy. She already told me she didn't want to go to summer camp and be gone all summer. But until we get this figured out, she won't even be able to go outside." Frohike looked around the group. "She'll be a prisoner here. If she goes with Yves, at least she'll get to enjoy the rest of her summer. I've got to talk to her before I decide though." Frohike turned back to Yves. "When do you want to leave?"

"Late tomorrow night."

Frohike said nothing but Langly walked off ranting to himself. Frohike watched him go. He was reminded of Langly's sullenness when Emma first came to complicate their lives. Now he had the same reaction to Emma's leaving, even for a short time. This was a major improvement but it in no way helped the current situation.

No one else offered an opinion and Frohike didn't ask for any. 


* * * * * * * *


Emma woke up early the next morning, jumped out of bed and yanked open the curtains to outside. Bright sunlight flooded the room. "Yes!" Jimmy had promised to take her to the beach if the weather cooperated. Swimming at the 'Y' was fun but the beach was better. And besides after yesterday, she didn't think she should show her face any time soon at the YMCA. 

She made a picnic lunch for herself and Jimmy then sat down to have a bowl of cereal for breakfast. She wondered when the others were going to get up. Figuring they must have been up late the previous night, she tried to keep as quiet as possible but she was getting impatient. 

She heard a noise down the hall and looked to see who was moving around.


Jimmy sat up in bed and scratched his head. He had the feeling he had forgotten something. He got up and looked around the room. What could it have been? He opened his door and headed for the can. He noticed movement in the kitchen and saw Emma sitting at the table. She gave him a big grin and waved. He waved back and stepped into the bathroom shutting the door behind him. 

After washing his hands, he splashed water on his face and looked at his reflection in the mirror. Then he remembered! He was supposed to take Emma to the beach! There was no way Frohike was going to let her do this now. He went out to the kitchen. 

"Good morning, Jimmy! I'm ready." Emma could see that he wasn't but wanted him to hurry. "I even made a lunch for us to take."

"I'm sorry, Emma, but we can't go."

"Why not? The weather's great. You said we could go if it didn't rain."

"It's not the weather. Your dad said that you're not to leave the warehouse for any reason."

"I'm grounded? What did I do?" She racked her brains trying to figure out what rules she may have broken.

"No, Em, you're not grounded! You didn't do anything. Let me go get your dad. He needs to talk to you."

It usually wasn't a good idea to wake up Frohike so Emma tried to stop him. "Wait, Jimmy! He's probably still asleep." 

"It's okay, really," Jimmy insisted. "Your dad just wanted to be the one to tell you about this."

Emma couldn't shake the feeling that this was all her fault and waking her dad up would just make him madder at her than she thought he was. 

Jimmy knocked on Fro's door and waited. When he heard grumbling from inside, Jimmy opened the door and went in. Turning over and grabbing his glasses from the nightstand, Frohike fought to focus on who was standing over him. Way too tall to be Emma. Good, it was not another late night crisis and from the look of the light in the hallway, it wasn't even late night. "What time is it?"

Jimmy glanced at the bedside clock. "It's a little after eight."

Dropping his head back on the pillow, Frohike asked, "What do you want, Jimmy?"

"It's Emma." Frohike propped himself up on one elbow but didn't say anything. Jimmy continued. "I was supposed to take her to the beach today. I forgot all about it. She's ready to go but I told her you didn't want her to leave here." Frohike flipped back the covers and swung his legs around to get out of bed. Jimmy backed up but kept talking. "She thinks she did something wrong and that she's grounded but I told her you wanted to talk to her." Frohike walked around the bed to get his robe out of the closet. 

"I got it, Jimmy. I'll go talk to her."

"Thanks. Sorry about this."

"Don't worry about it."


Emma saw her dad come out of his room closely followed by Jimmy. He didn't look mad. That was good. Frohike walked up to where she was still sitting at the kitchen table. "Good morning, honey," he said putting his hand on top of her head as he walked past her to grab another chair.

"Morning, Dad." He didn't seem to be mad. He usually got really quiet when he was mad. He brought the chair around so that he could sit facing her. Jimmy sat down across the table from them. 

"You were supposed to go to the beach with Jimmy today." Emma just nodded. "He told you why you couldn't go."

"He said that I couldn't leave the warehouse for any reason. But I don't know why. Did I do something wrong?"

"No, honey, you didn't do anything. It's because of what happened yesterday. Morris Fletcher is not a nice man and until we find out what he's up to, I can't take any chances with your safety. You're better off here and not out in public. The beach is probably perfectly safe but I don't want to find out the hard way that I'm wrong."

"But you guys said he was gone. John said he quit his job at the 'Y' and Langly said that he couldn't find him anywhere."

"I know that," Frohike said sighing, "but that doesn't mean he isn't still around somewhere. He knows about this place. He's been here before. I can't even let you go outside to ride your bike." 

"Not even to shoot baskets?"

Frohike shook his head. "No. Not even that."

"What about if we go back to the house? Would I have to stay inside there?"

"It's safer here than at the house because of the security here. It will take some time for me to get security installed at the house."

"But he doesn't know about our house." Emma insisted.

"If he could find you at the YMCA and get a job there to talk to you, he would know about the house."

Scowling, Emma looked down at the floor and thought about the restrictions. After a few seconds, she looked back up at her dad. "How long?"

"How long what?"

"How long do I have to stay inside all the time?"

"Until we either find him or figure out what he's up to."

"But how long will that take." 

"I wish I knew. We're doing the best we can." 

Frustrated, Emma rose to put her dirty dishes away. She only got half way there before she turned to say, "If he wanted to get me or do something to me he could have done it yesterday at the 'Y'." 

Frohike didn't want her waking up the others. "Emma, keep your voice down and come back and sit down." 

Langly came out of his room to see what was going on.

Trying to get the whole thing to make sense, she didn't hear her dad. "But he quit his job."

"Emma, come and sit down," Frohike said a bit more firmly than the first time.

Emma saw Langly walking toward her and pointed at him.

"And Langly said he couldn't find him. If Langly says he's gone, he's gone. I believe him." Langly took the dishes from her and set them in the sink. Leading her back to the chair he said, "Your dad told you to sit down." She finally did but gave Langly a pleading look hoping he would take her side. 

"Isn't that right? You said he was gone."

"No, I said that I couldn't find him. There's a big difference."

"But if you can't find him, then no one can." Emma's faith in Langly's abilities was unwavering. 

"I haven't given up trying yet." Langly turned to look at Frohike. "Have you told her what Yves said?"

Surprised that Langly would bring up something he so vehemently opposed the day before, Frohike shook his head. "I was about to."

"What did Yves say?" Emma asked.

"We were discussing this problem last night. Yves has a solution that I promised to tell you about." Emma wondered if it involved wearing a disguise the rest of the summer but decided that was silly. "She has to go on a long trip and she's willing to take you with her, if you'd like to go."

"Where's she going?" This didn't sound too bad. A trip could be fun. 

"She's going to England."

"England!" That was so far away. Now Emma wasn't too sure about it. "How long would we be gone?"

"You'd be back in time to start school in the fall."

"But that's a long time. Can't you guys go, too?"

"We need to stay here to make sure that Fletcher isn't going to cause us any more trouble." Langly explained. 

Emma sensed that the decision had already been made. She turned back to her father, "Not even just you," she asked him in a low voice. "Can't you go with me?"

"No, honey, I can't. I'm needed here." He studied her face. "Don't you want to go?"

She shrugged. "Sure I'd like to go but I want you to go, too."

"Yves called Pat and Rosalie," Langly added somewhat reluctantly. "They're willing to meet up with you there. She said that you might be able to travel with them for a while." 

Emma brightened, "Really?"

"I just need to make the final arrangements with them," Frohike said. "So what do you think? Are you willing to do this or would you rather sit inside here for the rest of the summer?"

Emma considered her options. "I guess it would be fun." 

"Aw, come on, Em." Jimmy said trying to cheer her up. "You'll have a great time!"

She gave him a crooked smile. "Yeah, you're right." 

"Good. You leave tonight," Frohike told her.

"Tonight? I've gotta pack! I need to go back to the house to get my passport and some of my clothes and other stuff. I need to wash what I have here. You didn't give me much time," she complained.

"Well, then you'd better get started." Emma ran off to her room to check what needed to be laundered and to see what else she would want from the house. 

Langly got up to go back to bed. Frohike stopped him. "Hey, buddy, thanks for your help. But what made you change your mind about his?"

"I haven't changed my mind. I still think it's a stupid idea. But I couldn't stand to watch her mope around here getting on my nerves. She might as well go have some fun."

"Well, thanks anyway."

"Yeah, whatever."




Late that evening, Emma stood looking at her carefully packed suitcase. Her passport was tucked into her backpack along with her portable CD player and assorted other items to amuse herself on the long flight. She didn't know what to think about all of this. As a matter of fact her head was spinning. She was excited by the idea of a trip but she then felt guilty for wanting to go and leave her dad and the guys behind. Then she wanted to stay home but sitting around in the warehouse for who knows how long would be hell. She figured things would go from bad to worse very quickly.

"Are you ready?" Frohike asked. 

"I guess so. I hope I didn't forget anything."

"You'll be fine as long as you have your passport and the letters. You can always buy whatever you forgot." The letters gave permission for whichever adult she was with to make decisions concerning Emma's health in an emergency. 

"There are some things I can't buy," Emma thought. She opened her backpack to check that she had the pictures she had taken of all the guys in their kilts. She moved them to an outside pocket where they wouldn't get messed up.

"We need to leave soon," Frohike said. "Go say goodbye to the guys."


Frohike and Emma met Yves at Dulles. Their flight left after 1 AM but with security to get through and the international check in, they needed to be there nearly three hours early. After checking their luggage, Yves stood with Emma outside the security checkpoint. Frohike hugged Emma. She was reluctant to let him go and swallowed the tears she refused to shed. "I'm going to miss you," she told her father. "I'll send you a postcard everyday."

Frohike smiled at her promise. He knew she'd forget as soon as she started having fun. "I'll miss you, too, baby. And don't worry if you don't have time to write. Be good and do what you're told."

"I will." 

"I love you, Emma." 

"I love you, too, Dad." 

Frohike turned to Yves keeping one arm around his child. "Thank you for doing this, Yves. I wish I…" he faltered. He looked at Emma again then back at Yves. "Take care of her."

"I will," Yves said. 

Frohike gave a short laugh and smiled. " I know you will." 

Yves looked at her watch then held out her hand to Emma "Come along, dear. We should go. It's getting late." Emma gave her dad one more, quick hug then, taking Yves hand, followed her through the metal detectors. They managed to get through without any difficulty. 

Emma turned to look for her dad one more time but he had already gone. She sighed and struggled to maintain her composure. The lump in her throat made that very difficult. 

Yves found them a spot at the gate from which their flight would depart. They settled in to wait for the plane to begin boarding.

 

 

Chapter 2

  


The next few days at the warehouse were very quiet. Byers was amazed that he didn't really like the quiet anymore. He had gotten used to the extra commotion and hassle that having a child in their midst had caused. He realized that the distractions she created were a break from the monotony of putting out a weekly publication. It gave them all something else besides work to talk about and do. She needed rides to different places almost daily and was more than willing to go shopping with him or just drive out to the printers. He enjoyed the company and was surprised how much he missed her chatter.

Jimmy missed having someone to shoot baskets with, someone who wanted to learn what he had to teach. It was also nice to have someone he could talk to where half of the conversation did not need to be explained to him in detail. He and Emma talked about everyday things that the guys didn't seem to find all that interesting. It was also gratifying to have someone around who thought he was just as smart as the others. 

Langly moped. He was surly and uncooperative. Even though he had helped convince Emma to go and knew it was for the best he was still unhappy about it. How could they know she was doing okay if she was so far away? Phone calls be damned! He could fake a phone call from her. These infrequent calls seemed to satisfy Frohike though. 

Frohike, for his part, wasn't all that complacent about the whole thing. He was worried. He would have been worried about her if she had gone on any trip without him, no matter what. He received a short phone call when they arrived in London and another a couple of days later. Emma sounded fine. Yves said she was fine. Everything was fine. But that didn't stop him from worrying. Scully said that's the way parents are wired and that he should just relax. He really didn't until the first postcards started arriving. For some reason, holding that thick piece of paper with her handwriting on it was reassuring. It was physical proof that when it was written, she was okay, she was happy, that everything really was fine.


About a week and a half after Emma left, the Gunmen finally tracked down Morris Fletcher. 

"I got him!" Langly yelled. "He's working for someone named William Bayne in Hartford, Connecticut."

Frohike and Byers came around to see what was on Langly's monitor. It showed cancelled checks in Fletcher's name. They had been cashed only two days earlier. 

"Who is this guy and what is Fletcher doing for him?" Frohike asked. 

"I'm on it," Langly opened a new window on his monitor.

Byers sat down at a nearby computer. "I'll see if Mr. Bayne has any connections around here."

Frohike sat at another computer and did some searching of his own. Jimmy tried not to hover too close to any of them because he didn't want to distract them.

Langly was the first to find something new. "He owns an architectural firm in Hartford. Looks like he does all right."

"I've got it, too," Frohike jumped in, "This is a pretty impressive list: major projects in both the public and private sector. I'm going to check for mob connections."

They worked in silence for a few minutes. Byers was the next to speak up. "I'm not finding much around here. Most of the information is more than 10 years old."

Frohike looked over at him. "Let's hear it anyway."

"He worked for a local architectural firm in the DC area for a little more than two years: Urban Design and Planning, Architects."

Frohike got up to look at Byers's monitor. "Are you sure you read that right?

Byers pointed to the information on the screen, "Yes. Why do you ask?"

Frohike tried to ignore the knot forming in his stomach. He told himself he was jumping to conclusions but Fletcher had spent a lot of time at that YMCA. Once he had gotten information out of Emma he blew town and went back to Hartford to report to his employer. 

"Frohike, what is it?" Byers asked when he noticed the look on his friend's face. 

"Urban Design and Planning was the firm that Michelle worked for before Emma was born." Frohike shook his head. "This can't be good."

Jimmy was puzzled. "So, Emma's mom probably knew this guy. Is there something wrong with that?"

"It's suspicious," Fro explained. 

"How?"

Frohike gave an exasperated sigh before answering. "Fletcher tricked Emma into trusting him. Then he got her to tell him about herself, her mom and us. As far as we know, this is what his boss was looking for." 

"But Fletcher already knows all about us? Why would he have to talk to Emma?"

Byers could tell that Frohike was getting frustrated and decided to end the discussion. "Jimmy, Frohike's afraid that Mr. Bayne wants information on Emma, not us. We need to find out more about him. Can you go make us some lunch while we search?"

"Sure, anything. What do you guys want?"

"Sandwiches will be fine but no mustard in the peanut butter this time, all right?"

"Yeah, no experiments. Got it," Jimmy said as he headed upstairs.

Frohike turned back to his computer. He continued his search for any organized crime connections that Bayne might have. The answer to this question had become much more important. 

"I'm going to do a deep background check," Langly announced.

Byers decided to continue looking into Bayne's history and local connections in and around Washington, DC. 


The guys were so focused on the task at hand, they barely noticed Jimmy return with a tray loaded with sandwiches, chips and drinks. They took the food without comment. Jimmy watched them eat wondering if they even tasted the food. They worked well into the night but found nothing to give any indication of what this guy's interest in Emma could be other than the fact that he had worked with Michelle for a few months before Emma was born. 

Byers hacked into Urban Design and Planning's computer system. He checked their finances, their bidding practices, their employee histories, etc. but found nothing amiss. The company seemed to be on the up and up. 

Frohike found no mob connections in Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia, Washington, DC or anywhere else. 

Langly's background check of Bayne also came up squeaky clean. "The worst thing I can find on him is an 8 year old speeding ticket."

"Did he pay it?" Jimmy asked.

Langly double-checked. "Yup, the next day."

Frohike knew this was getting them nowhere. "We need to talk to someone who worked at Urban Design with Bayne."


Two days later, Byers and Frohike sat in the office of Edward Corbit. He was one of the first architects to come to work for Urban Design and Planning at its inception. He was now a partner in the business and had told the Lone Gunman staff that he would be more than happy to do an interview for their paper.

Byers played the role of reporter and Frohike flashed his camera around, taking a few pictures for good measure. But being a man of higher intelligence, Corbit saw through the reporter's veiled questions and realized his interest had more to do with Michelle MacKenzie and William Bayne than his architectural firm. "You know, I really don't mind answering your questions but could you please be straight forward with me? What is it you really want to know?" 

Corbit was patient and finally got the answer he was looking for but from the photographer, not the reporter. "Look, I checked up on you before we came out here. You seem like a decent guy so I'm hoping I can trust you." Frohike paused to let that sink in before continuing. "Our main interest here actually has to do with my daughter. Someone has been investigating her and that person is working for William Bayne. I'm trying to figure out what his interest in my daughter could possibly be."

"Well that explains the questions about Bill but why were you asking about Michelle?"

Frohike hesitated before continuing. Byers watched him wondering how much he was willing to tell this guy. Was he desperate enough for information to tell Corbit everything? 

"Michelle's daughter, Emma, is my daughter."

"You're Emma's father!?" 

"Yes, she's living with me now."

Corbit stood up and came around his desk to where Frohike was sitting. He offered his hand. "Then I'm very pleased to meet you." Frohike shook hands with him for the second time that day. "I wondered what happened to Michelle's daughter after she died. I didn't think she had any other family." Corbit leaned against the front of his desk. "So, how's the little stinker doing?" He didn't wait for an answer. "She spent a lot of time here when Michelle worked on projects with us." Corbit smiled to himself shaking his head. "She had the most insatiable curiosity. Was always getting into things she shouldn't. I have two kids of my own, so I know how it goes. How old is she now?"

Frohike smiled, "She's twelve and it sounds like she hasn't changed much." He didn't offer any other information about her. There was always a chance this fellow was still tight with 'Bill' Bayne and Frohike knew he had probably already divulged more than he should.

"And you're saying Bill has someone investigating her."

"Yes, someone with a less than sterling reputation."

"How can you be sure?"

"An associate of ours saw this man talking to her." Frohike pulled a photo of Fletcher out of his pocket and handed it to Corbit. "The questions he asked her were of a very personal nature. He left town shortly after that. It's taken us almost two weeks to track him down. That's when we discovered he was working for William Bayne. We were wondering if he came around here asking questions also."

Corbit looked closely at the picture in his hand. "Let me check. I'll be right back." He opened the door to his outer office and stepped out to speak to his receptionist. Frohike and Byers couldn't hear the conversation but saw Corbit show the picture to the woman. She stood up and came back into the room with Corbit. "This is Mrs. Evans. She says that this man was here a couple of weeks ago."

"He was asking questions about Ms. MacKenzie," Mrs. Evans explained. "I told him that he would need to come back later when Mr. Corbit was in his office."

"You're sure it was this man?" Frohike asked pointing to the photo in her hand.

"Yes. He was a pretty fast talker but I'm used to that. He said he'd come back later but he never did."

"Did he mention Ms. MacKenzie's daughter, Emma, at all?" Frohike asked.

"No, but then I didn't let him go on for very long. I just kept telling him that I would be more than willing to set up an appointment for him to speak to Mr. Corbit."

"Thank you, Mrs. Evans," Corbit said. She handed the photo back to him and closed the door behind her as she left. Corbit gave the picture back to Frohike.

"I can't imagine what Bill would want with Emma outside of curiosity," Corbit said. "And if he wanted information about Michelle, he would have called me himself. He wasn't at Michelle's funeral. Come to think of it, he may not even have known about it. There's an easy way to find out." Corbit moved around his desk, sat in his chair and flipped open his Rolodex. He located the number, picked up the receiver and started to dial the phone. 

Frohike held up his hand. "Please, don't call him yet." 

Corbit stopped dialing and looked up at the two men who sat facing him. "But he could answer all your questions."

Byers spoke up for the first time in quite a while. "Why not, Frohike? It would save us a lot of time."

"Right now he doesn't know we're looking into this. This is to our advantage. The minute he finds out, it will become much more difficult to get the information we need."

Corbit listened to this exchange. "You don't know Bill. He's a great guy. Let me call him and find out what he has to say. I'll put him on the speakerphone so you can hear him. He doesn't need to know you're here."

Byers was amazed by this offer. "You'd be willing to do that to a friend?"

"As I said, he's a great guy. I really can't imagine that he has anything to hide."

Frohike liked this plan and since it was Corbit's idea to pull off this little deception, why not go with it? "Make the call," Frohike told him.

Corbit checked the number one more time and dialed it. He hit the speaker button while the phone was still ringing. 

"Bayne and Associates, may I help you," said a melodious female voice on the other end. 

"Angela, this is Edward Corbit. How are you?"

"I'm fine, Mr. Corbit. It's so nice to hear from you again. It's been a long time. How are you doing?"

"I'm doing good. Listen, is Bill around. I've got a situation here that he may be able to help me with."

"He's in his office. Let me see if he's busy."

There was a short pause as the sound to the 'hold' music filled the room. All three men watched the phone expectantly.

The music ended with the click of the receiver being picked up. "Ed, you old dog, you don't call me for months and then when you do, it's because you need my help?" a cheery, baritone voice asked from the other end of the phone. 

"Hey, the phone works two ways there, Bill. What've you been up to?" Corbit asked in an easy conversational tone. 

"Well, you know, the usual. Lots of work, not enough time to get it all done. How's the family?"

"Great, everyone is great! How are your parents?" Corbit asked.

"They're doing all right. They're getting up there, you know, but doing pretty well considering."

Frohike was getting impatient with all the general 'catching up' but Corbit was doing him a huge favor by deceiving his friend so he wasn't about to complain.

"So, Bill, the reason I called is this; there was a man here a couple of weeks ago asking questions about you and Michelle MacKenzie. He was pretty insistent. I wasn't here but he told Mrs. Evans his name was Fletcher." This part wasn't true but it helped clarify the situation. "Do you know anything about this guy?"

"Yeah, him." Bayne's said with disgust in his voice. "He's been out here, too. Said he had some information that I might be interested in. Wanted to know if I'd heard about Michelle's death. I told him to shove off but, as you said, the guy was pretty persistent."

"What did you say to him?"

"I told him that I knew about Michelle's death but had not heard about it until a couple of week's after the fact. I asked if he had approached anyone else with his offer. He said I was the first but obviously that was a lie."

"What kind of information was he selling?"

"He wouldn't show me but he said that who ever he did sell it to was looking at making a tidy profit. Then I thought, if I don't take it off his hands, what kind of trouble could he cause with it. So, I bought it from him. I didn't want him messing around with Michelle's estate and making trouble for her kid. By the way, what ever happened to the little girl?"

"Emma? She's living with her father. I've met him. He seems like a decent guy," Corbit gave Frohike a 'thumbs up' with that comment.

"That's good," Bill Bayne said.

"So what did you get for your money?"

