Integration
Chapter1
by Abby
There were certain things that a person simply can't prepare themselves for. No matter what they do, no matter how hard they try, no amount of preparation can check the emotions or the rage that course through them.
It was raining... drizzling as the dark box made its way down into the ground.
He didn't want to believe this was real, but here it was playing out in front of him. Her parents from Arizona. Her twin sister and her husband from England. Bill, Karen, Marcus, Tony, Michelle and the baby (Dinah), Edgar, Kim, Chloe's handler, the Kessler women, Chase and seven-year-old Angela... the little girl had taken her teddy bear and placed it atop the casket before it was lowered.
Angela was old enough to understand now. Her mama was now with her 'uncle' Ross Kessler in a better place, she's been told. She understood that, but she wanted her mama... Her 'Aunt' Melanie looked just like Mama C, but it wasn't her, and looking at her mother-figure's sister just caused her to cry more.
Maggie held the shoulders of her younger sisters next to her mother, standing behind the girls, next to Chase and Angela...
It was a small service. Her parents and sister had said that would have been what she wanted. There wasn't a dry eye among them... how did you even fathom a parent seeing their child burried before her elders?
Jack didn't want to be here. It made it too real. He'd seen the crash. He'd seen the car fire. And he'd done nothing to help! While he drove, she'd died.
Bill had told him that, given Jack's timeline, there was nothing that Jack could have done. She'd already been pronounced at the scene well before he'd passed...
His attempt to convey his condolences to Chloe's sister Melanie Timmons had resulted in a sharp slap across his face and her storming off, breaking down once again, telling him that he had no idea how she felt and he never could. Her husband, Mark, had followed his wife away from the burial plot, where she cried into his arms.
The group eventually began breaking up and Kimberly tried to pull her father away from the graveside. Allowing himself to be led away, he didn't leave the cemetary, instead walking a bit.
There were some things that he would give almost anything for... His daughter, his friends, and Chloe. Right now he'd give almost anything to see her again and just hold her.
His feet had brought him to the same spot he'd sat almost two years ago: Ross Kessler's grave. But his eyes must have been playing tricks on him...
Standing there was a woman with dark hair. She was slender, shorter than him and wore sunglasses, even though he couldn't see her face. There was a distinct smell of jasmine in the air... He blinked a few times, but opening his eyes up the last time, the woman was gone and in her place there was a bouquet of fresh yellow roses.
He eyed the flowers as he sat on the bench opposite the grave. He'd come here several times in the past several months. He hadn't known the man well, but something drew him to this spot... rather unusual, but maybe it was that he felt he had someone to answer to...
"I'm sorry, Ross." he said to no one in particular. "There was nothing I could do..."
The woman waited for the attendees to depart before coming out of her hiding place and removing her sunglasses.
"Melanie, did you have to hit him?" she asked, ignoring the contingent of people remaining around the plot.
"You said act natural," Melanie Timmons told her sister with a nonchallant shrug. "And to tell you the truth, it felt good."
She shook her head at her sister's aggressive nature. In truth she was being a hypocrite. She herself had the same thing. Perhaps it was a twin thing... She made sure not to make any mention to the fact that he'd almost seen her only several minutes before...
Looking from her sister to her parents, she hugged her mother and father, knowing this would be the last time she saw them for some time.
Everyone understood.
Those still in attendance, Bill Buchanan, Maggie Kessler, her handler, her parents, sister and brother-in-law, and little Angela, who was "staying for a few more minutes with Grandpa Bill to say goodbye" knew that this was serious. The seven-year-old had been told that she couldn't tell a soul or her mama might get hurt... growing up around super-spies, the little girl understood how information could be dangerous. She hated to keep things from her daddy, but Grandpa Bill had told her that it was okay for this once, because it was helping Mama C.
"I'll miss you baby girl."
Angela clung to her mama, not wanting to let her go. Not let her walk away again. The only thing that she took solice in was the fact that she knew her Mama C would always come back for her... for her and her daddy and her Uncle Jack... She'd said it herself, Mama C had, so it had to be true. Mama C didn't lie. Not to her...
The dar finally let the little girl go and looked at the group sadly with a small nod before hugging or kissing