"Oh, there was all kinds of junk, legal looking most of it, some photographs. He said that Michelle's estate was 'ripe for the picking'. I actually wrote him two checks. One for the information and another to guarantee that he would not try to peddle it to someone else."

"What did you do with the stuff he gave you?"

"I shredded it. Didn't want it lying around. Let me know if he comes around again will you? I don't really trust him."

"No problem. Hey, listen, the next time you're out this way, give me a holler. We'll take in a ball game or something."

"Sounds good. Don't wait so long to call next time."

"All right. Talk to you later."


Corbit hung up the phone. "Well, what do you think?"

Frohike scratched his three days growth of facial hair. "I'm not sure what to think."

Byers knew it was time to go and discuss the situation in private. He stood up. "Thank you, Mr. Corbit for all your help. Can we call you if we have any questions?"

"Sure, no problem. And if this Fletcher guy comes around again, I'll let you know."

"We would really appreciate it," Frohike pulled a business card out of his pocket and handed it to Corbit who looked it over. 

"You really do work for a newspaper," Corbit observed.

"Yes, we do." Frohike explained. "That's how we know Morris Fletcher and why we were so concerned to find out that he was talking to Emma without our knowledge."

"Yeah, I can imagine. And, hey, when you get a chance, bring Emma around to say 'hello'."

"I just might do that," Frohike said. "Thanks again for your help."


Back at the car Byers sat in the passenger seat deep in thought. He almost wished they had brought Jimmy with them. He seemed to have an uncanny knack for reading people. Byers had come to trust the younger man's judgment where new people were involved. 

Frohike started the engine. As he pulled out of the parking space, he said, "I think it's time for a road trip."

"It's a six hour drive to Hartford," Byers observed.

"Yes, I know. We'll leave in the morning."



Chapter 3

 


It took a little less than 6 hours to get to Hartford but Langly had a lead foot. He got more tickets than the other three put together but this was never a problem. It was an easy hack to get rid of them. 

They tried a local burger joint for a quick lunch then drove around to Bayne's house to check it out. Finding no one home they quickly scanned for security. He did have a monitored system but they had no trouble getting around it. The plan was to do a fast, discreet search. They looked for files: computer and hard copy, anything that mentioned Michelle or Emma. Frohike and Jimmy handled the paper files while Langly searched the computer files. Byers stayed in the van as look out. 

"Jimmy, you have to put them back where you found them." 

"I did."

Frohike pulled out a handful of files and moved them to the appropriate spot. "O comes after N. It would be nice if Bayne didn't know we were here."

"Sorry. I'll be more careful."

Byers voice came over their headsets. "Guys, the same car has driven past here twice. You need to hurry up. We can always come back later."

"All right, Byers. Keep your shirt on." Frohike said. He walked over to see how Langly was doing. "Find anything?"

Langly shook his head in frustration. "Nothing. Not a damn thing." 

Frohike came and looked over Langly's shoulder. "Nothing at all?"

Langly turned and looked at him. "I searched email, word processing files, everything. There is no mention anywhere of Michelle or Emma."

"That doesn't make sense. Michelle and Bayne were colleagues. They must have worked on projects together. There must be something on Michelle at least. Are you sure you spelled MacKenzie correctly? There's an A in the Mac you know."

"Get off my back, Doohickey. I know how to spell it and I'm telling you I'm coming up with jack shit."

"Would you two knock it off and get out here." Byers said, "We're wearing out our welcome." He watched a police patrol car drive past.

Langly downloaded all the files he thought might be pertinent, popped out the disk and pocketed it before they left by the back door. Byers met them in the alley. Finding a motel on the outskirts of town, they waited until after midnight to check out Bayne's office. 

It was on the fifth floor of a large office building. The security there was a lot tighter but still presented them with no real challenge. At least there were only three guards. 

Langly tapped into their surveillance cameras creating a looping image to hide their presence in the building. 

Then, dressed all in black, they moved quickly and quietly through halls looking for William Bayne's personal office. 

Finding it, they once again searched computer and paper files. The office was not all that big. Byers and Frohike each took a file cabinet. Langly sat at Bayne's desk and rummaged around in the desktop computer he found there. To stay out of the way, Jimmy checked around in the outer office for anything of interest. He was careful to put back anything he moved. There was a computer on Bayne's assistant's desk but he knew that one of the guys would check it out next. He spotted a model of a building complex in one corner of the room. He shone his flashlight into the interior of the model. It cast odd shadows inside the tiny buildings and around the office. Jimmy was fascinated by all the details that had been added to make it look like the real thing: miniature windows, doors, cars, trees, and even people. He reached out to touch one of the miniscule people. 

"Leave that alone. You'll break it," Frohike said from the doorway.

Jimmy snatched his hand back yet insisted in a hurt voice, "I wouldn't have broken it." 

To Frohike he sounded like Emma when she petulantly disagreed with him. He was suddenly struck by how much he missed her. This made him soften towards Jimmy. "Just…just be careful."

Jimmy went back to examining the model but didn't touch it. Frohike booted up the computer on the desk in the outer office. He got past the password protection with no difficulty and started searching the files. 

With Frohike in the room, Jimmy was hesitant to touch the model and got bored with it. He went back into Bayne's office to see how the others were doing. Byers was sitting in an overstuffed chair in a corner reading a stack of files by flashlight. Langly was still hard at work on the computer. 

Jimmy shone his light on the walls checking out the photos and certificates he found there. Most of them were pretty boring but it became obvious after a while which person in the photos was William Bayne. He seemed to be fairly tall. Jimmy figure he and Bayne were about the same height. He had a thick head of dark brown hair, a big smile and wore rimless glasses. 

Putting his hand on the wall to lean in for a better look, Jimmy heard a distinct click. He pulled his hand away thinking he had broken something like Frohike had warned but when he did, the panel on the wall swung open revealing a hidden door.

"Guys!" Jimmy called to get the others' attention. He didn't need to. As soon as the door swung all the way open, a light came on in the recess behind the wall. 

"Jimmy, what are you doing?" Byers asked.

"Hey, turn the light off. You want someone to see it?" Langly said looking around to the window behind him. The shades were shut but light could still leak out around the edges. Frohike came in to see what all the fuss was about.

Jimmy quickly searched the inside of the cabinet for a light switch. "I don't know how. It turned on when the door opened." Frohike came over and walked around Jimmy to grab the door. He pulled it far enough closed to shut off the light but still leave it open enough to examine the contents on the shelves behind it.

It was a bar. Several expensive bottles of alcohol lined the bottom shelf. The two upper shelves held several glasses and other drinking implements. 

Frohike started pulling out the bottles and handing them to Jimmy. "You're not going to take these, are you?" Jimmy asked. 

"No, I just want to see what's behind them." Now that there was space he moved the other bottles aside to see the back wall of the recess. Finding nothing he placed the bottles in their original positions. Then he checked the wall behind the two upper shelves. With no luck there either he ran his hand up and down the sides of the cabinet and still found nothing. 

"Are you looking for a safe?" Jimmy asked.

"Yeah, or something like it. But I don't think there's anything here." He shut the door and went back to the outer office to continue work on the computer there. The cabinet door fascinated Jimmy. He popped it open and shut it several times. 

The noise irritated Langly. "Would you stop with the door already?! You're going to knock those pictures off the wall!"

"No, I'm not," Jimmy insisted. "They're bolted to the door. See." He swung the door back and forth hard a couple of times to demonstrate. He was surprised to hear a soft thunk with each swing. 

"Man, just leave it alone."

Paying no attention to Langly, Jimmy checked which picture was loose. They were all secure. He waggled the door again but this time noticed that the sound was coming from the inside of the door. He opened it too far inadvertently turning on the light again. "Jimmy!" Byers hissed.

"Sorry, sorry." He closed it enough to turn off the light but came around to where he could shine his flashlight onto the inside of the cabinet. There was another picture hanging there that he hadn't noticed before. This one was Bayne again but in his arms was a baby girl who looked to be about a year old. He was holding the baby's arm in an attempt to get her to wave at the camera. "Um, Byers, can you come here for a minute?"

"What is it?"

Taking the photo off the wall he held it up for Byers to see. 

"It's too dark to see it from here, Jimmy."

Jimmy tried lighting the picture with his flashlight but the glare off the glass still made it impossible to see. Sighing, Byers put the files he was perusing on the floor and got up to see the picture. He took it out of the taller man's hands and took a close look. "Langly, have you found anything that says Bayne is married or has kids?"

"No, he's single, never been married. He's got lots of other family though. Why?" Byers brought Langly the picture. 

"Cute kid. So? Could be a niece or something." Langly observed.

"But why hide the photo?"

"I don't know. Maybe he doesn't want to mix family with business."

Byers pointed his flashlight at some photos sitting on the desk. One showed an elderly couple. "I am assuming that these are his parents and the rest of his family." Another was a large group shot with Bayne, his parents and several other adults and children at what had to be a family reunion.

Frohike came in. "There's not much on the computer out there." He came behind the desk to see what the other three men were doing. "What are you guys looking at?"

Byers hesitated for a second then handed Frohike the photo.

"This is Bayne?" Frohike asked.

"Yes," said Jimmy, "there are pictures of him all over the wall." 

Frohike shone his flashlight at the indicated wall, quickly glanced at several of the framed photographs then turned back to look at the one in his hand. The light reflected off the glass onto his face. The look of dread he wore was visible for only a heartbeat before he flicked off the light. 

"The baby," he said, "is Emma."




Frohike got no sleep that night. He finally gave up trying, got dressed and sat waiting for the others to wake up so they could leave. The sky was just beginning to lighten when they finally left. Byers and Frohike took the front seat. Langly and Jimmy rolled out of bed, stayed awake long enough to get dressed and sacked out in the back of the van. 

Frohike glanced in the rearview mirror. "Which one of them is snoring?"

Byers turned in his seat to check. "I think it's Jimmy."

"Throw something at him, would you."

Byers chuckled and said, "No, just turn up the radio." 

Frohike ignored the comment about the radio, "Is that coffee any good?" They'd stopped at a gas station and filled their thermos with the blackest coffee they could find.

"It's passable. Do you want some?"

"It would probably be a good idea. I'm not feeling incredibly alert."

Byers reached behind the seat and grabbed the thermos from where he had stored it earlier. He poured Fro some. 

"Thanks," Frohike said taking a sip. They traveled in silence for a while, both of them thinking about the previous day. Byers looked out the window at the passing scenery without really seeing it. There was a question he'd wanted to ask Frohike since this whole thing with Bayne had come up. He wondered if the time was now right to mention it. With Jimmy and Langly asleep in the back, it just might be. 

"I've got a feeling that there's something about all of this with Fletcher and Bayne that you're not telling me." Frohike made no comment seeming only to concentrate on his driving. Byers wondered if he should repeat the statement or just let it go. He decided to wait it out. It never did any good to push Frohike too hard when he didn't want to talk. They traveled in silence for about 10 minutes. 

Finally, Frohike started talking. "Has Emma ever shown you her photo albums?" 

"Yes." Byers had spent quite a bit of time with her one evening while the others were out on a case. She had pulled out the albums and happily told him about every single photograph. She called it the 'story of her life.' She was very proud of the fact that the last few pages of the second book included pictures of all four Gunmen.

Frohike continued. "My favorites are the ones where she's a toddler. I bet she was hell on wheels." He smiled at the thought of a two year old Emma keeping her mother on her toes. "There's a couple where she's helping her mom cook. The kitchen is a huge mess and there's flour everywhere. Emma is standing on a stepstool so she can reach the counter. Both she and her mom are smiling and enjoying themselves."

"I remember those," Byers said. He wondered where all of this was going.

"Those are some of the last pictures that Emma and Michelle are in together." Byers thought about all the pictures he had seen in the two albums. Frohike was right. The early photos showed Michelle and Emma together. After that Emma was the main subject of most of the pictures. There were a few of Michelle by herself but these were obviously taken by a child. The bulk of the pictures were only of Emma. 

"From the time Emma was born until she's about two years old, someone else was taking pictures of the two of them together. That person isn't in any of the photos I've found." Byers stared straight ahead beginning to understand what Frohike was getting at. Michelle was a beautiful, intelligent, successful woman. There had to be other men in her life.

"Maybe Michelle set the camera up to take the pictures of the two of them together." Byers knew he was grasping at straws. 

"Come on, Byers. I know enough about photography to see that most of those pictures were candid shots. They weren't posed or staged. In a lot of them Michelle isn't looking at the camera but at the person holding it."

"So, what are you saying?" Byers didn't want to guess even though he figured he would probably hit the nail on the head if he did.

Frohike was silent again. After a couple of minutes he said, "Someone spent a great deal of time with them those first couple of years." Byers figured Frohike wasn't done. 

He waited. 

He was right. 

Finally, Frohike said out loud what he had been eating at him for months. "What if she's not really my daughter?"

This was not what Byers expected. "I thought you'd be more worried about someone trying to take her from you."

That pissed Frohike off. "Well, of course I am, but it would be much easier to do if she's not mine!"

"Yes, I understand that." Byers said deliberately lowering his voice in the hopes that Frohike would do the same. "But Michelle said she's yours. Why would she lie about that?"

Frohike took the hint and talked at a more conversational volume. "I know but there is always that kernel of doubt. And a certain amount of guilt for even considering it." 

"You could have a DNA test done."

"I thought about it but I didn't want to do that to Emma. I don't want her to feel that I'm looking for a reason to get rid of her."

Byers considered this. Frohike was right. After her mom's death, Emma desperately needed someone to trust, love and take care of her. To ask for a DNA test now could permanently damage the relationship between the two of them.

"Besides," Frohike continued, "it just feels right." He looked at Byers. "You know what I mean?" He turned his attention back to the road. "I felt it the first time I saw her. I had this sense of certainty that she was my child." Byers didn't say anything. He knew what Fro meant but since he had never experienced it himself, he couldn't really say he understood. 


Frohike continued, "And when that woman who called herself Emma's aunt treated her like she was her private property, I wanted to make sure she could never get near Emma again."

Byers brought the conversation back to his original question. "So, you're thinking Bayne lived with Michelle for those two years?" Byers figured this was the only thing that made sense.

"I thought about that but if he and Michelle had that close a relationship, Corbit and the folks out at Urban Design would have known about it. They would have made sure he knew about Michelle's death so he could go to the funeral."

Byers agreed with that assessment. "That's true and I didn't get the impression that Corbit was trying to hide anything. Did you?"

Frohike sighed and said, "No, I didn't." 

"You're sure that's Emma in the picture with Bayne?"

"Unfortunately, yes, I'm sure."

"What do you want to do now?"

"I need to talk to the people who knew Michelle best, people who knew her when Emma was just a baby."

"Do you know anyone like that?"

"Her lawyer, Clarence Brown, for one. I haven't met all of the neighbors but some of them have probably been there for more than twelve years. I'll need to ask around. She also has quite a list of names in the address book I found in her desk."

"You said that Michelle had all of her stuff put into storage before she died. You might be able to find something there."

"Good point. Her lawyer handled all that, I'm sure. I'll ask him about it."


Langly remained silent and unmoving. They thought he was asleep but he had listened to the entire conversation. This whole thing was absolutely ridiculous! He knew Emma was Frohike's kid. Everything about her said she was. There was no way anyone was going to take her away from them. No way! Not if he could do something about it and he probably could.




Frohike called Clarence Brown when he got home and made an appointment to meet with him the next day. He drove over to the house to get Michelle's address book and to talk to the neighbors, Patty and Paul. They weren't home so that conversation would have to wait. He suspected it would be fruitless anyway. If he remembered right, they moved in when Emma was eight years old. But then the couple would know which of the other neighbors had lived longest in the area and may have known Michelle, Emma and whoever else was possibly living with them when Emma was a baby.


"Good morning, gentlemen," Clarence Brown greeted the assembled group when he entered his outer office. He was surprised to find all four men waiting to talk to him. His appointment was only with Mr. Frohike but it looked like it would not be a private discussion after all. 

Estelle, his assistant, gave him a bemused smile as he stopped by her desk to pick up his mail and phone messages. "I had two more chairs brought up."

"Thank you, Estelle. Gentlemen, if you will follow me." Mr. Brown led the way into this office.

As they arranged themselves in the leather-upholstered chairs, a weary looking Frohike explained, "The collective here didn't want me to come alone. It seems that they don't trust me to tell them everything."

The Star Trek reference was not lost on Mr. Brown. "Your friends are always welcome here, Mr. Frohike. I'm curious, though, with all of you here, where is Emma?"

Frohike experienced a moment of concern. He didn't feel the need to answer to anyone about his parenting of Emma except, in some small way, this man. His efforts on Michelle and Emma's behalf over the years and his continued management of Emma's inheritance made him an important influence in her life. Frohike trusted Mr. Brown because Michelle did and a little discreet research on Langly's part had strengthened Frohike's opinion. 

"Emma is in the UK right now with our associate, Miss Harlow."

Mr. Brown nodded. He had met Yves earlier in the summer and had spent a long drive to Richmond, Virginia discussing Emma and the Gunmen with her. He knew that Emma was in good hands. "So what brings the four of you here today?"

Frohike pulled a picture out of his pocket. It was the one of Bayne holding baby Emma. Langly had made a copy of the photograph using the equipment in the van. Frohike handed it to Mr. Brown. "Do you know this man?"

Mr. Brown considered the photograph for a moment. He knew the man. As a matter of fact, he knew him well. "His name is William Bayne."

"And the child?" 

"The child is Emma." 

Frohike continued. "What was his relationship with Michelle and Emma?" 

Carefully studying Frohike's face, Mr. Brown considered how much of Michelle's private life to divulge. He'd been her lawyer for years but now she was dead. He still represented Emma but how much of the information Mr. Frohike seemed to be requesting would be in her best interest? "You're asking me very intimate questions about a former client. Before I tell you any more, I need to know why you want this information."

"William Bayne paid for information about Michelle and Emma. The man who sold it to him is an unsavory character who has caused Miss Harlow and the four of us a great deal of grief."

Langly spoke up. "I went to pick Emma up from swimming a couple of weeks ago and he was talking to her."

"William Bayne or the unsavory man who sold him the information?" Mr. Brown asked for Langly to clarify his point. 

"Morris Fletcher is his name," Byers said. "Langly saw him at the YMCA with Emma. He also tried to talk to the people out at Urban Design and Planning."

Mr. Brown jotted down the name he was given. "I would be very surprised if Mr. Fletcher got much information from Edward Corbit," he said.

Byers shook his head. "No, we don't think he did. He said he never even spoke to Fletcher."

Smiling, Mr. Brown said, "I'd be willing to wager that he didn't get past Mrs. Evans."

"You're right. Although he never told her his name, she did recognize him from a photograph," Frohike added.

"Do you happen to have this photograph with you?"

"No, but I think I left it in the car." Frohike turned to Jimmy. "Could you go look?" 

Jimmy was pleased, as always, to be of assistance. "Sure. Where is it?" 

"Try above the visor. I think that's where I put it." Jimmy got up to go check. Before he got to the door, Frohike stopped him.

"Jimmy, you might need these," Frohike said tossing him the keys. Jimmy caught them and exited the office. 

"So, this man, Morris Fletcher, has been investigating Michelle and Emma and you believe that William Bayne hired him?"

Frohike shook his head. "We're not sure what to think. Edward Corbit spoke to Mr. Bayne on the phone while we were in his office. Bayne said that Fletcher came to him with the information and that he paid Fletcher off to keep him from selling it to anyone else. Corbit had no trouble believing everything Bayne told him but something about the whole situation just doesn't sit right with me."

Mr. Brown looked at the photograph again. "Where did you get the photograph?" 

The three Gunmen looked at each other not wanting to admit that they had gotten it while breaking and entering. "Um," Frohike hedged, "We have our own sources." Jimmy's return at this point was a welcome distraction.

He handed the photo to Frohike who passed it over the desk to Mr. Brown. He nodded looking at the picture. "This man was here, also. He said he worked for the FBI and that his name was Fox Mulder. I had Estelle contact the FBI who informed us that Fox Mulder no longer worked for them. So, I asked him to leave."

"The former agent Mulder is a friend of ours," Byers said. He turned to look at Langly and Frohike. "It's almost as if he's taunting us by leaving clues like this where ever he goes."

Mr. Brown could now see that he needed to help these four men who were so important in Emma's life and knew that Michelle would have wanted it that way. "You asked me about William Bayne's relationship with Michelle and Emma. He and Michelle were very close friends." Mr. Brown handed both photos back to Frohike who took them and put them in his pocket.

"That's all they were? Just friends?" Frohike asked.

"To the best of my knowledge, that's as far as their relationship went."

Frohike still wasn't convinced. "When was this?"

"I believe that Mr. Bayne came to work at Urban Design during the summer of 1989." 

Emma was born on June 8, 1990. Frohike knew that left more than enough time for Michelle and Bayne to develop a close relationship. But then why would Michelle have sought out someone else to get her pregnant? "Just how close a friendship did they have?"

The lawyer could see that he was going to have to be more specific. "They spent a great deal of time together. He even accompanied Michelle when she would call on me to discuss business matters. When Mr. Bayne found out that Michelle was pregnant, he was delighted. He even agreed to be her Lamaze coach."

Frohike took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "He was there for Emma's birth?" he asked putting his glasses back on.

"Yes, he was."

"What about after Emma was born?"

"Michelle readily accepted his help after the baby was born. She told me once that she didn't think she could have gotten through the first few months without it. Emma's asthma was quite severe and they made several trips to the emergency room usually in the middle of the night."

"Hold on a second!" Langly was getting frustrated. "If they were such close friends. How come he wasn't at her funeral?"

"Michelle made a point of not telling him she was dying. She didn't want him coming back into Emma's life before she had a chance to bond with you, Mr. Frohike." 

"Why would that make a difference?" Frohike asked.

"Mr. Bayne grew very attached to Emma and Emma to him. By 18 months, she had started to call him 'Daddy.' He moved to Hartford shortly after that and Michelle made no effort to maintain more than a casual acquaintance with him."

"Why is that?" Frohike asked.

"Unfortunately, I don't know."

Frohike knew it was time to ask the one question he desperately needed answered. He looked over at Jimmy then back the other way at Langly, hoping they could keep their cool. There was only one way to find out. "What are the chances that Emma is Bayne's daughter and not mine?" Jimmy's sharp intake of breath was hard to miss but Langly didn't make a sound. 

Mr. Brown hesitated then said, "What answer would you like from me?" Frohike had been so definite the day of the reading of the will. Had reality set in and was he now looking for an out, a chance to give up a heavy responsibility?

Without any hesitation on his side, Frohike answered, "I want the truth."

"Michelle said that Emma is your daughter. I see no reason to believe otherwise. As I said, Bayne loved Emma. If she was his daughter, he would have come for her when he heard that Michelle had died." Jimmy let out his held breath and all four men visibly relaxed, especially Frohike. The tension that had been so evident in his face when he had come in had now lessened. Mr. Brown continued, "Of course, there is always the option of a DNA test."

Frohike shook his head. "That won't be necessary. I believe you and Michelle. It's just that all this has been very disturbing. What could Bayne want with the information on Emma and Michelle's estate?"

"There is always the possibility that he was telling the truth when he talked to Mr. Corbit," Mr. Brown said, "but I can assure you that Emma's money can not be touched until she is 25."

"I thought it was when she turned 21."

"No, the bulk of her inheritance stays in a trust until she is 25. Is there some problem with that?"


"No, no! That sounds good to me," Frohike insisted. "I can't imagine turning 21 and suddenly coming into that much money. Twenty-five sounds more reasonable but knowing my daughter's overly generous nature I'm thinking 55 would probably be better."

Mr. Brown smiled at the comment and added, "With your guidance, I think 25 will be old enough."

Frohike was pleased with the compliment. "Thank you, for that and for all your help." He stood up to leave. The others did the same. 

"If there is ever anything else I can do, please let me know." Mr. Brown told them. 

"There is one thing," Frohike paused at the door, "if you see or hear of Fletcher or even Bayne asking around about Michelle or Emma, could you please let me know?"

"I certainly will. And may I ask, how long will Emma be in England?"

"About another week and a half." Frohike would not admit it to the others but he missed her terribly and was counting the days until her return. "I'm surprised that she hasn't sent you a postcard. She's sent them to just about everyone else."

"I will keep my eyes open for one. Thank you for coming."




When they got home, Byers realized they had forgotten something while at the lawyer's office. "We didn't ask about the storage unit," he told Frohike. 

"Yeah, I thought about it in the car on the way home," Frohike said. "I'm not too worried about it. We finally got to the truth, at least about Bayne and Michelle's relationship. I can't see that there's all that much more we can do. It's up to 'Billy' Bayne now. He has that information hidden away somewhere. At this point, it's just a waiting game."

Langly, who was listening from his workstation across the room, commented, "I'm not going to sit around and hope he just goes away. He's after something. If it's Emma or her money, I'm not going to let him do it." Upset, Langly turned his back on the others and pretended to become deeply involved in what he had open on his computer screen. 

Frohike came over to where Langly was seated and put a hand on his shoulder to get his attention. "Buddy, I'm not suggesting that we pretend he's just going to go away." Langly turned and looked up at Fro standing over him. "I have every intention of keeping an eye on him and Fletcher. As a matter of fact, I really could use your help. I need a way of monitoring everything that gets filed in the court system in the DC area for mention of Michelle's estate or Emma, especially probate and family or juvenile courts. If he decides to try to do anything through the court systems, I want to know about if before Emma or I get subpoenaed or summoned. Can you do that?"

"Yeah, no sweat!" Langly proclaimed as he wheeled his chair over to a different computer. "It would mean dedicating one computer to do the monitoring. It wouldn't be that difficult a program to write and court hacks are a breeze. Byers!" the blond called to his friend, "I need to tie up this computer for like a really long time. You cool with that?"

"Go ahead. I don't need it." Byers said.

Frohike watched Langly who was now happily working on something that required his expertise. Frohike had toyed with the idea of doing this type of monitoring. It would help to know what was coming and avoid anything unpleasant, if at all possible, or put a stop to it before it got out of hand.


  

Chapter 4

 


True to her word, Emma sent at least one postcard every day. They didn't arrive that way but averaged out in the end. The cards gave a running commentary of where she had been and what she had seen. 

Yves and Emma landed in London but left for Avebury the next day. Emma was excited to report that the inn they stayed at was haunted. Yves said she believed there were ghosts because the plumbing made enough noise to wake the dead. After checking out the standing stones in Avebury and Stonehenge, Yves agreed to go look for crop circles in the surrounding area. They found two and hiked into the fields so that Emma could take pictures. She wished that she hadn't let her dad talk her out of bringing a laptop. She could have emailed the pictures to Mulder to ask him if he thought they were real.

Bath was next. There were many Jane Austen sights to see here as well as the Roman baths. Emma bought a rubber ducky at the baths. Glastonbury Abbey was next then back to London. 

Byers had made a quick call before Yves and Emma left. He arranged for them to meet up with a friend of his who lived in London. Her name was Alison. They'd met at a conference he attended while he was still working for the FCC and had kept in contact over the years. She eventually become a reliable source of information from the UK and had made many valuable contributions to articles for the paper. 

Yves and Emma had dinner with Alison one evening. Emma thought Alison was very nice and very sweet. She gave Emma a book about Jane Austen. Emma tried very hard to squelch any new matchmaker ideas. Alison really did live too far away. 

Emma saw the Tower of London, the tower bridge, Big Ben and the statue of Peter Pan in Hyde Park along with other sights in London before meeting up with Pat, Rosalie, and all the others. 

Months earlier, Rosalie had purchased tickets for the whole family to see 'Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang' on stage in London. Pat and Bruce, who were looking for a reason to duck out of going to the play, gave their tickets to Yves and Emma. The two men hung out in a local pub while the others attended the show. All four kids swore the car in the play really could fly. It even came out over the audience. Yves explained that a crane held up the car from underneath. 

Yves and Emma parted ways at this point. The Tougher family was traveling into Scotland and Emma was going with them. Yves remained in London to complete the business for which she had come. 

The rest of the trip was full of historical sights. They visited quite a few castles: Warwick, Stirling, Cadzow, and Edinburgh. They traveled to York and along Hadrian's Wall. They spent quite a bit of time in Scotland and even attended a military tattoo at Edinburgh castle. In Glasgow, they spent a day at the World Championship Pipe Competition. The Toughers were excited that the band from Vancouver Canada's Simon Fraser University was the winner. This band often came down into Washington State to compete at the Highland Games there. Pat called them local boys even though some of them were women.

They visited with several of Pat's relatives. Emma was pleased every time Pat introduced her as 'our other granddaughter'. Pat's relatives were all very nice but, even though Emma listened carefully, she could only understand about half of what they said. She knew they were speaking English but their Scottish accents were so strong she just wasn't getting it.

The day before they were to head back to the states, Yves arrived. She had promised to meet up with Emma so that she would not have to fly alone. Emma was happy to see her and, although she'd had a great time, she was ready to go home.



* * * * * * * *



Langly and Jimmy wanted to go with Frohike to the airport to pick up Emma. Jimmy was also impatient to see Yves. He was surprised how much he had missed her. She didn't come around the warehouse all that often but knowing he would not see her for an extended period of time had been hard. He didn't mention any of this to the other two men. He knew they would tease him if he did. 

Byers vetoed the idea of the other two men going with Frohike. "Emma is his daughter. Let them have a private moment first, then you can monopolize her." 

Langly took offense at that. "I do not monopolize her. I can't help it if she enjoys my company."

Although he knew it would mean having to wait even longer to welcome Yves home, Jimmy had to agree with Byers. "Let Frohike go by himself. And besides, the last time you went to the airport you made them so nervous they wanted to strip search you."

"Hey, that wasn't my fault. Just because I had some extra wires and stuff in my pockets they got all jumpy."

"Langly, you're better off just staying here." Byers added. 

"We're only going to get Emma." Langly argued. "We won't have to go through any metal detectors this time."

This went on for a while until they realized that Frohike had already left.



Frohike stood at the window with everyone else waiting to greet passengers getting off the international flights. He scanned the customs lines looking for the familiar faces: one dark and mysterious, the other freckled with glasses. He also kept an eye on the line of folks with nothing to declare. They moved through much faster but he was betting that Emma would have plenty to declare.

He finally spotted them in line. Frohike was tempted to wave but chose not to. He studied Emma for any sign that she had changed. She looked taller. She had been gone less than a month but she definitely looked taller. Yves saw him first and pointed him out to Emma. 

Emma turned and waved vigorously. She brushed past the people in line to go to him. He held up both hands palm outward and mouthed, "Wait!" just as Yves called to Emma to stop and come back. 

"You need to go through customs first. They get a little nervous if you rush past the check point." Yves explained.

"How come we have to wait when all those other people just got to go through?"

"You insisted on buying candy and cookies to bring to everyone so we had to claim them." Seeing her impatience, Yves reassured Emma. "It won't take much longer. They'll x-ray our bags then you can run ahead to your father and I will bring the luggage."

"You don't have to do that," Emma insisted but not wholeheartedly.

"I don't mind."

"Okay, thank you." Emma turned and waved at Frohike again. He just smiled and waited. 

When it was finally their turn, they lifted their bags onto the big X-ray machine and watched them roll through. After putting on her backpack, Emma wrestled her bag off the table and set it up on its wheels. Yves took the handle from her and said, "All right now. Just be careful not to knock anyone over."

Frohike saw her coming ahead of Yves and left his place at the window. He went around to the exit door and stood out of the flow of traffic. Emma didn't spot him at first. The concern on her face almost made him call out to her. But then she saw him and her expression changed to one of delight. "DAD!"

He hugged her tightly letting her decide when she'd had enough. "I missed you so much!" she said her voice muffled against his shoulder.

Frohike held her at arms length. "Tears?" he asked, surprised. "You didn't cry when you left."

"I didn't let myself then. Now, I don't care."

Frohike laughed and turned to greet Yves who had come up beside them. He relieved her of Emma's suitcase. "What on earth did you buy?" he said to Emma. "This weighs a ton!"

"It's not that bad," Emma insisted. "But I did get all kinds of good stuff." 

They headed for the parking garage. When they stepped outside the main terminal, Yves stopped them and said, "I'll make my goodbyes here."

"Can we give you a ride home?" Although Yves had never told any of them where she lived, Frohike truly wanted to help. 

"That won't be necessary. My car is nearby."

"Thank you, Yves, for everything," Frohike said. "I really appreciate it." He looked at Emma. "You need to thank Yves, too."

"I already did on the plane."

"One more time won't hurt."

Emma turned to Yves. "Thank you, Yves, I had a great time." Emma hugged her traveling companion. Surprised, Yves didn't react at first. Then giving Frohike a slight smile, she returned the girl's hug. 


Jimmy was in the alley to greet them before they got Emma's suitcase and backpack out of the trunk. He must have been watching for them on the monitor. 

"JIMMY!" Emma squealed with excitement when she saw him. 

"EMMA!" He grabbed her and spun her around. She clung to him laughing. 

"Did you have a good time?" he asked.

"Yes! Did you miss me?"

"I sure did. It was SO boring here without you!"

Frohike set the heavy suitcase on the ground. "Here, Jimmy, make yourself useful."

Jimmy effortlessly picked up the bag and carried it down the stairs. He'd left the door open so they walked right in. Byers smiled and hugged Emma. "Welcome home, Doc. How was your trip?"

"It was great. I saw so much stuff. I can't wait to show you my pictures." She started to dig around in her backpack for her camera. "I took like 400 of them." Emma found the digital camera and looked around for Langly to help her download the pictures. He was sitting at his workstation, engrossed in something Emma couldn't see. She walked over to him.

"Langly, I'm back."

He glanced her way for a split second. "Oh, good. Run and get me a soda. I'm dying of thirst here."

She wasn't fooled. "Very funny!" she said wrapping her arms around his neck. 

He held her for a few seconds then said, "Okay, yes. I missed you, too, snotface. Now show me what you've got." He held out his hand for the camera. 

"No pictures now." Frohike announced. "Dinner then bedtime. You can show us tomorrow since we have no idea where you've been and what you saw."

Emma frowned. "Didn't you get the postcards I sent?"

They all shook their heads. "No," Byers insisted, "We didn't get any postcards."

"But I sent you guys one everyday. Sometimes I sent two. None of them got here?"

Langly looked confused. "Are you sure you got the address right?"

"Of course I got it right." She thought for a moment. "I'm pretty sure I got the address right." She thought some more. "Maybe I didn't get it right."

"Okay, you guys, that's enough." Frohike said putting an end to the teasing. "Turn around, Emma." Taped to the drawers on the file cabinets behind her were most of the postcards she'd sent them. Emma smiled.

"Come on." Frohike said, "I'll help you unpack then we can make dinner while you tell me some more about your trip."


After they had gone upstairs, Jimmy came over to where Langly was sitting and picked up the camera. "She doesn't really have 400 pictures on here. Does she?"

Langly took the camera from him and turned it on. He checked the display, "Yup, 394 pictures." He opened the camera, took out the memory card and put it into the reader. He started downloading the photos onto the computer. 

"Do you think Frohike's going to make us look at all of them with her?" Jimmy asked.

Langly grimaced. "Oh, god, I hope not."

Byers laughed at them shaking his head. "I sure hope you two don't have anything big planned for tomorrow."


Dinner was simple and quick. When the initial excitement over being home wore off, Emma began feeling the effects of the long flight and jet lag. It was well into the morning hours in England and Emma's body was telling her that she was up way past her bedtime. 

After dozing off and jerking awake for the third time, she decided to give up and go to bed. But there was one thing she had forgotten to do. It was a promise she meant to keep. 

"This is from Alison," she said to Byers giving him a big hug and a kiss. "I told her I would give you those when I got home."

Byers smiled. "Thank you. What did you think of Alison?"

"She was funny. I liked her a lot." Emma yawned and stretched. "We talked about you for a long time."

"You did? What did she say?"

"Lot's of stuff," Emma said around another yawn. "I'm going to bed now. Good night, everybody." She didn't wait for a response but shuffled off to her room.

Her own bed felt great and sleep came immediately.


Frohike sat up late watching TV. He heard a noise in the kitchen and leaned forward on the couch to see who was up. It was probably Langly prowling for a late night snack. Seeing no one, he figured he had imagined the noise and returned his attention to the television. 

He heard it again. This time he saw a small figure duck behind the wall separating the TV area from the kitchen. "What are you doing up?" he asked the intruder.

Busted, Emma came out of her hiding place. "I can't sleep."

Frohike looked at his watch. "It's nearly 4 AM. You should be in bed."

"You're up." 

"Bad excuse," was his only response.

"How about … I've been awake for an hour and I'm not sleepy?"

Frohike shook his head at that comment. "You'll never go back to sleep if you're wandering around."


"Can't I watch TV with you?" He didn't say anything at first and Emma sensed that her chances were good. "Please?" 

He thought again about how much he had missed her and how worried he'd been about Fletcher and Bayne while she was gone. He shook his head. He knew he would regret it later but he held his arm out to her in an invitation to join him on the couch, "All right, but only for a little while."


He woke up hours later with a very stiff neck and everyone else up and eating breakfast. "Why didn't you guys wake me up?" he grumbled at them.

"You were snoring so expertly," Langly said, "that we didn't want to disturb the master at his craft."

Frohike had a deliciously evil response to that concerning what craft Langly was the master of but noticed Emma smiling at him, "Good morning, sleepy head," she told him. He would have to get Langly back later.


They had a 'family' meeting later that morning. Since Morris Fletcher hadn't been seen anywhere in or around town since Emma left, Frohike decided to lift the restrictions on Emma's activities. She agreed not to leave the area near the warehouse and to let someone go with her when she rode her bike. If she had any activities away from home, one of them would stay with her: not just drop her off. Emma felt that this was a bit too much but school would be starting soon and they would all probably calm down by then. When she asked what they had found out while she was gone she got nothing but vague answers. Frohike didn't want to worry or frighten her with the details.

Emma also had to agree to be 'tagged'. This involved planting locator devices in her shoes and backpack. Frohike was working on one small enough to attach to her glasses but that would take some time. Emma wasn't sure what to feel about this. She kept picturing herself as a deer with a tag stapled in its ear. She did agree but mostly because it was pointless to argue with them.

The second point of discussion at the meeting was one of great interest to everyone: what to do with the reward money from the recovery of the stolen artwork. The Mulder/Scully's had already made plans for theirs. They were going to use it to put a healthy down payment on a house. Some would be set aside for William's college education. 

Agents Doggett and Reyes could not accept their share of the money and gave it back to Yves and the Gunmen. After some discussion on this, it was decided that this money would be invested and allowed to gather interest until the time the two agents quit the FBI or retired. 

In dividing up the money, each of the four Gunmen and Emma had received a portion. They decided to pool most of the money to benefit their operations at the newspaper. There was quite a bit of equipment that was outdated and needed to be replaced not too mention some new stuff that they had not been able to afford before. A security system for Emma's house was near the top of the list as was a new vehicle for group use. 

"But I like the VW bus," Emma protested. 

"We do too, honey, " her dad replied, "But it's just getting to be so old, we can't depend on it anymore. It's always breaking down and the body has some rust spots that have nearly corroded through to the inside" Seeing her disappointment, he added, "We won't get rid of it. We'll keep it for short trips. It would be worthless as a trade in anyway." He patted her hand. "And you can use it when you learn to drive. That way if you wreck it no one will care."

"Dad! I wouldn't wreck it." Then Emma had an idea. "But if you don't care about it I could start practicing now."

"Nope, not a chance," was her dad's reply. "Give yourself a few years."


Byers and Frohike started discussing how to budget the money. The other three got bored and begged out of the discussion. Langly wandered off to do some serious price comparisons on the internet, Jimmy left to go to a couple of car dealerships to see what was available. He solemnly promised not to sign anything until they all could agree. Emma wanted to go with Jimmy but her dad gave her an assignment to complete before dinner.

"An assignment? But school doesn't start for almost a week!" she complained.

"It's not that kind of assignment. You need to go through all those pictures and choose maybe 100 of them to show us. Pick out the best ones. Get Langly to show you how to make a slide show and we can watch it after dinner."

"All right. I can do that." She headed down to the work area. 


Late in the afternoon, the buzzer rang. Emma, who was tracing pictures at the light table, ran to get the door. She stopped when she saw on the monitor who it was. There was no way she was going to open the door. She returned to what she was doing. When the buzzer rang a second time, Langly looked up to see what was taking so long. "I thought you were going to get that."

"I'm not letting him in. He's a creep." Emma said in disgust.

Langly got up to answer the door. From the kid's reaction, he knew who it was. He scolded Emma as he passed her, "You know your dad told you not to be so rude."

A very impatient Kimmy stood waiting on the other side of the door. "What the hell took you so long?" he asked tossing his head back to get his greasy bangs away from his glasses. "I decide to grace you with my presence and you leave me standing out there." 

"What?" He asked looking from Emma to Langly. "Did you two have to arm wrestle to see who had to get the door? Let me guess. Langly lost."

Emma sneered at Kimmy. "He could beat you any day." Heck, Kimmy was so skinny, Emma figured she could beat him.

"Not a chance, Gunbrat. He's got arms of spaghetti."

Before Emma could open her mouth again, Langly grabbed her around the waist pulling her off her high stool. He set her on her feet and said right into her ear, "Go upstairs and help Jimmy make dinner. Kimmy and I have some work to do."

Emma turned and whispered into Langly's ear. "Just don't let him talk you into inviting him to stay for dinner." She turned, gave Kimmy a sickly sweet smile and left the room. 



Jimmy was slicing tomatoes in the kitchen. "I'm supposed to ask you if you need any help," Emma told him.

"Was that your dad and Byers at the door?" Jimmy asked, wondering if he should start the burgers. 

"No, it was Kimmy," Emma said. Her opinion of him apparent in the way she said his name. She hated Kimmy. That was the only word for it. She had tried to be nice to him at first but no matter how she acted around him, he treated her like something he found stuck to the bottom of his shoe.

Jimmy stopped slicing and looked towards the stairway. "Did Langly invite him to stay for dinner?" Jimmy shared Emma's opinion of Kimmy but he knew it would only add fuel to the fire if he told her. 

"I told him not to," Emma said, "but I don't know what he's gonna do." Jimmy went back to slicing. Emma watched him for a while. He had already piled a plate with lettuce. Emma picked up a piece and munched on it. 

"Hey, that's all the lettuce we've got." Jimmy complained. "Save it for the burgers. "Why don't you go get the corn and start shocking it."

"Shucking, it's called shucking," Emma corrected him but did as he asked. She peeled the husks off the corn as he started slicing pickles. "You know these take a long time to boil." Emma said. "Are you sure they'll be done in time?" 

"They will if we nuke 'em." Jimmy said pointing his knife at the microwave. 

"You can't cook corn on the cob in the microwave," Emma said.

"Sure you can. I used to do it all the time." Jimmy insisted. He opened a drawer, pulled out some waxpaper, and tore a piece off the roll. "Here. Roll them up like this." He put the ear in one corner of the paper, rolled it up until it reached the opposite corner and twisted the excess on each tip of the ear. "Then you put them in the microwave."

"That really works?"

"Yeah, tastes just like it was cooked in a pot."

"I didn't know that." 

When she was done shucking the corn, Emma rolled the ears in the waxpaper. Jimmy started making the hamburger patties. He made a couple of extras in case Kimmy ended up staying for dinner.

"Jimmy, why do you think Langly lets Kimmy be his friend?"

"I don't know. I guess they've known each other for a really long time. Maybe it's just a habit."

"Then why is Kimmy so mean to him?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe it's because he knows Langly really is better than he is."

Emma agreed. "He is smarter than Kimmy, isn't he?" 

Jimmy shrugged. "I think so."

"So do I." Emma wrapped up the last piece of corn. "I'm done. Should I cook them now?"

"No, we need to wait until your dad and Byers get back. Do you want to set the table?"

"Sure." Emma hesitated. "But for how many?"

Jimmy smiled, "Let's keep our fingers crossed and only set for the five of us."


Kimmy did end up staying for dinner much to Emma's annoyance. She made sure she sat as far away from him as possible. She said very little during dinner knowing she'd get in trouble if she said anything inappropriate. He went on and on about how smart he was and how stupid Langly was and wondering what they would do without his superior hacking skills to save their sorry asses. Emma was getting nauseous just listening to him. She ate very little. If dinner had not been corn on the cob and hamburgers it wouldn't have been so obvious that she wasn't eating. 

"Aren't you hungry?" Frohike finally asked.

"Not really," Emma said shaking her head. 

"Do you feel all right?" He ran his hand down the back of her neck and under her collar the way his mother used to when she wondered if he had a fever. Emma didn't seem hot.

"I'm fine. I just don't feel like eating right now."

"The kid probably filled up on junk food all afternoon," Kimmy surmised. "Doesn't have the sense to leave room for dinner."

That pushed Emma over the edge. "No, I didn't!" She yelled at Kimmy. "Maybe I just don't like the obnoxious company!" She regretted it as soon as she said it. Not that she had hurt Kimmy's feelings. She didn't think he had any. She regretted it because she knew her father would be disappointed with her.

"You need to go to your room." 

"But, Dad…" Emma tried to defend herself.

"Now." He said without yelling but he may as well have.

Emma got up and headed for her room but didn't get the door closed before Kimmy said, "Smart kid. Now she doesn't have to help with the dishes."


She sat down on the edge of the bed and waited. She knew her dad would come to talk to her soon. She could hear their voices but not what they were saying. The clash of dishes told her they were cleaning up from the meal.


Before too long, she heard her father's footsteps and his voice right outside her door. "I'll be down to help in a couple of minutes." He opened the door and came in. 

Emma watched him as he took the chair from her desk and set it in front of her. He sat down and looked at his hands for a few seconds. Finally, he took one of her hands in both of his. 

"Emma, I know you don't like Kimmy." She started to say something but Frohike stopped her. "Hang on, let me finish. I know you don't like him but he is an adult and no matter how he acts you are not allowed to be rude to him. I know your mom would never have let you speak that way to anyone."

The sudden appearance of tears in Emma's eyes before she looked down at her lap told Frohike he'd hit a nerve. He went on quickly hoping he hadn't gone too far. "I know the way we tease and yell at each other here has made you think it's okay to talk that way. I've let you get away with it for too long. Now I'm afraid you can't see the difference between how we treat each other and what is appropriate to say to someone who doesn't live here with us."

Emma couldn't take it any longer. "But he's just so mean! And all the time! How come you guys let him do that and I can't say anything?"

"Emma," Frohike squeezed her hand. "I know how he is. There's really no excuse for it except to say, that's how he is."

"But why do you put up with it?"

"He's Langly's friend and he has helped us with computer problems that we couldn't solve."

"So, he gets to treat everyone like idiots."

"It's not that simple, Emma. I'm not sure why Kimmy acts like that. You're not going to be able to change him and yelling at him is only going to make it worse."

She sighed. "Yeah, I know, but it makes me feel better." 

"That may be but it doesn't help the situation. Does it?" 

"No, it doesn't." Emma grudgingly admitted. "But what if I can't stop myself?"

"You can." Frohike insisted. "You're the one who makes the choice. You can choose to say something polite or you can walk away." 

"It's hard to be polite when the other person is so nasty."

"Then you don't say anything at all."

Emma thought about it. "Okay."

Frohike could tell that she was at least resigned to the fact that she was going to have to bite her tongue when Kimmy was around. "Now, you need to go apologize to him."

"Do I have to?"

"Yes."

"But why?"

"Because it's the right thing to do."

Emma sighed again. "How come the right thing is always the hardest thing?"

"It isn't always, just sometimes."

"All right," Emma stood up. "I might as well get it over with."

"Emma," Frohike stopped her, "There's one more thing. When you're done, you need to come back up here. I want you to spend the rest of the evening in your room."

"But what about my pictures? We were going to look at them tonight." 

Damn! He had forgotten about that but he couldn't back down. "Your pictures will wait. We can look at them another day. If I don't make it clear now that you can't keep acting this way, you'll never learn and it will be my fault."


Emma grudgingly apologized to Kimmy. He couldn't leave it at that though. "It's about time you taught the kid some manners, Frohike. Thought I was going to have to do it myself."

Frohike knew it would undo everything he was trying to teach Emma if he reacted to that but the murderous scowl on Jimmy's face told him he wouldn't have to. Frohike escorted Emma back to her room. 

Kimmy looked back at the computer he was working on. "I don't know why you guys keep that kid around. She's such a waste of space. There's got to be someone that could take her off your hands."

Jimmy checked to make sure that Emma was out of earshot before grabbing a clueless Kimmy by the collar and picking him up out of his seat. Jimmy got as close to the other man's face as Kimmy's bad breath would allow. "You know, Kimmy, Emma doesn't have problems with anyone else but you. If you weren't such a nasty bastard, you would see what a sweet kid she is. I don't think you've ever said a single nice thing to her."

Kimmy looked towards Byers and Langly for help. Neither of them intervened. "Whoa there, big guy," Kimmy said, grabbing Jimmy's arms to take some of the pressure off his neck, "I'm just expressing my opinion here."

"No one asked for your opinion. So just finish what you came to do and get out of here." Jimmy let go of Kimmy's collar, which made him to fall backwards onto the edge of the chair but it was on wheels and rolled away causing him to slip off onto the floor. 

He stood up and dramatically dusted himself off saying, "You know, that Fletcher guy was right. You guys have no business keeping that kid." The three other men immediately surrounded him. Kimmy backed away from them unsure what they were going to do next.

Langly spoke first, "Fletcher? You talked to Morris Fletcher?"

"Yeah," Kimmy admitted, "so what?"

"What did you say to him?" Byers asked.

"I don't know, just stuff that Blondy here told me." Byers and Jimmy turned to look at Langly. Langly scowled, trying to remember all he had talked about at their weekly Dungeons and Dragons game. 

Jimmy refocused on Kimmy. "Like what?"

"Stuff like her getting picked up by security guards, and the time Frohike got mad and almost broke her arm." He continued to back up, the others slowly following him. "And how sick it is that one little girl is living in a warehouse with four unmarried men only one of which she is related to." 

"How long ago was this?" Byers asked.

Kimmy stopped when his back touched the door. "How long ago was what?"

"When did you talk to Fletcher?"

"It was a few weeks ago."

"You need to be more specific." Byers said, wanting a better idea of how long Morris Fletcher had been nosing around. 

"It was in July, like the end of July."

"I've seen you a couple of times since then." Langly said, "Why didn't you tell me he was asking about Emma?"

"I don't know." Kimmy lied. Fletcher had paid Kimmy to keep his mouth shut. "I didn't think you'd care."

Langly reached toward Kimmy causing him to duck but Langly was just unlocking the door. "I think you should leave, Kimmy."

Langly opened the door and Jimmy shoved Kimmy out of it. Byers threw the dead bolts and turned all the latches. Langly came around to check the monitor and saw Kimmy climbing the stairs.

"Should we tell Frohike?" Jimmy asked.

"I don't think so," Byers said. "He's worried enough about this as it is. And knowing this won't change anything."

Langly was thankful that the other two had decided to keep this to themselves. But that didn't lessen the guilt he was feeling. He should have kept his big mouth shut.


 

Chapter 5



Langly sat working on a laptop at the kitchen table. He kept looking down the hall at Emma's closed door. He felt bad that she was in trouble. They were all used to Kimmy's attitude and just blew him off. Well, maybe not Jimmy. But Emma felt the need to defend them against what she saw as an attack on their skills and intelligence. Langly knew he should have gone over to Kimmy's apartment to get his help but Kimmy's place was a dump. 

Byers came up the stairs and started rummaging around in the refrigerator. He took out some tuna, pickles and couple of slices of bread. "Byers, man, you had dinner like an hour ago." Langly observed. "Why are you making a sandwich?" It wouldn't be unusual for Langly or Jimmy to go for a snack so soon after a meal but not Byers.

"It's not for me." Byers explained. "Emma didn't eat her dinner. She's got to be hungry."

"I hope you checked with 'Papa Bear' first." Langly didn't want Emma getting in any more trouble.

"Of course, I did." Byers reassured him. "He said she has to eat it in her room." 

Langly came over to where Byers was working. "Why is he being such a hard ass about this?" He reached up into the cupboard and got out some Fritos. He knew Emma liked them with tuna. "It's not like she shoplifted or anything. I don't see why it's such a big deal." Next he opened the refrigerator and dug around looking for something. "Jimmy didn't drink the last root beer did he? No, wait, here's one." He set the can on the counter. 

"I can understand why he's worried about her," Byers said. "She has a short temper. She has to learn to control it. If she can't control it around Kimmy who is irritating but harmless, how can she when it really matters."

"Well, yeah, you got a point. But I still think he's being a little hard on her."

"Don't let Emma hear you say that," Byers warned. "We can't undermine him in anyway, even if we don't agree."

"I know, Byers, but I don't have to be happy about it."


Byers took Emma the food but she was asleep. For once, jet lag was a good thing. He set the food down on her desk and pulled the blanket up over her shoulders. He left the room quietly, taking the food with him. He set the sandwich, chips and pop on the table in front of Langly. "You want this?" Byers asked him.

"What? She didn't want it? Boy, she must be really hacked off."

"No, she's asleep." 

"Oh, well, that's good. I guess." 




The slide show of Emma's trip was endured the following evening. After awhile the pictures of the castles all started to look the same but the fresh batch of cookies Emma had made helped make the time pass amiably.


The rest of that week was spent preparing for the coming school year. Frohike received an invitation from the school to a parent 'coffee'. He dropped it in the recycle bin but made the mistake of not burying it under the other paper. Emma found it and brought it to him. "Dad, this got thrown away. Don't you want to go?"

"Gee, honey, it's not really something I feel comfortable doing."

"Why not?" Emma asked. 

"It's for the soccer mom group. Not the working dad group. I would feel out of place."

"But they sent you an invitation. You could go and meet the other parents. You're going to drop me off that day for the opening of school anyway. Come on, please!"

"Emma, I just don't think I'll fit in."

"Sure you will." Emma couldn't imagine anyone not adoring her father the way she did. "Just turn on that old Frohike charm." 

Frohike was shocked. "Where did you hear that?!"

Emma missed his reaction because she had a brainstorm. "You know some of the mom's are divorced." 

"Emma! None of that or there's no way I'm going!"

"You mean you'll do it?" Emma asked hopefully.

"I suppose I could go but I need to take my suit to the cleaners."

Emma shook her head. "No, don't get all dressed up. You look good just the way you are. But, could you do me a favor?"

Frohike gave her a suspicious look. "What?"

"Shave before you go," Emma said patting his cheek. "You look so much better when you shave."



Emma was starting middle school and no longer needed to wear a uniform so several shopping trips were required to outfit her with new school clothes. On the way home from dinner at Olive Garden a couple of days before classes started, Emma spotted a store her dad had promised to take her to. "Dad, there's Old Navy," she said leaning into the front seat. 

"Sit down and put your seat belt back on."

"But, Dad, you promised and you're going to miss the turn!"

"Emma, the guys don't want to go shopping with us. We can go tomorrow."

"We won't have time tomorrow," Byers reminded Frohike. "We're booked for most of the day."

Emma wasn't ready to give up. "There's a lot of other stores around here." She pointed them out as they drove past. "Look, there's a Barnes and Noble, a KB Toys, Bed Bath and Beyond, Wherehouse Music, and a bunch of others."

"Frohike, just take the kid shopping," Langly had heard enough and there was a new CD he wanted.

"Okay, that's one vote for me." Emma said. "Jimmy, do you mind?"

"No, that's fine. I could use some more socks."

Emma turned to Byers. "John?"

"Yes?"

"What about you?"

Byers grinned. "You already have the majority." He turned to Frohike, "I think we're out voted."

"All right, all right." Frohike glanced at Emma in the rear view mirror. "But you're going to have to make it quick." He made a U-turn and headed back to the strip-mall. He found a parking space in front of Bed Bath and Beyond. Before taking off in four directions, they all agreed to meet back at the van in a half hour. 

"Okay," Frohike said opening the door to the trendy clothing store, "what else do you need?"

Running through the shopping list in her mind, Emma said, "I have enough dresses but I need more jeans, some polo shirts and nice T-shirts."

Frohike looked around the store. "I think we're in the right place then." The racks were bare stainless steel pipes and the shelves were unpainted metal. These were filled with shirts and pants of every size and description. Many of them held the company logo, which didn't thrill Frohike but Emma didn't seem interested in those.

She pulled one pair of jeans off the rack and showed them to her dad. "What do you think of these?"

Frohike frowned at the bleached out spots down the front of the legs. "They'll never let you wear those. The dress code said 'jeans in good repair'."

"That means no rips and stuff."

"Find a different kind." Emma put the jeans back on the rack and wandered farther down. Frohike searched through a stack of shirts. Finding one he knew she'd hate with little flowers and the word 'Princess' in shiny letters he held it out to Emma. "How about this one? It's your size."

"Very funny, Dad."

He looked again at the front of the shirt. "What's wrong with it?" he asked innocently.

"There'd be nothing wrong with it if I was like six years old."

"Oh, I see." He said grinning to himself. 

He tried to fold the shirt the way he had found it but failed miserably. He placed it on top of the pile and moved on to look for some polo shirts. Finding a rack covered with them, Frohike turned to locate his daughter to ask what colors she wanted. 

"Emma," he said when he didn't see her nearby. Getting no answer, he spun around the other direction, a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Emma," he called a little louder. Damn, he had taken his eyes off her for only a minute. He walked quickly down to the end of the aisle this time nearly shouting her name, "EMMA!"

Emma stepped around the corner. "You don't have to yell. I'm right here."

Frohike took a deep breath to calm himself before saying anything. "Why didn't you answer me?"

"I was talking to the sales guy. He was finding the right size for me," she said holding up one of the pairs of jeans she was thinking of buying. 

"I wish you'd stay where I can see you."

Emma frowned at her paranoid father. "Dad, you're overreacting."

"I just want to know where you are." Frohike was adamant.

"I was right there," Emma said pointing to the next aisle. " I didn't have time to get that far away." 

"Then tell me when you're leaving the area."

"Okay, fine. I'm going to go try these on. Is that okay with you?" 

"Go ahead. I'll be right here."

"Maybe I should just wear a leash," Emma said in disgust as she tried to walk past him.

Frohike stuck his arm out and grabbed the rack of shirts across the aisle effectively blocking the way. Emma stopped and looked at him. "Don't be ridiculous," he said.

"Well, that's what it feels like."

"I just want to make sure that you're safe."

Emma shifted the clothes she was holding to her other arm and said, "You keep saying that but you won't tell me what I should be afraid of. If I knew, it might be easier to do what you want."

"You're just going to have to trust me on this," Frohike insisted.

"But you won't trust me," Emma said. 

"Emma, now is not the time. We'll talk about it at home."

Emma shook her head, "No we won't. You'll just tell me not to worry about it again which makes me worry about everything. But I can't worry about everything so…" She sighed in frustration, shifting the jeans again. "Can I go now? These are getting really heavy." 

Frohike put the hand that had been blocking her way on her shoulder. "Emma, honey, I love you and I don't want anything to happen to you. Can you accept that?"

"I know, Dad." Emma could see that he was sincere and she was tired of arguing with him. "I'm sorry. I'll try not to get so grouchy."

"And I'll try to find you a longer leash." Frohike offered. "There's a PetSmart in this complex somewhere. Should we go look for one?"

Emma's cheeks redden at his reminder of her snotty comment but she smiled anyway. "You know, maybe we need one of those invisible fences that will just give me a shock if I go too far."

Frohike went along with the joke. "That's not a bad idea. But in the mean time, why don't you go try on the jeans before you drop them?"

"Okay. I'll be right back," Emma said. Frohike watched her head off to the women's dressing rooms. He could understand her frustration but he didn't think it would help to tell her everything. It would raise too many questions he did not want to answer. He knew that there were some he couldn't answer. Why force her to deal with the same torments he was going through? 

"Frohike," Langly came up to him. "How goes clothes shopping?" Frohike just grunted in response. "That good, huh? Where's the brat?"

"She's in a dressing room."

Langly leaned against one of the tall shelves, settling in to wait with Frohike. "How much was she going to try on?"

"She had an arm load of jeans but she just went in."

"What was the hold up?"

"She got mad at me again."

"Geez, Frohike, I leave you guys alone for 10 minutes…" Langly shook his head. "What was it this time?"

"The usual complaints about restrictions. She says I'm overreacting."

"She starts school in like two days. You're going to need to let go or did you plan to follow her around school all day?"

"Of course not. She'll be relatively safe there. I worry more about her being out in public like this."

"What do you think will happen? That Fletcher is going to try to snatch her? She knows what he looks like. There's no way she'd go with him or even let him get near her."

"I'm not willing to take that chance." 

"She's not stupid, Fro. And with all the bugs on her, we'll have no trouble tracking her if they try anything."

Emma came out of the dressing room to ask her dad's opinion. "Hi, Langly. Dad, are these okay." The jeans she was wearing rode low on her hips. 

"Not for school. You know they won't let you wear those."

"I don't have to wear them at school. I could wear them on the weekend."

Frohike considered it for a few seconds then said, "All right but make sure you get the right kind for school. Did you want some of the polo shirts?" He pointed to the rack.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot." She grabbed one her size and headed back to the dressing room.

Langly watched her trot off. "You're going to let her buy those jeans?" He thought they were a bit much.

Frohike wasn't too thrilled with the hip huggers either. "The other girls are all wearing them."

"That's supposed to be her argument." Langly laughed. "You're getting soft, Frohike."

"Yeah, well, maybe I am but those jeans aren't worth a fight. We seem to be doing enough of that as it is already."

"Hey, guys," Jimmy said joining them.

Frohike looked at the bags Jimmy was carrying. "I thought you needed some socks. What did you get at the toy store?"

Embarrassed, Jimmy hid the bags behind his back. "Oh, nothing really."

Now he had Langly's attention. "Come on, man. Give it up. What did you get?"

Jimmy backed away from them. "I'm, uh, going to go look for those socks." He turned and made a hasty retreat. 

Langly followed doing his best to torment the younger man. "It's the Power Puff Girls stuff, isn't it? Hey, wait! Just let me take a look."

Emma returned from the dressing room in time to see Langly's quick exit.

"Where's Langly going?" Emma asked Frohike. 

"He's chasing Jimmy. He wouldn't show us what he got at the toy store."

"Oh. It was probably those action figures he was talking about."

"Action figures? What action figures?" Frohike asked.

Emma smiled. "I'm not telling. Here, hold these for me." She started piling pairs of jeans in her father's arms. She also gave him the polo shirt she had tried on then started pulling others off the rack in the same size but different colors. 


Langly came back without Jimmy. "Did you get him to confess?" Frohike asked.

"No, and now he's in line buying his socks."

"Where's Byers?"

"He's out in the van reading a book he just bought. Is Imelda Marcos there done shopping yet?"

Emma came up to Langly and handed him an armload of the polo shirts. "Hold these," she commanded. Her attention was caught by a nearby display. "Hey, Dad, can I get a couple of sweaters?"

"That's a good idea but you need to hurry."

Langly stood untangling the hangers in the shirts he was holding. "Emma, you're going to have to buy a bigger house to keep all these new clothes in."

"No, I won't. I've got to get rid of most of my old ones. They're too small." Langly took a critical look at her. She was right. He just hadn't noticed before. He was willing to bet that if he could get Frohike and Emma to stand back to back it would show that Emma was now slightly taller than Frohike.



* * * * * * * *



Once school started, Emma continued to live at the warehouse. The new security system would be done by late September. After that she and Frohike would move back to the house. 

All the Gunmen agreed to take turns picking Emma up after classes and taking her where she needed to go. The second week of school, Emma was surprised then pleased when Mulder and William showed up to get her after school.

"Mulder, what are you doing here?"

"I came to get you." He checked the rearview mirror and noticed the impatient drivers waiting behind him. "Climb in before the others form a lynch mob."

Emma glanced at the line of cars and ran around to get in the back seat behind Mulder. "Don't you want to sit up front?" he asked.

"No, I want to sit with William," Emma said, tickling the toddler who favored her with a burst of giggles. "What are my dad and the guys doing?"

"They were held up on an investigation."

"So, you got sucked into playing chauffeur?"

"Your dad begged. I couldn't say no."

Emma laughed. She couldn't imagine her dad begging. Nagging maybe, but not begging. "Seriously, what did he say?"

"He said that if I didn't come and get you, that your free babysitting services would no longer be available."

"That was mean. Anyway, I get to decide who I want to baby-sit for." Emma insisted. 

"That's what I said but he claimed to have a monopoly on your time."

Emma sighed. "He's keeping a really tight watch on what I do and where I go. I can't sneeze without someone saying, 'bless you' no matter where I am."

Mulder was confused. "What do you mean?"

Emma swung her leg up onto the console between the two front seats. "When you get a chance, check this out." She wiggled her shoe at him.

At the next red light, Mulder looked down at her foot. "I don't see anything." 

Emma released her seatbelt and leaned forward to point to the side of her shoe. He looked closely. He could see a small slit in the sole. 

"What is it?"

"You've seen that Crocodile Hunter guy?"

"Yeah," Mulder replied cautiously.

"He's been digging around in my closet."

Mulder shook his head. "Sorry, kid, you're not making any sense."

"My dad put these little electronic things in most of my shoes. He says that way they always know where I am."

Mulder laughed. "So, no more sneaking out to visit your boy friend late at night."

"Mulder! I don't have a boy friend."

"Yet." Mulder glanced in the rearview mirror to see that even though Emma was blushing, she was smiling. He laughed to himself trying to imagine the Gunmen dealing with Emma's first date. 

"Anyway, they've been awful nervous since I talked to that Morris Fletcher guy."

"I've heard a lot about him," Mulder said.

"You've never met him?"

"Nope, I haven't had the pleasure."

"He seemed okay to me," Emma said, "but my dad and the guys say he's really nasty." Emma turned to entertain William who was getting cranky. She tried to get him to talk to her. "Car, William, can you say car?" William handed Emma a toy car. Laughing, she said, "Right. That's a car. But can you say car?" She gave up after a while. 

"Mulder, how long do you think it's going to take my dad to get over this?" 

"I don't know, kid. He just wants to make sure you're safe." 

"Yeah, I know." Emma seemed resigned. 

Mulder had an idea that he thought might cheer up his young passenger. He made one sharp right turn then another. Emma held on hoping that William was safely buckled. "What are you doing?"

"We're going on a field trip. Your dad told me to keep you entertained until they could get back so I thought we could go somewhere more interesting than that hole in the ground you guys call home."

"I gotta do my homework though." Emma said.

"Don't worry, you'll have time to get it done," Mulder reassured her as he merged the car onto the freeway. It didn't take them long to reach the exit to Alexandria. Mulder drove them into a residential neighborhood and parked in front of a pretty little house with a 'For Sale' sign in the front yard. He stopped the car and came around to the passenger side to unbuckle William.

Emma scrambled out on her side. "Is this it? Is this your house?" 

Holding the toddler in his arms, Mulder pushed the car door shut with his foot. "Yup, we're just waiting for the sale to close."

"Can we see inside?" Emma asked.

"It's empty so we can go look in the windows. William and I do this a couple of times a week. It's a great way to meet the neighbors." Mulder shifted his son to one arm and waved at a woman across the street. She smiled and waved back. He turned to see that Emma was already half way to the house. 

They looked in all the windows and checked out the backyard. Mulder put William down once they got the gate closed. The toddler ran off to explore on his own. Emma stood looking through the French doors, her nose on the glass and her hands cupped on each side of her face to cut the glare. The kitchen wasn't very big but looked newly remodeled. "This is great, Mulder. I can't wait until you guys move in."

"I owe it all to you."

"Me? Come on, give me a break."


"If you hadn't told me about the faeries and let me help you, I wouldn't have been there with the guys to recover the stolen artwork. Without the reward money from that little adventure, I couldn't have given Dana the money for the down payment on this house." Emma turned, surprised that he was being so serious. "I haven't contributed much to our relationship." Emma understood that he was talking about himself and Scully, "I want to give Dana and William everything. And this," he indicated the house, "this is a start. Thanks to you."

Emma hugged him, telling him, "You're welcome, Mulder." She smiled up at him. He was struck again how much she reminded him of his sister, Samantha. He suppressed a thought that had been nagging at him. This was not the time. Mulder turned to see what William was doing. He'd found a big stick and was dragging it across the yard.

"You know you helped me, too." Emma said. Mulder brought his attention back to the girl. "No one else, not even Monica who believed me, could see those faeries. I was scared. I thought I was going crazy."

"No," Mulder grinned, "you're not the crazy one. That's always been my job."




Chapter 6



After a great deal of research and debate, the Gunmen tentatively decided to get a Chevy Express passenger van. They only needed to see one 'In Real Life'. Everyone wanted a say, so they loaded into the VW bus and headed to the closest Chevrolet dealership. 

Three salesmen watched as a beat up old VW bus pulled into their lot. "Now, there's someone that needs a new car." One of them said to the other three. 

"Geez, do you think they bought that thing new?"

"What year would you say it is, a '71 or 72?"

"Yeah, about that." 

All three car-salesmen watched as the ancient vehicle pulled into a parking space near the front door of the dealership. A short man in a leather coat jumped out of the driver's seat. A tall, thin man with long, blond hair slid out on the front passenger side. He was simply dressed in a Ramones t-shirt and black jeans. Another man with dark hair and a neatly trimmed beard had also been seated in the front of the van. In contrast to the other two, this man was impeccably dressed in a suit and tie.

The door on the side of the vehicle slid open and an even taller, athletic looking young man stepped out. He turned to help a girl out of the back of the van. She looked 12 or 13 years old. The unlikely group assembled on the walkway in front of the showroom windows.

The three salesmen looked at each other. One of them straightened his tie and said, "I'll take them." And walked out of the showroom to meet the potential customers. 

"Hello, my name is Rudy Gorman. How can I help you fine folks today?"

The girl spoke first, "We want to buy a car!" 

The short, leather clad man, obviously the child's father, took the girl by the hand and pulled her to stand next to him. "Emma, calm down," he told her. Then he turned to address Rudy. "We would like to look at the Express passenger vans."

Rudy held out his hand, "And you are…?"

"My name is Melvin Frohike. These are my associates Richard Langly, John Byers, Jimmy Bond, and my daughter Emma." Rudy shook hands with everyone.

"The Express vans are around this side of the lot," Rudy pointed and started walking in the indicated direction. The large group followed him around to the far corner of the car lot. They found four of the vans, all different colors. Jimmy walked up to a white one and looked in the windows. 

"Jimmy," Langly called to him shaking his head. "Not that one."

"What's wrong with it?"

"It's 'serial killer' white."

Jimmy looked back at the van. "It looks like normal white to me."

"That's not what I mean," Langly explained. "Do you know how many serial killers out there drive around in white vans?"

Jimmy stepped away from the van. "I had no idea." The two of them went to join the others looking at a more respectable blue van. The dealer started explaining the different features but Frohike stopped him. "Can I see the engine?"

"Let me run and get the keys," Rudy said taking off at quick walk. 

While the salesman was gone, Frohike took the time to explain car-buying protocol to Emma. "We can't act too interested in the car. We have to pretend that this might be what we want but we're not sure. If we get too excited by it, we'll never get them to haggle over the price."

Emma looked at the sticker in the window of the van. "But it says right here how much it is. Why would they put the price on it and then argue with you over how much it is?"

"That's just the way it's done," Frohike said.

Emma looked at Byers who nodded. "He's right, Doc. It doesn't make sense but that's how it's done."

Emma saw the salesman coming back and quickly agreed. "Okay, so I just need to act cool, right?"

Frohike smiled saying, "That'll work."

Rudy opened the door and popped the hood to expose the engine. Frohike began examining it. Byers climbed into the front seat to see how it felt. He liked it. In this van he was higher off the road than in the VW bus. 

Langly opened the side doors to examine the cargo space. "Hey, man," he called trying to get the salesman's attention.

"Rudy," Emma said from the front passenger seat.

Langly looked up at her. "What?"

"He said his name is Rudy."

"Thanks, squirt." He leaned back out around the open door. "Hey, Rudy. How do you get these seats out?" 

Rudy left the engine compartment to come demonstrate how the seats pulled out, "with just a flip of a lever and a gentle push." He hadn't finished when Jimmy began to shout.

"GUYS! Come here! You've got to see this!"

Emma jumped out of the front of the blue van to see Jimmy looking in the window of the last van in the row. She ran to find out what he was so excited about. The others followed at a more reasonable pace.

"This one is really cool!" Jimmy explained. "Do you have the keys for it?" he asked Rudy.

Thinking ahead, the salesman had grabbed the keys to all four vans before coming back outside. "Yes, right here," He said pulling them out of his pocket. He unlocked all the doors of the dark green vehicle. "This van was customized for an auto show." He didn't add that it hadn't sold and they were probably going to take a loss on it. "It's got several features that the standard models don't."

Emma and Jimmy climbed into the front seats. Frohike pulled the lever to pop the hood and began examining the engine in this van. "This has a bigger engine than the blue one." Frohike observed. Rudy went around to the front of the van to go through the modifications with him.

Langly pulled out two rows of seats to examine the available cargo space. This left one row in the back. "Byers, look at this!" he called.

Jimmy jumped out to get the keys from Rudy. He wanted to try out all the buttons on the dashboard. "Jimmy," Frohike said coming around to the driver's side window, "start the engine. I want to see it turn over."

Jimmy complied and left the engine running. He and Emma tried the automatic windows and door locks and played with the air conditioning. 

Byers was in the back with Langly discussing how they could arrange equipment when he got blasted with cold air. He looked up at the ceiling and turned off the air conditioning to the back seat. "What are you two doing up there?" He asked the big kid and the smaller one in the front. 

"Experimenting," Emma called back. "Why?" She didn't wait for an answer but crawled through the gap between the front seats to see what the other two men were doing. She dropped down onto the seat between them. She looked up at the controls above her head and opened the vent up again. Cold air blasted her face. "Wow, no more car sickness in the back."

Frohike yelled at Jimmy, "Okay, you can cut the engine."

Byers got up and climbed out. Emma scooted over to the far side of the seat to study a control panel she found there. "Langly, look. There's a radio here and it's got a headphone jack. We wouldn't have to agree on music!" 

Langly turned and looked to his left. "There's one over here, too." He turned his back to the window and put his feet up on Emma's lap. "Yeah, I could handle this." He locked his fingers behind his head with his elbows up in the air. He slid down a little farther in the seat. 

"All you need is a pillow," Emma laughed. Something caught her attention. She pushed at Langly's legs, "Hey, move. I want to get up." Langly slid his legs off the seat. 

Emma came up behind where Jimmy was still sitting in the driver's seat trying out the radio/CD player. He turned up the volume and shifted the sound all to one side, then the other. He had it play only in the front then only in the back. 

Langly yelled at him. "Hey, man, turn it down!" Jimmy did as he was asked but continued to experiment with the equalizer. Emma was poking at something she found installed in the ceiling of the van. She turned to Langly, "What is this?" She pointed at the mechanism. Langly came over to join her. 

"I think…hang on." He looked down at the dashboard and finding what he was looking for, pushed a button. Emma jumped back as a small screen dropped down from the ceiling. "Yup, it's a DVD player," Langly said.

"That is so cool!" Emma hoped this would be the van they bought but when she saw the DVD player she knew they had to have it. 

She pushed past Langly to climb once again into the front passenger seat. She lowered the window and leaned all the way out it to see around the open hood. "Dad, you have got to see this!"

Frohike who had been up to his elbows in the engine came around to see what she was yelling about. "I thought we agreed that you were going to act cool."

"Oops, sorry." She lowered voice. "Look at the seats." Frohike reached in and felt the upholstery. It was leather. "Neat, huh?" 

Frohike grinned. "Yes, very nice."

"And, Dad," now she was nearly whispering. "It's got a built in DVD player." She said the words slowly to stress their importance. 

Frohike whispered back, "You don't say."

Emma's eyes got wide to show her sincerity. She simply nodded in response.

"Good. Let me go talk to the salesman, okay."

"Okay!" was her breathy response. 

Byers came around to the driver's side. "Jimmy, put the window back up, would you?"

Jimmy pushed the button to roll up the window but only left it there for a second. He shouted at Byers through the closed window. "Byers, watch this." He pushed the button again and removed his finger. The window continued opening. He showed his window-opening finger to Byers. "And I only touched it for a split second."

"Yes, Jimmy, I see that the window opens automatically. Can you put it back up now?" Byers wanted to see the bad news. He knew that the others already had their hearts set on this van but with all the extras it's price had to exceed their budget. 

"Hey, and look at this," Jimmy continued his demonstrations of what the various buttons on or near the dash could do. "I can control all the mirrors from here." He adjusted the mirror on the passenger side door. "Emma, sit back so I can see."

Byers closed his eyes and shook his head. "Jimmy, please roll the window up, I want to see how much this van costs."

"But we looked up the price before we came." Jimmy said as he turned on all the interior lights.

"That wasn't for a customized van just a regular one. This one has to be more expensive."

"It couldn't be that much more could it?" Jimmy aimed the map light right in Byers face. "Hey, you're in the spotlight, Byers. Give us a speech."

Frohike came over to the driver's side and opened the door. Byers had to jump back to keep from getting hit by the door. He almost tripped over Langly who was lying halfway under the van checking out the undercarriage. They would have to drill holes for some of the equipment they wanted to add and Langly needed to see where this would be possible. 

"Jimmy, get out of there and let me have a try," Frohike insisted. 

Jimmy stepped out and looked down at Langly on the ground. He crawled under with him. "What are we looking for?" he asked Langly.

Frohike climbed up into the driver's seat and reached down on the left side to pull the seat forward. Jimmy obviously had no trouble fitting behind the wheel but Frohike had to make sure that he could reach the pedals comfortably. "Yeah, no problem." He looked over at Emma. "Try on the seat belt. Tell me what you think."

Byers gave up asking for the window to be rolled up and opened the door to do it himself. "Hang on, Byers, you had your chance. It's my turn." Frohike tugged the door out of Byers's hand and slammed it shut. Frohike nodded in satisfaction. "I like the sound of a solid door." He turned back to Emma. "How's the belt?"

"Comfy. How about you?"

Frohike tried his on. "Good," he pronounced giving the strap an extra tug to make it tight. 

Byers waited with his arms crossed. Langly and Jimmy scooted out from under the van. They stood wiping parking lot dirt off their clothes. "What's with you, Byers?" Langly asked. Byers looked over at Rudy who was giving them space to make a decision. 

"We can't really afford this van. It's got too many extras. You're all getting so excited and we don't even know how much it is." 

Frohike hit the button to roll up the window. The three standing on the outside of the van waited as the window with the price sheet came up. Frohike and Emma watched from inside. When the window was all the way up, Langly, Jimmy and Byers moved in closer to see the small print. Jimmy and Langly grimaced and Byers shook his head. Frohike unbuckled the seat belt and opened the door to see for himself. Emma did the same. 

They stood in group silence for a short time. Langly spoke first. "So, it's more than we thought but we're getting more than we planned."

"It does have a bigger engine," Frohike offered, "not to mention the tow package."

"What are we going to tow?" Byers asked. 

"You never know," Frohike insisted. "It could come in handy."

"And it's already got some of the wiring done." Langly added. "Come on, Byers, it's not that much more."

"It's $4000 more than we talked about!" Byers was adamant.

"It's got upgrades on," Frohike ticked them off on his fingers, "the engine, the tires, the upholstery, the running boards…"

Jimmy added to the list, "the sound system, the air conditioning, interior lighting, and the carpet."

Emma put both of her hands on Byers crossed arms to get his attention. "John, it's got a DVD player and," she paused dramatically, "it's got headphone jacks in the back so you won't have to listen to my music or Langly's."

Byers tried not to but couldn't help laughing at that. "That is a huge bonus, Doc." He relaxed a little, looked around at the group then over to where Rudy Gorman, Chevrolet salesman, waited ever so patiently. "How far do you think we can talk this guy down from the asking price?"




Byers and Frohike were deep in discussion with Rudy in a small office. There wasn't enough space in there for everyone so the other three gladly waited outside in the showroom. It was noon and there were no other customers around so most of the salespeople had taken off for lunch leaving Langly, Jimmy and Emma to their own devices. They checked out the vending machines and each had a candy bar. Then they all had some soda. Emma was impressed with how the guys could burp. She tried but was terrible at it. 

"Someday, I'll teach you how to shotgun root beer." Langly promised. "Then you'll really be able to burp."

"How about right now?" Emma held out a handful of coins. "I have enough for another bottle."

"No, you need a warm can of root beer and a towel. It's very messy." This sounded like fun. Emma planned on bringing it up later. But for now, they were still waiting.

"I'll be right back." Emma wandered nonchalantly past the office where the three men were still sitting deep in negotiations. Sighing, she came back to join her bored companions.

Langly stared at the sports cars in the showroom. He looked around and seeing no salespeople said in a low voice, "I feel the need, the need for speed!" Emma looked at him wondering what he was up to but willing to play along. Langly nodded at the unlocked sports cars.

Emma smiled, "You want to race?"

"I get the red one," Jimmy declared. 

"Not if I get to it first!" Emma said, taking off across the showroom. Jimmy with his long legs got there well ahead of her. Emma didn't complain but picked a yellow Corvette instead. Langly chose a Camaro. The three convertibles sat side by side in the showroom. 

Emma made racecar engine noises while pretending to turn the steering wheel wildly. Jimmy started a commentary. "In the final lap, Bond takes the lead cutting out his two main competitors." 

Langly took up the challenge. "But Lord ManHammer isn't beaten yet. He engages his secret weapon: a burst of high-powered jet fuel he has held in reserve. His engine screams, eating up the new fuel which gives him the lead." Langly made fake cheering noises by cupping his hands over his mouth. "The crowd goes wild!"

It was Emma's turn. "Emma watches the two macho guys duke it out for first place. She waits patiently in third knowing that, in the end, the race will be hers. Lord ManHammer's engine blows up from the use of illegal jet fuel! His car spins out of control crashing into Jimmy Bond's car. Both of them careen into the infield. Emma takes the lead, winning the race!"

Jimmy staggered out of his car like a driver recovering from a bad spin out. With his hands on each side of his head he complained, "I could've won if it wasn't for that idiot, ManHammer!"

Langly opened the door to his car and fell out onto the floor with his legs still in the car. "Paramedic!" he croaked. "Where's the ambulance?" 

Emma leaned over the side of her convertible laughing at her two silly friends. 

There was a loud clearing of someone's throat. All three of the racers looked behind them to see Frohike, Byers and Rudy watching them. None of them looked amused. 

Langly got up off the floor and shut the door to the Camaro then used the bottom edge of his T-shirt to wipe any fingerprints off the shiny paint job. Emma sheepishly climbed out of her car closing the door as quietly as possible. Jimmy came around to join the other two miscreants. 

Frohike considered them for a second, then said, "Are you three done?"

The would-be racers looked at one another each hoping someone else would answer for the group. After both men shoved her forward, Emma finally did. "Yes, we're done." She quickly changed the subject. "How about you guys? Are you done?"

"We've completed our business," Rudy said. "As soon as the funds are transferred, the van is yours." 

Whooping and hollering and handshakes followed. Finally, after all these years, they would have a new vehicle. 

Emma wanted to go take one more look at it before they left. "No, you can wait until tomorrow," Frohike said, "So, tell me about the race." He led Emma toward the VW bus. "Did you win?"

"Yes, I did. Langly tried to cheat but superior driving skills won out in the end."

Langly was shocked. "I did not cheat!"

"You did, too," Emma insisted. "Jet engine fuel is definitely cheating."

"Hey, if anyone cheated, it was you," Langly complained. "You're the one that blew up my car!"

"I didn't blow up your car!" Emma told him. "It was your fault. You decided to use unsafe fuel."

Frohike put an end to the discussion. "All right, that's it. No more Nascar for either of you." He slid open the side door of their old van. "Get in and let's go home."



They picked up the new van the next day. It would take a great deal of time to get it set up the way they wanted. Instead of a periscope, Frohike developed a series of tiny cameras that he could hide in the molding that ran around the top of the van. This way they could still have a 360-degree view of everything outside the van but be less conspicuous. A lot of the new equipment was ordered over the internet. As the individual pieces arrived they were installed in the new van. The old VW bus was parked in a back corner of the alley. It got used occasionally but pretty much just sat as a reminder of times and adventures past. Most of the equipment was stripped from it when parts were needed elsewhere. Eventually it became nothing more than a mini-storage unit but no one had the heart to suggest getting rid of it. Frohike joked that they should get it bronzed to preserve it for posterity.



* * * * * * * *


Life settled into an easy routine. The concerns about Morris Fletcher and William Bayne slowly faded into the background. Yves checked her sources and could find no more information than the Gunmen had while she and Emma were out of the country. In any case, Langly continued to monitor the court system looking for mention of Emma, Michelle, Frohike or Bayne.

With the new security system installed at the house, Emma and Frohike spent most of their nights there. Although Emma desperately missed seeing the other guys every day, she had begun to develop friendships with some of the girls at school. The warehouse was not a place to invite friends over to do homework or to spend the afternoon. Emma's house was the best place for that. 

Siera and Tiarra were two of the most frequent visitors. Both girls were new to the school and Emma, who hadn't attended the academy all that long either, assigned herself the task of making sure these girls felt right at home. They became fast friends in short order and when they weren't visiting each other's houses, they were usually on the phone. Frohike had another phone line put in so that he could occasionally call out or others could call in. With the permission of the other parents, he showed the girls how to use instant messaging so all three could talk at once. 

Doing the dad thing, Frohike became a familiar face at the school. The parent gathering the day before classes started wasn't as bad as he had expected. He was not the only dad there and Emma was right, some of the mom's were divorced and a couple of them were even worth a second look. Not that he would admit this to his daughter. That would just encourage her matchmaking antics. 

Other school events Frohike attended included Middle School orientation and the school opening in September. In October there was an open house at which he got to meet all the teachers. Homecoming was an all day event one Saturday the same month. In November, there were Parent/Teacher Conferences. Frohike was not surprised to hear that Emma was doing a great job and had adjusted well to the change from Elementary School to Middle School. 


* * * * * * * *


As Thanksgiving drew closer, Frohike asked Emma how she and her mom had traditionally celebrated the holiday. Without looking up from the video game she was playing, Emma said, "Sometimes we went over to Mr. Brown's, a couple of times we went to Mrs. Comstock's house." Mrs. Comstock was one of the older neighbors in the area. "Usually we'd go on a trip."

Frohike was surprised to hear this. "A trip?"

"Yeah, I would get out of school early and…" Emma stopped to vanquish a particularly nasty alien invader, "Got him!!" 

"And…?" Frohike moved to stand next to her computer so that he was in her line of vision.

Emma glanced up at her dad then back to the game. "What?"

"You said you got out of school early before Thanksgiving." 

"Yeah, that gave us a whole week." Several new ships appeared on the screen and immediately began destroying a nearby town. "Oh, no, you don't!" Emma said under her breath to the invaders. 

Frohike wasn't sure if she didn't want to talk about it or if it just wasn't that big a deal. He chose to push a little further to find out. "Where did you go?"

"What?" Emma asked again. She had all the invaders over the town on the run but reinforcements were coming in from the north. 

"Would you please pause the game?" Frohike waited for a response. Getting none he said, "Emma, I could just turn off the monitor." He reached for the button.

"No, don't!" She quickly hit pause. "I'm trying to beat Langly's score and I'm doing really good." 

Frohike glanced at her score on the screen. "You've got a long way to go."

"I know," Emma said a little petulantly. "But this is farther than I've ever gotten before."

"I'll only keep you from it for a few more minutes," The patient father said leaning back against her desk and crossing his arms over his chest.

"Okay, I'm listening," she said, giving him her full attention.

Having to think for a second where he had left off, Frohike asked again. "Where did you go on these trips during the week around Thanksgiving?"

Emma shrugged. "Lots of places."

"Such as?"

"Well, New York a few times, Chicago once," She stared at the desktop trying to remember if the places they had visited were at Thanksgiving or not. "San Antonio, and ooh, we went to Mexico one time!"

"Would you like to go on a trip this year?" Frohike couldn't really afford to be away from the paper for a week but maybe the weekend would be all right.

Shrugging again, Emma said, "I don't really care."

"Well, what would you like to do for Thanksgiving then?"

Emma looked back at her paused game finally understanding the point of the conversation. "What do you and the guys usually do?"

"Us? That depends." Frohike mused. "If someone feels like cooking, we do the whole turkey thing. Sometimes it's just frozen HungryMan turkey dinners. One year Mulder cooked."

Giggling at the face Frohike made with that comment, Emma asked, "Was it that bad?"

"It took more than a week to get the smell of burnt turkey out of the warehouse. I'm not talking about blackened. It actually caught fire!" Frohike chuckled at the memory of Gunmen running for fire extinguishers as flames licked out around the closed oven door.

When they both stopped laughing, Emma made a suggestion. "Why don't we just have everyone over here for Thanksgiving?"

"You're willing to cook?"

"Um," this wasn't exactly what she had in mind, "I guess I could but will you help me?"

"Of course." 





"Yeah, right!" Emma muttered under her breath as she set the table by herself. "Lots of help." A loud cheer went up from the couch in the living room. Emma shook her head. "Men." 

They had worked together to get the turkey stuffed and in the oven but once Langly and Jimmy had arrived early to watch a football game, Frohike became more and more distracted. "Dad, why don't you just go watch the game? If I need any help, I'll tell you."

After quickly surveying the preparations and deciding that things were under control for the time being, Frohike agreed. That was pretty much the last Emma saw of him in the kitchen. Every now and then he would shout at her, "How's it going, honey? Do you need any help?" 

"No, I doing okay." It was the truth but it didn't make her happy. With her school and dance class schedule and her dad's work, she'd seen very little of her father recently. She'd been looking forward to spending the day with him but now… 

Emma didn't get football and she didn't bother to take the time to figure it out. To her it was just a bunch of very big men in lots of padding who stood around trying to intimidate each other. Then they would run around and knock each other down. She couldn't imagine how people found it entertaining let alone something to be so passionate about. 

Byers showed up about an hour before the agreed upon dinnertime. He wasn't surprised to find the other three Gunmen planted firmly in front of the TV watching 'the game'. He walked past them just as a commercial came on. Langly looked up at the flower arrangement Byers was carrying. He said, "Byers, man, you shouldn't have."

"They're not for you, you louse. They're for our hostess." Byers looked at the snack debris on the table. "You guys need to lay off the junk food. Dinner is supposed to be in an hour."

In unison, the other three said, "Yes, Mom!"

Byers ignored them and went to give Emma the flowers. He found her peeling potatoes at the kitchen sink. "Happy Thanksgiving, Emma."

Emma turned and smiled. "Happy Thanksgiving, John." She saw what he was holding. "You brought flowers."

"Yes, they're for you," he said. 

"For me?" Emma blinked. "No one's ever brought me flowers before." 

"Well, then I have the pleasure of being the first. Where do you want them?" 

Emma dried her hands and took the arrangement out of Byers's hands. She set them on the counter and turned the vase to see it from the other side. "We could put them in the dining room."

Byers moved the flowers to the other room, placing them on a sideboard. They were too tall for the center of the table. He returned to the kitchen to see if he could help. Emma was cutting up the potatoes and dumping them into a large pot. She considered the potatoes in the pan giving it a little shake. She looked up at Byers, "Do you think this is enough?"

He came over to the sink and glanced at the potatoes. He made a thoughtful noise. "How many people are coming?"

"It's just the five of us."

He looked in the pan again. "That should be enough."

"How about the water? Is there enough water?" 

"It looks good to me."

"Do you think I should add anything else, herbs or something?"

Byers had to admit that he wasn't much of a cook. He could whip up a decent meal but with the finer points he was at a loss. "I not sure, Emma. Why don't you ask your dad?"

Emma turned to put the pot on the stove. "He's into the game. I don't really want to bother him." Byers watched the girl carefully. Something was wrong. 

"I thought he was going to help you."

Without turning, Emma said, "He did at first but then Jimmy and Langly got here and they've been watching TV since." 

So, that was it. Byers smiled to himself. Maybe he could help. He left Emma checking on the turkey. 

Opening the oven door, a blast of warm moist air hit Emma in the face. She waved her hand in front of her glasses to clear the steam. Once she could see again, she checked the little thing that told you the turkey was done. It hadn't popped up yet and she was concerned. They had calculated the time it would take the turkey to cook and it should've been done by now.

Another excited yell erupted from the fans in the living room. Byers sat down in the overstuffed chair close Frohike. "Mel," he said to get his friend's attention. 

"What?" Frohike asked, with only a quick glance in Byers's direction. 

"Emma needs your help."

Frohike turned to see what Emma was doing in the kitchen. "She told me she would let me know it she needed anything."

Byers decided to rephrase his statement. "I guess it's not so much that she needs your help as she wants your help."

The puzzled look on Frohike's face changed to one of mild amusement. "Okay, buddy, I got it. Thanks."


Emma stood studying the index of a cookbook that lay open on the counter. She couldn't find anything on mashed potatoes. She ran her finger down the 'M' section again. Nope, nothing. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up from the book to see her father. "What are you looking for?" he asked.

"Mashed potatoes," Emma admitted. 

Frohike turned the page to the 'P' section. "You know how to make mashed potatoes. Why are you looking it up?" He pointed to 'Potatoes, mashed'. 

"I wanted to do something special to them." Emma looked at the page. "Oh, no wonder I couldn't find it."

"Why don't you just add some garlic to the potatoes? It will give them a little body but it won't overpower the gravy."

Emma grinned at her father. "That's a good idea. Could you check the turkey? I don't know why it's not done yet." Frohike opened the oven door. He allowed the blast of hot moist air to dissipate before bending over to check the turkey. He got a real meat thermometer out of the drawer next to the stove and inserted it into the breast. Checking the readout, he raised the temperature on the oven slightly to hasten the cooking process.

Another loud cheer could be heard from those still watching TV. Emma stopped hunting for garlic, pointed towards the living room and said, "I thought the game was over."

"No, but a little bird told me you were lonely in the kitchen." Frohike said handing Emma a head of garlic he had retrieved from a basket full of onions.

"I wasn't…I mean, I didn't…" Emma scowled in Byers' general direction. "You could've stayed and watched the rest of the game."

Frohike put his arm around his daughter. "What fun is football when I could be spending time with my best girl?"

"Oh, Dad, don't be so sappy!" Laughing, she tried to push him away but he refused to budge. 

He gave her shoulder another quick squeeze before letting her go. 

"All right," he said. "Let's get this dinner on the table."


Dinner was ready right on time. After everyone arranged themselves around the table, Emma held her hands out to her dad on one side and Byers on the other. They took her offered hands without question. She then waited patiently for Jimmy and Langly to complete the circle. They stared at the others in confusion. "You need to hold hands so we can say grace," Emma explained. Jimmy reached across the table to take Byers's hand and held his other one out to Langly. 

Langly looked with disgust at Jimmy's hand. "I'm not holding hands. Just do the grace thing and get it over with."

Frohike's well-aimed kick under the table caused Langly to jump and yelp in pain. He glared at Frohike then grudgingly took his hand. Turning to see Jimmy's out stretched arm, Langly rolled his eyes and grabbed the younger man's hand, too.

Frohike smiled at Emma. "Go ahead, honey. We're ready." 

"You okay, Langly?" a concerned Emma asked.

"He's fine," Frohike said, squeezing her hand. "You wanted to say grace."

"Okay," Emma bowed her head. The others did the same. 

"For food in a world where many walk in hunger. 

For friends in a world where many walk alone

For faith in a world where many walk in fear

We give you thanks, O Lord."

The four men raised their heads thinking she was done. She wasn't. "Thank you also for bringing my dad to me when I needed him. And thank you for my new friends, especially the ones here tonight. I love them all very much." Finally done, Emma looked around the table and asked, "Does anyone else want to say anything?" 

After a short pause, Frohike decided to let the others off the hook. He leaned over and kissed her cheek. "I think you said it all, baby."

Emma smiled at him then at the other men around her table. "Okay then. Let's eat!"


  

Chapter 7



Christmas didn't go as smoothly. Frohike could tell his daughter was missing her mother. The grief therapist that Emma had visited for several months told Frohike it was normal to experience increased feelings of loss at certain times during the year. The winter holidays were one such time. 

Emma and Frohike talked about it whenever he could get her to but distractions seemed to work better. The guys did a pretty good job of this. They started with covering nearly every inch of the outside of the house with enough colored twinkle lights to keep Washington DC lit well into the next millennium. 

The argument over what type of tree to get went on for days. Jimmy wanted a flocked tree with nothing but blue ornaments. Langly favored a fake one with fiber optic lights that you could program to flash in different patterns. Byers thought a live tree that could be planted outside after the holiday made more sense than cutting one. Frohike finally took Emma out to pick the one she wanted. This ended up being a noble fir about 7 feet tall. They set it up in front of the big picture windows in the living room and invited the guys to come over and help them decorate it. 

Frohike offered to buy all new ornaments wondering if the old ones would be too painful to put up. Emma told him she wanted to use her mother's decorations. Frohike hoped this wouldn't be a mistake. 

Emma held up pretty well for most of the day until Jimmy dropped an old glass ornament. It shattered. Emma looked at the pieces, burst into tears and ran out of the room. 

Frohike sighed and tried to follow her but Jimmy stopped him. "Let me go. I want to talk to her."

"It's not your fault, Jimmy. It's not really the ornament that's making her upset." 

"I know but let me go anyway."

Frohike considered the younger man. Maybe a fresh perspective would help. It was either that or take her back to the therapist. It broke his heart to see her so upset. "Go ahead, Jimmy. Let me know if you need any help."

Jimmy found Emma in her room. She was sitting at her computer looking at a website for the new 'Lord of the Rings' movie. 

"Hi, Em." 

"Hi, Jimmy." Emma quickly wiped away any remaining tears. Jimmy came up behind her and checked out the screen. "What're you looking at?"

"This website has a preview for 'The Two Towers'. Do you want to watch it?"

"Sure." Jimmy said.

Emma tried to get up to let Jimmy sit in front of the computer. He put a hand on her shoulder to keep her in the chair. He rested his arms on the back of the chair and leaned down so that his head was at the same level as hers. 

"Okay." Jimmy said. 

"It looks better in the dark." Emma explained. Jimmy reached over and turned off the desk light.

Like all good movie previews it was fast paced and only whetted the appetite for more. "Wow," Jimmy proclaimed, "when will it be in the theaters?"

"Next week. Langly is going to take me the weekend after it opens." Emma turned the light back on.

"Do you think he would mind if I went with you guys?" he asked.

Emma shrugged. "That should be okay."

Jimmy had hoped she would be more enthusiastic about his interest in something she was looking forward to. He sat down on the bed and watched her. Checking out other options on the website, Emma was looking at a list of the actors in the movie and descriptions of the characters they played. 

"I'm sorry about the ornament," Jimmy said.

Emma stared at her keyboard not trusting herself to hold it together if she looked at him. "It's okay. I'm sorry I got so upset. I'm just such a baby sometimes."

"No, you're not a baby. Your mom died. That's hard to deal with. You should be upset about it."

Emma didn't say anything. She looked back up at her computer screen but had lost interest in what she found there. 

"Emma?" Jimmy tried to get her attention. When he got no reaction, he gently pushed on the arm of her computer chair causing it to turn towards him. Emma didn't resist but dropped her hands from the keyboard into her lap. 

Facing him but not wanting to look at him, she studied his shoes. "You need new sneakers," she told him. "These are looking a little raggedy."

"Emma, that's not what I want to talk about." 

"I know but I don't really want to talk about what you want to talk about."

He put his hand under her chin and tipped her face up so he could see it. Her eyes were red and swimming with unshed tears. This was making her nose run. He handed her a Kleenex off the nightstand. "Thank you," Emma said sniffling. She lifted her glasses to wipe her eyes. 

"Why don't you want to talk to me?" Jimmy asked.

"It's not that I don't want to talk to you," she explained, "It's just…" She sighed closing her eyes.

"It's what?" Jimmy asked trying to get her to continue. 

She finally did. "It's just that it's been more than seven months. I should be over it by now."

Jimmy was surprised that it was only seven months. She was so much a part of their lives it was hard to imagine her not being around. "I don't think anyone ever really gets over the death of someone they love," he said.

"That's what the therapist said but I kind of hoped he was wrong."

"What else did he say?" Jimmy asked. Emma shrugged again. "Did he talk about Christmas?"

"Yeah, he did."

"What did he say?"

"Just that if I needed to talk to him, to give him a call."

"Maybe you should."

Emma looked down at Jimmy's worn out sneakers again. "You really do need a new pair of shoes. I could go shopping with you."

"Emma, come on." Jimmy's respect for Frohike's patience as a father increased. This wasn't easy. "What do you think? Should we go talk to your dad about going back to see the therapist?" When she still wouldn't answer, Jimmy decided he was in over his head. He got up to go get Frohike He stopped when felt Emma's hand on his arm. He looked down at her. 

Her pain was evident on her face. "I don't want to go back to the therapist, Jimmy. I just want to stop being sad all the time."

He pulled her into an embrace saying, "It just feels like it's all the time now because it's almost Christmas. You'll see. It'll get better."

"But it will never go away completely." She wasn't asking him. She was telling him. 

"That's because you loved your mom. That doesn't just go away and I know you wouldn't want it to."

She didn't say anything else but rested her head against his chest. 

He thought she would start crying again but she didn't, at least not that he could hear. She was sniffling though so he handed her another Kleenex. "Thank you. I didn't get anything on you. Honest." That made Jimmy laugh. The sound rumbled in his chest which made Emma chuckle, too. "That sounds funny," she said pressing her ear closer to his shirt. "Say something."

"What should I say?"

"That's good. Say something else."

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America…" 

Laughing whole-heartedly, Emma leaned out to see Jimmy's face. "Okay, wait. Sing something." She put her ear back against his chest. 

"Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh, hey!"

Emma laughed again and joined in with the song. When they got to the end of the chorus, she hugged Jimmy tightly one more time and let him go. "Thank you, Jimmy. I feel better now."

"What about the therapist?" He wasn't willing to let it drop.

"No, I'll be okay."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah," Emma reassured him.

The three Gunmen downstairs had listened to the laughter and loud, rotten singing with relief. Jimmy and Emma came down stairs because Emma wanted Jimmy to play the piano for her. She had tried in the past to get him to do this and was taking advantage of the fact that he was feeling sorry her. She knew it wasn't fair but she did it anyway. 

Jimmy looked shyly at the other guys as he sat down at the piano. But he had promised. Everyone else pretended to be busy finishing up the tree but they were actually watching carefully. Ammunition such as this would always come in handy. He started playing but stopped when Langly snickered. Emma sat down next to him. "Ignore him. Show me what you can play." When he hesitated, she added, "Please, Jimmy. I miss playing the piano with someone." 

He smiled at her. "Okay, how about this one?" He started playing 'Joy to the World'. Emma joined in on the higher keys. Jimmy played with more confidence now that he was not the only one performing. They played together for a few more songs. Jimmy's repertoire was severely limited but Emma was in the mood and played several other Christmas songs. 

After cleaning up all the boxes from the decorations, they sat down to dinner together. Over the meal, they discussed their plans for the holidays. It was tradition that the paper went on hiatus for the two weeks around the holidays. The idea was to give them all a chance to visit with family even though they usually just hung out together. 

Jimmy was driving home to New York the day after Christmas. Byers, Frohike and Emma were all heading out to the west coast the same day. Langly was planning on having a big D and D weekend with his buddies. He very rarely had the place to himself and was looking forward to hosting the three-day event. 


As Christmas Eve approached, Emma looked around their group of friends to see if anyone needed a place to go for the holiday. The only one who had no family to spend the time with was Yves. Yves claimed that she always spent Christmas alone.

"But this is dinner on Christmas Eve," Emma insisted.

"I know, dear," Yves replied, "but I'm afraid I wouldn't be very good company."

Emma considered playing the 'poor little girl who lost her mother' role for Yves but decided she wouldn't fall for it. "I would really like it if you would come. Jimmy will be there."

Yves smiled at Emma. She was familiar with the child's conniving ways. Emma had talked incessantly about Jimmy while they were together in England. "I thought he had family in New York," she said.

Emma nodded. "He does but he's staying here until the day after Christmas." She meant that literally. She had convinced the other three Gunmen to spend a couple nights at her house. It meant that two of them would have to share a room but they had all agreed. Emma wanted a family Christmas and this was her family. "So, what do you think? Do you want to come for dinner on Christmas Eve?"

Yves didn't want to disappoint the child by promising to do something then finding it impossible to follow through. "Let me think about it."

In Emma's mind, this meant 'yes'. 


Yves did give a definite yes a few days later.



* * * * * * * * 


Langly's preparations for his three-day role playing game party were pretty elaborate. He had transformed the living area at the warehouse into Middle Earth central. There was a large, make shift table covered with a three-dimensional map complete with hills, valleys, lakes, streams and caves. Tiny trees dotted the landscape along with rocks and bushes. Where appropriate, the landscape was covered with a thin coating of a green fluffy substance that looked like grass. 

Byers had complained about all the extra mess. "We agreed when we moved in here that this space would not be a work area. Only a living space."

"But there isn't enough room downstairs for it," Langly had argued. "And when it's done, I wouldn't be able to get it up the stairs. You don't want my gaming buddies hanging out down there with all the computers for three days. They'd get pizza, chips and beer in everything."

Byers conceded the point. He didn't want to take a chance that all their newly purchased equipment would be destroyed. "Yes, you're right. I guess there isn't any other choice. But make sure you clean up after yourselves."


Emma had watched Langly and Jimmy build the model for nearly a month. She desperately wanted to help but they had not let her do much more than hold a few things for them to glue down. Emma thought it looked like a giant science fair project that had gotten out of control. 

When the enormous diorama was done, Langly added the tiny figurines he had been painting in his spare time. He displayed them in appropriate spots all over the landscape model then invited everyone to check it out. 

Having been told enough times not to touch, Emma bent down so the figures on the table were at eye level. Jimmy did the same thing across the table from Emma. Langly stood at one end, Byers and Frohike at the other. Langly waited for their response to the now completed set up. Emma and Jimmy's eyes met across the vast expanse of the miniature landscape and they both smiled. Jimmy straightened up first. "Wow, Langly, the miniatures really look cool." Jimmy still thought of them as 'action figures' but Langly insisted he call them 'miniatures'.

"Yeah, thanks, man, for all your help," Langly said. Jimmy had been a little surprised but very pleased that Langly had trusted him to work on it. They had gotten into a couple of arguments over it but for the most part had worked together very well.

Byers examined the finished results with admiration. "You guys did a great job on this. It almost looks like you could step right into it." He came around to the side to see the whole thing from a different perspective. 

Emma shifted her position so that she could see Langly at the end of the table, standing like a god over the world he had created. "This is really amazing, Langly! How did you learn to do all this?"

Smiling at the compliments he said, "Where else?"

Emma nodded, "The internet."

"Of course," he confirmed, "and the gaming store."

Emma held her hand out to a tiny horse and paused looking up at Langly again. "Can I? Just one. Just to see it better. Please?"

Langly grinned and nodded. "Go ahead, but be careful."

It was heavier than she expected. She'd thought the running horse was black until she noticed that its reins were darker than the rest. The horse was actually a very dark gray. Details on its bridle and other tack were painted a shiny copper color. Some spots were smaller than the head of a pin. The horse's rider was the same black as the reins.

"It's a Nazgul," Langly explained. 

Emma looked up at him. "From 'Lord of the Rings'?" 

"Yes."

"How did you paint these teeny spots?"

"Very carefully," Langly said taking the figure out of Emma's hands and looking closely at it. "This is the first one I ever painted. It's lead but most of the others are plastic." He put it back on the table where Emma had found it.

"When did you have time to paint them?" she asked.

"Some I did years ago, like that one," he said pointing at the Nazgul. "The rest I did while you were at school." 

"Will you show me how?"

"Sure, squirt," he said, "after you get back from Seattle."

Langly looked at Frohike hoping for a reaction from him. "What do you think, Fro?"

Frohike frowned at Langly. "You're going to let those idiot D and D friends of yours touch this? The drunken bastards will just destroy it."

Langly laughed. "No, they won't." He paused, "Well, at least not at first." 

Frohike shook his head in dismay. "Seems a shame to put so much work into something only to have it get trashed."

"Well, that is what I built it for and I can't leave it set up in here forever." He swept his arm outward to indicate the whole room. "It takes up too much space." 

"At least let me take a picture of it," Frohike suggested. 

"That's a good idea. Thanks."

Frohike left to get a camera. Byers returned to his computer to finish some research and Langly and Jimmy headed out to the hardware store to buy a drop cloth to cover the entire table until the big event. 


Emma watched them all leave. She waited until they were out of sight and picked up the Nazgul again. She took it to her room and carefully wrapped it in a big wad of Kleenex. She hid it in her backpack. She agreed with her dad. Langly's friends, including Kimmy, would not really appreciate the amount of work that went into the table and the figures. She was determined to save at least one and Langly had said that this was the first one he'd painted. That made it special and she was willing to take a chance on getting in trouble to protect it. 


* * * * * * * * 


Christmas Eve was quiet. Dinner was prime rib and twice baked potatoes. Yves brought 'crackers' for everyone. They took turns pulling on the brightly wrapper paper tubes. The resulting bang was loud enough to be satisfying but not eardrum damaging. During dinner, Emma insisted that everyone wear the paper crowns they found inside the crackers. They all read their fortunes and, since no one else really wanted the small toys they found with the crowns and fortunes, Emma stacked them in front of her plate.


After dinner, the guys sat down to watch football. Emma was beginning to view this as part of their new holiday traditions. Even Byers, who usually didn't spend a great deal of time watching sports, joined the group. This left the Yves and Emma to their own devises. 

Yves took the opportunity to catch up with everything that had gone on in Emma's life since they had traveled overseas together. Emma tried to get Yves to talk about how she had celebrated Christmas as a child. Yves spoke in general about traditions in England but offered no personal anecdotes. When the football game was finally over, Frohike served the desserts that he and Emma had prepared.

The group sat talking over half eaten plates of pumpkin pie, brightly decorated cookies and cooling cups of coffee or eggnog. Emma decided to provide background music. She didn't get many chances to play the piano for the whole group and had been practicing for this occasion. 

After a couple of songs, Yves came to join her at the piano. "You play quite well," she said when Emma had finished 'Oh, Holy Night'. 

"Thank you," Emma said looking up at Yves. "You don't happen to play, do you?"

"No. It's not something to which I have ever applied myself," Yves admitted. She sat down on the bench with Emma and began turning the pages of the songbook from which the girl had been playing. Finding 'The Holly and the Ivy', Yves asked, "Do you know this one?"

"Yes. I love this one!" Emma said and began to play. When she was done, Yves searched through the book again looking for ones she enjoyed. She stopped when she came across the Bach/Gounod 'Ave Maria'. The pages of this piece were smudged and rather bent as if they were well loved. 

"This looks like one you know," Yves observed. 

Emma reached out and touched the page, smoothing a bent corner. "This was my mom's favorite."

Yves covered Emma's hand with her own where it still rested on the page. She curled her fingers around the girl's bringing both their hands back down to the keyboard. "You don't need to play it if you don't want to."

Emma smiled at Yves's concern. "I don't really mind playing it but my mom always sang with it when I did."

Yves let go of Emma's hand. "Go ahead and play it. I'm sure it will be beautiful anyway."

Emma hesitated. "It's just not the same."

It was Yves turn to smile. "Trust me." 

Deciding she might as well, Emma began playing.

She had always liked this Bach composition because it was relatively simple to play yet sounded very impressive. It flowed easily and had a harplike quality to it. Gounod's melody line using the ancient hymn added to the beauty of the piece.

As she started the fifth measure, Emma was amazed to hear Yves begin singing her mother's part. Emma nearly faltered but her mom had taught her to follow the singer not matter what that person did. Yves voice didn't have the same quality as her mom's but was nearly as beautiful. She effortlessly sang the Latin words with no more guidance than the melody line on the page. Obviously, this was something Yves had taken the time to apply herself to.

Conversation in the other room ceased. All four men sat listening in bewilderment. "That's not Emma," Byers observed. They had all heard her sing and although she could stay on key and sang with confidence, she still had a child's voice. This was definitely an adult's voice and the singer knew what she was doing. 

Jimmy was the first to get up to investigate. He stopped dead in the doorway, making it difficult for the others to get past him. "Move, you big dope," Frohike said in a low voice. Jimmy moved to one side letting the others pass. He remained in the doorway, listening with a rapt expression on his face while watching the pair at the piano. The other three Gunmen stood out of the way in the living room so they would not disturb the performers. 

As Emma began playing the last line on the second page of the score, Yves raised her hand to the bottom corner of the page. When Emma began the last measure, she nodded and Yves smoothly turned the page. They continued without the slightest break in the music.

Frohike was amazed. Yves was showing them a side of herself they had not known existed. This was not for an investigation or out of some other need but simply to share a small part of herself with Emma and, by default, the rest of them.

Nearly too late, Frohike thought to take a picture. Emma's digital camera was on the coffee table, ready for the morning. He got a couple of shots of them from behind and when neither reacted to the flash, he moved over to their left side and got them both in profile with Jimmy still in the doorway in the background. 

The song built in intensity as it neared its conclusion. Yves's obviously trained voice easily handled the higher sustained notes as well as the tender ending of a repeated "Amen". 

There was silence for about three seconds before all four men started applauding. "Thank you, Yves," Emma said during this ovation. "That was beautiful."

"You're welcome, my dear. Merry Christmas." 

Both of them turned to face their appreciative audience. "All right, fellows, that's enough," Yves said standing up from the piano bench. She turned to look back at Emma. "Will you play something else for us?"

"Sure." Emma pulled the big book into her lap to look for a song she hadn't played yet. Frohike dragged Langly and Byers back into the kitchen to help him clear away the last of the dishes. He glanced at Jimmy who still had not moved from his spot. By the look on his face, Frohike knew the younger man would be of no help. He could do the breakfast dishes. 

Yves headed for the kitchen to get something to drink. It had been quite a while since she had sung, really sung, without warming up and now she wanted something to sooth her throat. Jimmy stopped her as she tried to pass him in the doorway. "Yves, that was the most beautiful singing I have ever heard."

"Thank you, Jimmy. It's very sweet of you to say so."

"No, really, I mean it. You have a great voice. How come you've never sung for us before?"

"I never had a reason to," Yves replied.

Emma watched this exchange out of the corner of her eye while pretending to continue to search for another song to play. Something at the top of the doorframe caught her attention. She had forgotten all about it! Pointing it out to the couple, she said, "Hey, mistletoe! You guys have to kiss!"

Jimmy's shocked expression showed that he had not known the decoration was there. "Emma," he said, "that's just a story." He looked down at Yves. "You don't have to."

Yves smiled. "I don't mind," she said. "It is tradition, you know." She put one hand on his shoulder and slid it up behind his neck. He bent slightly, tentatively placing his arms around her waist. Yves moved closer and tilted her head slightly to one side. She brought her other arm up and behind his back drawing him closer. 

The first kiss was short and tender. But the second kiss was much more: longer, deeper and offering a promise of more to come. 

Emma sat watching as silent as a church mouse not wanting to spoil the moment. She was immensely pleased with herself. The first little kiss, she suspected, was for tradition. But the second kiss, that one showed that she was right about Jimmy and Yves and that it was just a matter of time before Yves realized it, too.

A loud crash and Langly's complaining voice from the kitchen broke the spell. Jimmy looked up at Emma remembering that he and Yves were not alone. Yves didn't move out of his embrace but spoke to him to bring his attention back to her. "Jimmy, I'd really like some tea. Do you think you could show me where I might find some?"

"Sure, no problem."

Emma leaned out on the piano bench to watch them move away. She noticed that Yves had not completely broken her contact with Jimmy but kept one hand on his arm as they walked into the kitchen.

She sat up and looked again at the music book. She closed it and propped it up on the piano. She had played enough and now she wanted to join the others in the kitchen. She could hear her dad and Langly arguing over the broken dish and she thought maybe she should go referee. They were her dishes after all. 

Emma laughed to herself. This was turning out to be a much merrier Christmas than she had ever dared hope.



* * * * * * *



The day after Christmas Jimmy headed north to see his family. Langly dropped Byers, Frohike and Emma off at the airport. They were headed west to make the visits that were promised during the summer. They sat together in the row over the wing with Emma in the middle. Frohike asked her if she wanted the window seat but there wasn't much to see other than the engines. 

About forty minutes after take off, Frohike looked out the window and said, "There's something out there."

Emma leaned forward to see around her father. "I don't see anything."

Frohike took a second look, blocking her view. "Yeah, right there," he said pointing out the window. 

Emma pulled on his shoulder so he would sit back. "I still don't see anything." 

Frohike pointed again, "It's some kind of creature right there near the engine."

Catching on, Emma rolled her eyes and went back to reading her book. Frohike didn't give up. "That's amazing! How can anything survive outside at this altitude?"

Emma didn't even look up from the page this time. "Dad, I've seen that movie. You can stop now."

"Movie? Oh, no," Frohike said shaking his head. "This was a classic Twilight Zone with William Shatner."

"No, it was a movie," Emma insisted. "That guy from '3rd Rock From the Sun' was in it."

"John Lithgow," Byers said. Emma and Frohike looked at him. "It was John Lithgow in the movie. And you're both right. The Twilight Zone movie had remakes of three classic episodes including 'Nightmare at 20,000 Feet'."

"Well, that explains it," Frohike said looking out the window again. "But I still say there's something out there."

"Give it up, Dad. I'm not looking again."




Chapter 8

 


Pat and Rosalie picked them up at SeaTac airport. After greeting like old friends, they stood watching the luggage go around and around on the enormous baggage carousel waiting for theirs to show up.

"The return of the stolen painting even made the papers out here," Rosalie said. Pat and Rosalie had been in the DC area during the summer while the Gunmen and Yves were working on a case involving an art thief. 

Pat added, "I'm sure Emma told you the replica the thief exchanged 'The Thin Red Line' with is now on display at Edinburgh castle." 

"I did," Emma added excitedly, "and there was even a plaque that said it was owned by 'The Lone Gunman Group'."

"We've heard the story several times," Frohike said. 

"I'm sure you have," Pat said smiling. "The folks in the Military museum there dinna know that you run a newspaper. They thought you were some sort of gun club."

Byers laughed, "We get that a lot. We've gotten some pretty strange phone calls because of it."

"They're happy to have something to show tourists until the original is sent back from the Smithsonian," Rosalie told them. "Emma spent a great deal of time talking about it to anyone who would listen."

Frohike gave Emma a hard look, "You didn't make a pest of yourself, did you?"

Emma pretended to be distracted by the luggage. "Hey, Dad, is that your bag?" she asking pointing to a duffle bag that was just coming around the corner.

"Emma?" he said in a mildly threatening tone. 

"Don't worry, Mel," Pat said putting a hand on Frohike shoulder, "she was fine. No more of a pest than any of the others. It was the main topic of conversation on several occasions."

Rosalie could tell that Frohike wasn't quite convinced. "Your friend Yves filled in a lot of missing information. Oh, and thank you for the copies of your paper. It was nice to be able to show the relatives the story in print. We left them a couple of copies."

"Well, that explains the subscriptions we got from Scotland," Byers said.

Their luggage finally arrived on the big belt. Emma tried to pull hers off but couldn't get it over the edge and had to let go before she crashed into the people farther down the line. They waited for it to come around again. This time Frohike grabbed it and lifted it onto the floor. 

"Emma, how much stuff did you bring? This is almost as heavy as when you came back from the UK."

"It's just a few gifts, that's all. And besides, the suitcase has wheels." She pulled up the handled and, rolling the suitcase behind her, followed Pat and Rosalie out to the parking lot.


Byers's friend, Erynn, was driving down from Vancouver the next day to pick him up and take him up into Canada. There wasn't enough room for Frohike, Emma and Byers to spend the night at Pat and Rosalie's so Emma was going to stay with Bruce, Becky and their children. Bruce was Pat and Rosalie's youngest son who lived nearby. Megan, Rachel and Ian were the young couple's children and Emma was good friends with the two girls. 

The plan was for everyone to meet for dinner before splitting up for the night. When the group arrived at Pat and Rosalie's, the other family was already there. After gleeful squealing from the girls and hugs or handshakes all around for the adults, they settled in to eat. 

After dinner, Pat spent about an hour and a half giving Byers and Frohike the grand tour. He had swords on display in three rooms of the house. In the family room hung his personal collection: one-of-a-kind swords that would take a great deal of convincing to get him to sell. The living room had been converted into a store. A third room held antique swords and dirks along with Rosalie's computer.

Emma asked permission to IM Langly to tell him they had arrived safely. 


EmmaMac: Langly, are you there?
LMH: Where else would I be?
EmmaMac: We made it!
LMH: Good. How was the flight?
EmmaMac: Long. Dad kept falling asleep and snoring. I had to wake him up a bunch of times.
LMH: Was the movie any good?
EmmaMac: There wasn't one. The projector was broken. 
LMH: That stinks. What did you do to keep from driving everyone nuts?
EmmaMac: I don't drive everyone nuts!
LMH: Sure you do!
EmmaMac: I'm not going to talk to you if you're going to be a snot.
LMH: I'm just teasing. You're not here to bug so this is all I have.
EmmaMac: You're just going to have to wait until I get home. 
LMH: So, what DID you do on the flight?
EmmaMac: I read my book and listened to CDs and John played cards with me for a while. 
LMH: Did you win?
EmmaMac: Sometimes. But he mostly won. 
LMH: What? He didn't let you win?
EmmaMac: You never let me win. Why should he?
LMH: That's different. 
EmmaMac: No, it isn't.
LMH: Yes, it is.
EmmaMac: No, it's not.
LMH: Yes, it is infinity!"
EmmaMac: Grrrrrrr! I don't know why I IMed you in the first place.
LMH: Cuz you wanted me to know you got there all right. And, hey, thanks. I was starting to worry.
EmmaMac: You're welcome but why didn't you just look up the flight online. 
LMH: I didn't bother cuz I knew you'd call.
EmmaMac: OIC. So, are you ready for your party?
LMH: All set. 
EmmaMac: When is everyone coming?
LMH: Tomorrow. 
EmmaMac: Dad says I need to get off the computer. Have fun with your friends!
LMH: Okay, bye then. Talk to you later!
EmmaMac: Bye, I love you.
LMH: I love you too, squirt.


Emma went to watch a DVD with the girls and fell asleep almost immediately. The time change had caught up with her. The others let her sleep until it was time for her to leave with Bruce, Becky and the kids. Groggy and just a little grumpy, Emma gave the usual promises to do as she was told and not to get into any trouble while away from her father. 


The next day, Byers's friend Erynn showed up to take him across the border. He introduced her to everyone. "This is a friend of mine, Erynn Sullivan. She was at the Highland Games in Virginia while you were all there. Her choir was performing."

Pat shook hands with Erynn. "And you had to come all the way out here to meet us? Seems like a long trip just to say hello."

Erynn laughed, "I was a little busy in Virginia." 

They didn't visit for long. A quick cup of tea and it was time to go. It was a three-hour drive to get back to Vancouver. 


When Emma arrived, she was disappointed that Byers had left without saying goodbye. Frohike knew that she just wanted to see Erynn again. "Don't worry. They'll be back here in a week. You can talk to Erynn then."

Emma wasn't mollified. "But what if they come while I'm not here?"

"I'll make sure you are." Frohike said then handed her his cell phone.

"Okay." She frowned at the phone in her hand. "What do I need this for?" She asked. 

Frohike tapped it. "Langly wants you to call him."

"Oh, okay," Emma dialed the number mentally crossing her fingers in the hopes that this was not about the purloined miniature horse and rider. 

Langly answered it on the second ring. "What?"

"Dad said you wanted me to call."

"Yeah, did you take one of my figures off the big table?" He had to shout to be heard over the sound of loud talking and laughter. Suddenly the noise stopped. Emma figured he had gone into another room and shut the door for privacy.

"What figure?" Emma decided to play stupid.

"One of the Nazguls is missing. It's the one we talked about."

"How can you tell? There were a bunch of them on the table."

"Emma, did you take it or not?" He was getting testy. 

"No, Langly, I didn't." It was a lie but she fully intended to give it back to him later. "Are you sure it's gone?"

"Yes, I'm sure. There were nine Nazgul and now there are only eight. It's hard to be authentic without all the characters."

"Gee, I'm sorry it's lost. I hope you find it." There was silence on the other end of the line. He must be thinking it over. 

"Let me talk to your dad," he finally said.

"Hang on. I'll get him." Emma looked around for her father but didn't see him. When she asked she learned that he was out in the garage with Pat checking out the workshop. 

"Dad?" she called into the dark garage. She hesitated to go inside because she couldn't see either man. 

Frohike stepped out of the back room. "What is it, Emma?"

She held up the phone. "Langly wants to talk to you."

Frohike came out onto the patio where she was standing and took the phone from her. "Yeah?" Emma watched his expression as he listened to Langly. "Do you believe her?" She looked away when he noticed her listening intently to his side of the conversation. He continued to listen to Langly but reached out and took her arm as she began to move away. "All right. I'll talk to her." He flipped the phone closed with one hand keeping the other on Emma.

"Well?" was all Frohike said.

"I didn't take it," she said quickly. "I can't help it if he lost it."

"You know how insanely possessive he is. You can't touch his stuff."

"But I didn't. Why don't you believe me?" Emma pouted.

"He said he noticed it was missing when he took the cover off the table. The only one who was left alone with the whole set up was you."

"But it wasn't me." Maybe if she just kept insisting, he'd drop it. 

No such luck! "You've never lied to me before. I hope you're not lying now."

Emma didn't say anything in response to that. More lies wouldn't help. She was now questioning the wisdom of her actions. She had no idea it would turn out to be such a big deal. Her dad finally broke the silence between them. "Go see if everyone is ready to go." 

Frohike watched his daughter walk away. He could tell she was lying but he had no way of proving it. He couldn't understand why she would take the figure when Langly would have given her one if she'd asked. He hoped this wasn't a sign of a much bigger problem. 


Frohike and Emma went with Becky and the kids to the Seattle Center. They rode the elevator to the top of the Space Needle. It was a crystal clear winter day. The view of the surrounding area was awe-inspiring. There were mountains and large bodies of water on most sides. After a while the cold drove the adults back inside the Space Needle where it was warm. The kids ran around and around the outside of the observation level. Every now and then they would come inside to warm up and beg for quarters for the telescopes. Soon neither adult had any left.

When they had been sitting inside for a bit, Frohike heard an unfamiliar voice behind him. "Hey, Becky. Where are the kids?" Frohike turned to see a woman in her mid-forties with short dark hair and rimless glasses. Her resemblance to Pat was unmistakable. Before Becky had a chance to answer, the outside door opened letting in a blast of cold air and four children with wind-reddened cheeks. 

"Annie Margaret!" Ian yelled. 

"Hi, Ian," she said. "Hi, girls."

"Annie Margaret?" Emma echoed Ian. "I didn't know you were going to be here."

"Becky didn't tell you?"

"No. Did you meet my dad?" Frohike stood up to be introduced. "Annie Margaret, this is my dad, Melvin Frohike." The two shook hands.

"I'm pleased to meet you," she said smiling.

"Margaret is my sister-in-law," Becky said completing the introduction.

"It doesn't surprise me," Frohike said, "There is a strong family resemblance."

Ian interrupted the pleasantries by pulling on his aunt's sleeve. "Do you have any quarters?"

"Ian!" his mother admonished him. "You don't need anymore." But, digging through her purse, Margaret pulled out a handful of change. She sorted through it giving Ian a couple of dollars worth of quarters. 

"Share with the girls," she said as he headed for the door, the others close behind him. "All of the girls!" she yelled as they all ran back outside.

Margaret sat down on the other side of Becky. Frohike looked over at her. "Why do the kids call you 'Annie Margaret'?"

Margaret laughed. "It's this one's fault," she said, inclining her head at Becky. "She pronounces 'auntie' like 'Annie' so the kids picked it up."

Frohike nodded, "And Emma got it from them."

"Yes." Margaret laughed. "I took a couple of years for her to figure out what they were really saying but by then it was a habit."

"Michelle and Emma came out here that often?" 

Margaret moved to a seat where she didn't have to look around Becky to see Frohike. "Yes, especially when she was working on Safeco Field." Michelle had been on the design team that worked on the Mariner's baseball field. So they spent a great deal of time in the Seattle area when Emma was a young girl. 

"How well did you get to know Michelle?" 

Margaret considered Frohike for a few seconds, deciding how forward she wanted to be. She gave him a lop-sided smile. "Well enough that she told me about you."

Frohike sat up a little straighter, surprised to hear this. "I didn't think she told anyone about me. I know she didn't tell Emma."

"No, she didn't want Emma to fixate on you." Margaret turned to see if the kids were nearby. "She didn't plan on dying but then, who does?" Momentarily saddened by the loss of her friend, Margaret paused then looked back at Frohike. "I'm glad you were able to be there for Emma. How has she taken all of this?"

"She's doing pretty well," Frohike said, "but she still misses her mom. Just before Christmas was tough."

Margaret nodded. "Yeah, I can imagine. How's she doing in school?"

"Michelle had Emma change schools shortly before she died."

"I heard. I know she always wanted her to go to that all girl's school."

"National Cathedral School for Girls," Frohike said, "It probably would have been easier if she'd left her at her old school. She didn't really have any friends there until this year."

"But she likes it all right?" Margaret asked.

Frohike nodded. "Yeah, she's happy there. Her teachers say she's doing well."

Another cold blast of air and the arrival of hungry kids, ended all adult conversation for a while. A quick trip back down the Needle and a short walk brought them into the Center House where there were food choices for every taste and appetite. 

They spent the rest of the afternoon in the Center House, which had several activities for kids during their winter break. There were hundreds of kids there and nearly as many parents. By mid-afternoon, they'd had enough and decided to head home. Ian rode with Margaret, giving the girls some time off from the irritating little brother. 

They all gathered at Pat and Rosalie's. After dinner, Megan and Rachel wanted their aunt to teach Emma a card game they had played at Thanksgiving. Frohike got up a couple of times to see what all the squealing was about. They seemed to be playing solitaire but they shared their aces. The yelling and loud laughter occurred when more than one person tried to get her card on the appropriate pile in the center of the table.

About an hour later, Margaret sat sorting out the cards when the girls decided to go do something else. Frohike came over to help. "They left you to clean up," he said picking up a stack of cards. 

"Oh, I don't mind. It's kind of relaxing in a repetitive sort of way," she said easily flipping the cards into piles. She watched the skillful way Frohike manipulated the cards wondering why he had not taken his fingerless gloves off once they got to the house. "You play a lot of cards?" she asked him.

"The occasional poker game but not as much as I used to. You?"

"Not as much as I used to either," she said. "We played quite a bit in college. It was an inexpensive way to spend the evening."

"So you didn't play for money?"

Margaret laughed. "No, not until after college. Then we got deeply into poker: nickel and dime stuff, nothing big." She began tidying the sorted cards to put them back into their boxes. 

Frohike handed her the cartons, which had been stacked at the far end of the table. Finished with the cards, Margaret got up to put them away. Frohike stopped her. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure," she said sitting back down. 

"Michelle was your friend?"

"Yes," Margaret was confused. She thought this had been evident from their earlier conversations. 

"Did she ever mention a man named William Bayne?"

"She spoke several times about a man she called 'Bill'. Is that who you're talking about?"

Frohike nodded. "His friends call him 'Bill'. What did she say about him?"

Margaret thought about her conversations with Michelle over the years. "He was a friend and a coworker. I guess they were pretty close. I know Bill asked her to marry him."

This was something Frohike had never heard before. "But she didn't."

"No, she said she didn't love him," Margaret said. "Well, she loved him but she wasn't in love with him. You know how that goes."

Frohike nodded. He was well aware of this type of love. 

Margaret watched Frohike's face for signs of his thought processes. She thought she detected dread and uncertainty. "Why do you want to know these things? They shouldn't matter now."

After checking to make sure the kids were still in the back room, he said in a low voice, "He hired someone to investigate me, my friends and Emma."

"What did he want to know?" 

"I'm not really sure," Frohike said.

"That's strange. Michelle said he was a good friend. If he wanted to find out what happened to Emma, why didn't he just come to you?" 

"I think he didn't want me to know."

Margaret shook her head. "But that doesn't make any sense."

"It does if he's trying to get custody of Emma."

Margaret sat back in the chair, amazed at what this man was telling her. They had just met yet he was sharing what had to be his deepest fears with her. He must be desperate for information. "I don't see how he could. As I said, Michelle told me about you and how you were Emma's father. Bill's name never came up in that conversation."

"That's why I wanted to see what she'd said about Bill," Frohike explained. 

Margaret patted Frohike's arm in reassurance. "I feel quite certain Michelle knew what she was talking about." She left her hand on his arm for a few seconds, long enough for the girls, who were watching from the hallway, to begin giggling uncontrollably.

Frohike turned and glared at them. "Emma, that's enough! You girls go find something better to do." They trotted off still laughing. 

Once again confused, Margaret asked, "What was that all about?"

Cringing, Frohike shook his head. "You don't want to know!"


The next day was Saturday so everyone decided to play tourist. Two vehicles were then required to get them all to the Aquarium down on the Seattle waterfront. They had debated going to the zoo, but it was decided that in late December, the Aquarium, which was mostly inside, was a better choice. There was another spot on the waterfront that Megan and Rachel desperately wanted Emma to see: the Ye Old Curiosity Shop. It was a long walk down the waterfront from the Aquarium to the store but there was quite a bit to look at in between. 

When they got there, the girls ran off to find what they had come for. About half way back in the store, in a tall glass case, there was a mummy. "His name was Sylvester," Megan said. Emma noticed that Sylvester wasn't the kind of mummy one sees wrapped in bandages but one made by nature. He looked like a very skinny man with really dry skin and bad teeth.

"See. He's real!" Rachel said as they stood looking at the mummy.

"I could tell he was real when we saw him on TV in Scotland," Emma insisted, "but it's weird to see him in real life."

Their attentions was quickly pulled away from Sylvester by the other oddities on display in the store: shrunken heads, the calf with two heads, four front legs, two back legs and one tail, a jack-a-lope, a couple of other mummies, and an endless supply of Seattle souvenirs, tacky joke gifts, local Native American artwork and several imported gift items. 

Emma wanted to buy Langly a genuine goatskin shrunken head that looked like a human shrunken head. Frohike said no. Emma was disappointed but purchased a collection of Seattle themed gifts for everyone instead: a snow globe for Jimmy, a giant Sleepless In Seattle coffee mug for Langly and a statue of the Space Needle made out of Mt. St. Helen's ash for Byers. For Yves, she bought a delicate, heart shaped ornament that was also made out of volcanic ash but this had been turned into glass. 


They got back home relatively early. Emma asked for permission to IM her friends back in DC. She wanted her west coast Washington friends to meet her east coast Washington friends. 

Frohike wasn't sure if was a good idea. "I don't know Emma. It would tie up the phone line for too long."

"They have cable internet," Emma reassured him. 

"But you'd still be on their computer for quite a while. It's just not a good idea."

"Come on, please, Rosalie said it was okay." Frohike looked over to Rosalie who nodded. "And Becky said Megan and Rachel could go online with me," Emma was quick to add.

"All right," Frohike finally conceded, "it sounds like you've got all the bases covered. I'm always the last one to know," he joked shaking his head in mock sadness.

"No, you're not," Emma said, "well, maybe you are but I win more arguments if I'm prepared." 

"Is that so?" Frohike grinned. "Tell Tiarra and Siera I said hello." He watched her grab Megan and Rachel and head to the computer room. He called out after them, "And keep it under an hour. It's getting late on the east coast."


On Sunday, it was decided that everyone should just take it easy. With the holidays and out of town guests, there had been absolutely no down time. This would give Rachel and Megan a chance to introduce Emma to some of their friends. Frohike never even saw Emma that day but he did talk to her twice on the phone. He felt a little guilty about dumping her on Bruce and Becky but she was better off with them and the kids than sitting around watching football with Pat while Rosalie read romance novels. He did enjoy the peace and quiet, which was something he wasn't used to.


On Monday, a much smaller group headed into Seattle. Margaret, who had been busy with other pursuits all weekend, had volunteered to take Frohike and the girls to the Pike Place Market. Because she lived north of town and the others were coming from south of town, Frohike borrowed Rosalie's truck so they could meet at the downtown location. The truck had a crew cab, so all the girls fit. 

Margaret stood outside the parking garage. She had gotten there early, knowing the entrance to the garage was in an unusual spot making it difficult to find. She waved vigorously when she saw her mom's red truck at the 4 way stop at the tip of the outdoor vendor stalls. Frohike turned the corner and pulled into the parking garage. Barely waiting for him to set the parking break, the girls were up and out of the truck at a run. Frohike found Margaret and the girls still exchanging greetings when he walked up the hill to where they were waiting. 

The north end of the market, where they went in, was filled with crafts people and their wares. The group looked at photographs of the Seattle skyline, jewelry, t-shirts featuring the Pike Place Market logo, kids clothes, hand carved items, sand filled toy lizards, hand made beads, pottery and more jewelry. 

Frohike was a little worried at first about keeping track of the girls in the gathering crowd of shoppers but after a couple of reminders they didn't stray too far ahead. As they got deeper into the Market, more and more permanent shops could be found: green grocers, bakeries, butchers and shops that specialized in imported food. 

At one point, Frohike lost sight of the girls and became concerned. Margaret said that she had seen them turn the corner at one of the butcher shops. When the two adults caught up with them, they found the girls deep in discussion over something they saw in one of the display cases. When Emma spotted her dad, she called out to him, "Dad, come here." Once he was close enough, Emma pointed to a meat selection in the refrigerated case. "What is that?"

Frohike checked to see what she was talking about. The sign said, "Rocky Mountain Oysters" but they were definitely not seafood. They were vaguely kidney shaped but not kidneys and nestled in with several other beef selections. He read the sign again strongly suspecting what they were. He looked over at Margaret who was trying unsuccessfully to hide a smile. She gave him a slight nod and bit her lip in an effort not to laugh. 

"Ah … I don't know what they are, honey," he finally said.

Emma then turned to Margaret. "Do you know what they are?"

Margaret managed a wide-eyed innocent look. "No, I have no idea. But, hey, look, there's the flying fish guys!" She pointed down the aisle to the fish vendors who had become quite well known for the way the out-front guys would throw the fish to the people behind the counter to weigh and package them. They put on quite a show. 

Once the girls had run off to see the flying fish, Margaret couldn't keep from laughing any longer. Frohike watched her in amusement saying, "Are Rocky Mountain Oysters what I think they are?"

"Yup. They're bull's balls."


After ten minutes or so of watching fish fly, Margaret enticed the kids away with a promise of miniature donuts still warm from the fryer. The donut making machine was right up front behind glass so the girls could watch them cooking. Margaret bought a couple of dozen of the little donuts. She gave one bag to the girls and kept the other for Frohike and herself. The girls ended up eating most of those, too, while waiting for the adults to come out of the Market Spice Tea store. 

Frohike found some herb tea that he thought Byers would like and bought a half-pound to bring home. Margaret bought the same amount of Market Spice Tea and insisted that he needed to bring that one home, too.

Next they visited The Great Wind-Up. It was a tiny shop situated high up in a corner of the Market. It was filled with hundreds of wind-up toys of all sizes and descriptions. There were samples of all the toys available for customers to try out before buying. Rachel, Megan and Emma stood at the table and tried to get all of them moving at once. Finding that this was impossible, they gave up before they had to be told to knock it off. Frohike had each of them choose one toy to take home. He got one for Ian, too. Megan assured Frohike that Ian would love the car that exploded into a dozen pieces when it crashed into something.

They then explored the southern reaches of the market where, as Rachel put it, they had real stores with doors that lock. 

After another hour or so of wandering around, the five of them went to look for a place to have lunch. They managed to find seats at a diner overlooking the waterfront. 

After eating, they retraced their path through the market making purchases that they hadn't wanted to carry around all day. Margaret got fresh salmon to take to her parents for dinner. She also bought some sausage for the non-fish eaters. At the bakery, she bought fresh bread to go with the meal and broccoli at one of the green grocers. 

Frohike bought fresh flowers for Rosalie. They were so inexpensive he bought two big bunches. The girls took turns carrying them through the early afternoon crowd. Margaret feigned shock and disbelief that none of them wanted to carry the broccoli.


* * * * * * * *


An insistent noise woke Langly. In his half conscious state, he realized that the noise had been going on for sometime and it had just taken a while to get though to his hung over, exhausted brain. After three days of nearly nonstop gaming, drinking, eating and general foolishness, he had finally thrown everyone out and dropped into his own bed to try to recuperate a little before cleaning up the huge mess his buddies left. 

He looked at the clock. It was 4:17 PM. He had gotten nearly 13 hours of sleep but he still had to fight the urge to ignore the noise and drop back into blissful slumber. Groaning, he sat up and rubbed his weary eyes. He looked around for his glasses. Fortunately, he had taken them off and put them in their customary place on the night table. 

He stood up, a little unsteady on his feet, and put on a robe. This had become a habit since the brat had come to live with them. He took a few uncertain steps outside his room. He looked around for the source of the noise. It was coming from downstairs. He headed in that direction detouring around empty pizza boxes, half full pop cans, scattered potato chips and more beer bottles than Langly cared to think about. 

The closer he got to the door at the top of the stairs the louder the noise got. He finally recognized it as the alert signal he'd programmed into several of their machines. He tried to think what he had left running or searching. Nothing came to mind. He wasn't working on anything because they were on their winter hiatus. 

Hang on. He'd set up that one computer months ago. It had been running since and had never hit on anything. Oh, please, not that one! 

He rushed down the stairs and ran through the workroom, his exhaustion and hang over forgotten. It was that machine. The one that he had set up to monitor the DC court systems for any mention of Emma, her mom and Frohike. He hit the key combination to shut off the alarm and checked the read out. A summons from the Washington, DC Family Court had been issued for Melvin Frohike to bring Emma MacKenzie to courtroom number 6 on February 15 at 10:30 AM. A mandatory DNA test had been ordered for Emma. Failure to comply would result in contempt of court charges and possible jail time. 

Langly grabbed a chair and pulled it over to sit in front of the computer. He wandered through the court records trying to find a way to override the summons but the report said it had already been printed out. There was also a note on the file stating that there was a possibility of computer tampering and that paper copies were to be kept of all summons, court dates, or anything else pertaining to the case. A court officer had been assigned to keep track of the information and maintain the hard files. 

Langly sensed Morris Fletcher's handiwork there. Damn it! There was nothing he could do about this. Even breaking into the courthouse and stealing the documents would do no good. He couldn't pull that off by himself anyway. 

Langly was dreading it but he had to call Frohike. 



Chapter 9

 


Frohike's cell phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and flipped it open. "Hello?"

"Frohike," Langly tried not to sound too frantic, "are you alone?"

Irritated but also apprehensive, Frohike said, "No. We're on the freeway. I've got all the girls in the car."

Emma was in the front seat next to her father. "It's a truck, Dad, not a car. Is that Langly? I want to talk to him." She reached for the phone. 

Frohike shook his head trying to listen to Langly. 

"Langly, what do you want?"

"I can't tell you if Emma is there. Call me when you're alone."

Knowing for sure that is was Langly on the line, Emma tried again to take the phone. "Come on, Dad, I want to talk to Langly."

Lowering the phone, Frohike barked at her. "Emma, stop it! I can't hear what he's saying."

Chagrinned, Emma sat back in her seat, leaving him alone. Frohike put the phone back to his ear. "Langly, just tell me what it is you have to say."

"No, call me back later. I'll be waiting." With that the line went dead. Frohike flipped the phone closed and stuffed it in his jacket pocket. He stared out at the road. Damn Langly! Why did he have to be so overly dramatic? Why couldn't he just say what was up? Frohike tried not to worry. There was nothing he could do about it until they got back to the house. And until then he needed to keep a clear head on his driving. He had three kids to deliver safely. 

He looked over at Emma. Her face was turned away from him and she had slid down in her seat. He reached over and patted her arm. "Sit up, honey." 

She did as she was told but still did not turn to look at him. Belatedly, Frohike realized he had spoken harshly to her and had done it in front of her friends. He turned to apologize. "I'm sorry, Emma. You didn't deserve to be yelled at. I was mad at Langly and took it out on you. That wasn't fair." He reached out to her again, this time taking her hand. 

She did look at him then. "I'm sorry, too. I was being a pest."

"Ah, no more than usual," he said, checking to make sure she knew he was teasing. She favored him with a lopsided grin. Yeah, she knew. 

"I just wanted to see if he was still mad at me," she said.

Frohike frowned. "I don't know what he wanted. I'm supposed to call him later."

"Why didn't he just tell you now?" Emma wondered.

"He said the connection was bad and to call him when I got back to the house," Frohike lied. 

"It must not be that important then if he can wait that long," 

Frohike nodded, secretly hoping she was right.


* * * * * * * *


While waiting for Frohike to call him back, Langly continued to rummage around in the Family Court's computer network searching for someway to undo what had been done. Something, anything would be better than sitting there feeling worthless. He'd thought he could protect them from this. His kung fu was the best. He was certain of it, no matter what Kimmy said. Kimmy knew one trick he didn't, and that was breaking into DOD files but overall, he could out-hack Kimmy any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

But he had not been able to prevent this. Foolishly, he had not taken into account Morris Fletcher's continued interference in their lives. It had to be Fletcher who warned William Bayne that the Gunmen could hack into the computer system at the courthouse and alter or delete information. Bayne would never have discovered this on his own. They were too good at covering their tracks. It would have taken someone who had been on the inside to know this and Fletcher had experienced first hand what the Gunmen were capable of.

What the hell was taking Frohike so long? 

Langly couldn't sit in one place any longer. He got up and started pacing around. He considered going to take a shower but there was no phone in the bathroom. Why the hell didn't they have a phone in the bathroom? 

He sat down at a different computer and tried to work on something else. That lasted less than 30 seconds before he was up and pacing again. He checked the phone for a dial tone. Yup. He checked all the lines. They all had dial tones. He set the receiver back down and pulled up a chair next to the phone. He stared at it willing it to ring. When it did, he jumped nearly tipping out of his chair. He snatched up the handset. 

"Frohike?"


* * * * * * * *


Margaret stood at the kitchen window and watched Frohike wander around in her parent's backyard. He had gone out there to make a call but he'd been off the phone for a while and he hadn't come back in yet. Something was wrong. She wanted to help but wasn't sure how such an offer would be received. 


But she would never know if she didn't ask. Grabbing a sweater against the cold, she went outside. 


* * * * * * * *


Margaret dropped her keys on the doorstep. She glanced back at the car where Frohike and Emma were unloading their luggage. Frohike had told Margaret everything and when she offered her assistance, he readily accepted it. To protect them, they lied to Margaret's parents and to Emma.

Finally finding the right key, Margaret unlocked the front door. She stepped inside and turned off the porch light and the one in the entryway. Then she walked through the living room and shut all the shades. These were probably unnecessary precautions but they couldn't hurt. As an afterthought, she hit the wall switch to turn on the Christmas tree. 

She returned to the front door and opened it again. Emma was waiting at the top of the stairs and Frohike was bringing up the rear with both their bags. Margaret met him halfway, taking one of the bags from him. Turning to head back into the house, she found Emma in the way. "Go on inside, Emma. It's okay."

The Christmas tree cast enough light in the darkened house for Emma to see where she was going. She got out of the way to let her dad and Margaret bring the luggage in far enough to shut the door. Emma squealed in fear as something large and furry rushed up to her and jumped too close to her face. "Off!" Margaret yelled at her dog. The animal left Emma alone and ran to search for a toy. Finding a stuffed squirrel, he snatched it up off the floor and took it to Frohike once again jumping up to be noticed. "Off!" Margaret repeated grabbing the golden retriever's collar this time. "He won't hurt you. He's just excited to have company. " 

"His name wouldn't be Jimmy would it?" Frohike asked reaching out to pet the eager dog. 

"No, it's Riley," Margaret said. 

Getting over her initial shock, Emma came over to pet the dog. She bent down so he could lick her face. Looking around, Emma picked up a furry soccer ball and threw it across the room. The dog, who had picked up the toy squirrel again, just looked at the ball then back at Emma. "He doesn't fetch but he does like to be chased," Margaret explained. "Try to grab the squirrel and see what happens."

Frohike watched Emma and the dog play for about a minute before turning to see where Margaret had gone. He found her in the kitchen making a pot of coffee. "Thank you for doing this for us," Frohike said knowing Emma couldn't hear. 

"You're welcome," Margaret said pouring the water in the coffee maker. "I just hope it's the right thing."

"As I said, I can't see that I have any other choice."

Margaret didn't argue with him. She figured it was pointless and at least this way her parents wouldn't be involved. "Moon should be here in an hour." Margaret listened for a second to make sure that Emma and the dog were making too much noise to overhear the conversation. "Did you want to tell Emma now or later?"

"I'll tell her tomorrow."

The story they had spread around was that Byers had called and invited Frohike and Emma to spend New Year's Eve in Canada. There was something he wanted Frohike to see, a story Byers thought would be worth writing. Emma agreed to go so she could meet Erynn again. Margaret added to the lie by saying that she would drive them up to Vancouver. 


With Emma tucked in for the night and the dog curled up beside her, Frohike and Margaret sat down to wait for Margaret's friend, Moon, to arrive. Margaret set up a laptop computer to give Frohike internet access to do a bit of research. 

When she heard a soft rapping on the front, Margaret hurried to open it. After a quick hug hello, she led Moon into the dining room where Frohike sat still working on the computer. He stood up to be introduced. While the two men shook hands, Margaret noted that they were very much alike in height, appearance and, from what she had gotten to know of Frohike, general temperament. They could pass as brothers. 

Moon set his case on the table and the two men began to discuss what needed to be done. "What travel plans have you made?" Moon asked Frohike.

"I looked at the train schedules," Frohike said bringing them up on the screen. "It would take nearly 5 days to get there on the train and I would have to get a sleeper car."

Margaret broke in. "How much is it?"

"Nearly $1000 for the two of us." 

"How much would it be for coach?" Moon said coming around to see the fare schedule on the screen. 

Frohike pointed to the spot that showed the appropriate price listing. "It would be about a third of that but I can't take the chance of having Emma out in the open for that long. If someone starts searching for us, they're sure to check all modes of transportation out of the Seattle area. After looking at her for 5 days, someone would recognize her from a photograph. That's why I'd need a sleeper. But even with that, it would be torturous to keep her cooped up for that long."

Frohike typed in the address for a different website. "To go by air would be about $600 but that would mean changing planes in New York. That's too close to DC for comfort."

Moon pointed to another possible route. "How about this one? For $100 more you change planes in LA and would reach your final destination early in the morning. You'd be in the air all night though."

"That's not a bad idea. Emma would sleep," Frohike noted.

Moon turned to Margaret. "Did you get a chance to talk to Amy?"

"Yes, but only briefly," Margaret acknowledged. "She is willing to pick them up where ever and whenever they come in. I have to call her back in the morning when we have a definite plan."

Moon looked back at Frohike. "What do you want to do?"

"Flying is not my first choice because of all the security cameras at the airports, but the train and the bus will just take too long." He thought about it for a few more seconds and saw that he really had no other choice. "We'll take the overnight flight with the stopover in LA."

Moon set the case he'd brought with him on the table. Opening it, he pulled out a camera. He glanced around the room to locate a blank wall. "Stand over there," he said pointing to a wall in the living room. Frohike stood in the indicated spot. Moon snapped a couple of face shots. He brought them up on the camera's display for Margaret's approval. 

"How about the second one?" Margaret suggested. "It looks driver's license awful." Pulling more equipment out of his case, Moon soon had two nicely laminated, fake driver's licenses. He handed them to Frohike who studied them carefully. 

"Which one is the long term ID?" Frohike asked. 

Moon pointed to the license in Fro's right hand. "That one. The other one will get you through the airports. Destroy it when you reach your final destination." Frohike placed the travel ID in his wallet. He looked closely at the other one.

"Tom Braidwood? Where did you get the name?" 

"He's some guy in Canada with no criminal record, a decent credit history and a respectable work resume," Moon replied. He handed Frohike a manila envelope. Frohike opened it up and pulled out a sheaf of papers. Everything Moon mentioned was there along with credit cards, a Costco card, a triple A card and a few other general types of ID people are apt to carry in their wallets. There was also a new birth certificate for Emma listing her name as Anne Braidwood. There was even a school portfolio showing records from six different schools Anne Braidwood had supposedly attended. 

Flipping through the papers a second time, Frohike realized what a professional job Moon had done on giving him a new identity on such short notice. "Thank you, Moon. I couldn't have done better myself. What do I owe you?"

"Nothing," Moon said repacking his equipment. "I've heard enough about you to know you've helped others in similar situations. Today it's your turn."

"If there's anything I can ever do for you, just let me know. You'll be one of the few people who'll be able to find us."

Moon smiled. "I just may take you up on that some day. But now I must go. My dear lady awaits my return." He shook Frohike's hand again. "Take care of yourself and the little girl. Good luck." Giving Margaret another quick hug, he left. 

Frohike returned to the computer and ordered the plane tickets using his travel identity. Margaret sat at the table watching him. "Did you want to try changing Emma's appearance?" she asked. 

"Since we'll be flying, it's probably a good idea. Nothing drastic but enough that she won't be so readily recognizable."

"How about her hair?" Margaret suggested. "Cut it. Maybe color it?"

"I'll let her decide. It may help her get used to the idea." Frohike had been mulling over the best way to tell Emma everything he'd been hiding from her for the last few months. "No matter how hard I try to make it sound like an adventure, her whole life is about to be turned upside down…again." 

Margaret decided to try one more time to change his mind. "And you're not willing to wait and see if the DNA test comes out in your favor."

"This man, Morris Fletcher, would have left nothing to chance. I'm sure he has Bill Bayne convinced that the test will show that Emma is his daughter. Otherwise why would Bayne even try?"

"There's nothing you can do to make the court believe the test might not be valid?"

"From what Langly found, it sounds like Bill has the court officers convinced that I am the one to watch out for, that he is the victim in this situation and that I've stolen his child."

"But the judge and the court are supposed to remain impartial," Margaret insisted.

"Yes, they are but I've investigated enough courtroom corruption to know that it is rampant and I not willing to take the chance on a faulty system." Frohike ended the conversation by concentrating once again on the computer screen. 

Sensing that she had been dismissed, Margaret left Frohike to his preparations and went to check on Emma. Silently opening the door, Margaret peeked into the room. The light from the hallway lit enough of the bed for her to see Emma's sleeping form. Riley raised his head to see who had disturbed his slumber. His tail thumped the bed twice before he put his head back down and closed his eyes. 

Standing in the doorway for a few more seconds, Margaret tried to decide how Michelle would have handled this. Margaret knew Michelle wanted Emma to be with Frohike but to live as a fugitive separated from the life that Michelle had so carefully arranged for her? It just wasn't right but she knew at this point there was nothing she could do about it. She had tried more than once that day to talk Frohike out of it. Failing that, she had at least ensured that she would be able to find them again if need be. Sending them to Amy in Florida would guarantee that.


Frohike heard the front door open and close again. Figuring Margaret had gone back outside to the car, he didn't turn to look until he heard an unfamiliar voice. "Hello? You must be a friend of Margaret's."

Startled he stood up from the table. "Yes I am. My name is Melvin Frohike."

"Oh, she told me about you," the woman said setting the bag she was carrying on the counter. "But she didn't tell me you'd be here tonight."

"It was a last minute decision."

Hearing voices, Margaret came downstairs. "Mary Ann, I thought you wouldn't be back until tomorrow."

"Sam got sick so we came back early."

"Sam is her nephew," Margaret explained to Frohike. "What's wrong with him?" she asked Mary Ann.

"Probably just an ear infection. They're going to take him to the doctor tomorrow." Mary Ann said scanning the kitchen and the dining room. "Where's Riley?" 

Margaret laughed. "He's tucked in with Emma. You've been replaced in his affections." 

As if on cue, the dog came in to greet his favorite human.


* * * * * * * *


Frohike had been talking to Emma in private for over an hour. Margaret didn't envy him the task. She walked past the room they were holed up in every now and then to see if there was anything she could do. But the door remained shut and she resisted the temptation to put her ear to it. 

In the mean time, Margaret decided to call Amy to give her all the details. The previous evening, Amy had kindly agreed to take Emma and Frohike in with only Margaret's assurances that they needed help. 


"But your friend Michele told you he was Emma's father?" Amy asked after hearing the whole story.

"Yes. She talked about him more than once," Margaret explained. "And he's sure these men will do whatever it takes to get Emma away from him."

"All right," Amy said, "I've got plenty of space here for them. What time will they be arriving?"

"At 6:30 tomorrow morning if the flights are on time."

"How many flights do they have to take?" Amy asked.

"Just two. They leave here at 6 PM tonight and have a two hour layover in LA."

"That's over 12 hours. They're going to be exhausted." Amy was silent for a moment, considering her options. "Should I pick them up at the airport?"

Frohike and Margaret had discussed this. "No, it would be better for them to leave the airport in a taxi. We just need to pick a meeting place away from the airport."

"The mall might work," Amy suggested. "There would be a lot of people there. They could get lost in the crowd."

"That sounds about right."

"Oh, wait! That would be New Year's Day. I'm sure they won't open on time."

"I'll talk to Mel and see what he wants to do," Margaret said. "The mall would be a good spot though."

"Call me back when you find out."


* * * * * * * *



"Byers, I'm not asking for your permission or even your advice," Frohike said. "I just wanted you to hear it from me and not from Blondie."

He desperately wanted to do something to stop Frohike, but all Byers could think of was making sure that Frohike had thought it through. "What about money?" Byers asked. "What are you going to do about money?" 

"I got Langly to wire me nearly $10,000," Frohike explained. "It's the last thing I did under my own name."

Byers hung his head. Langly was a fool to help, almost as big a fool as Frohike. "What name will you be using after this?" 

"You know I can't tell you that, Byers. I don't want to be found."

Trying another track, Byers asked, "But what about Emma's school? You can't just yank her out of school like this."

"That's one favor I wanted to ask of you. Will you call the school and say that we've enrolled her in a public school?"

"Frohike, they're going to want to know which one so they can send transcripts."

"Just tell them that the new junior high will send a request for the records. It'll buy us time to get well and truly lost."

"Frohike, please reconsider," Byers begged. "We can fight this."

"I'm sorry, buddy, but I'm taking no chances. Morris Fletcher nearly ruined our lives before. I'm not going to give him another opportunity."

"But don't you see, Mel," Byers fought to keep his emotions under control, "by doing this, he will win. He will have destroyed our lives."

"I gotta go, Byers. Our ride is here to take us to the train. Take care of yourself and the other guys. I'll try to get in touch with you when I think it's safe."

"Frohike, wait!" Byers yelled into the phone. "At least tell me you're keeping this phone so I can contact you in an emergency."

"I'm throwing it out as soon as I hang up. I gotta go. Goodbye." The line went dead. 

"Frohike!" Suspecting it was useless, Byers quickly dialed Fro's cell phone. When it went immediately to the voice mail message, Byers flipped his cell phone closed in disgust. He set it on the table and sat with his head in his hands.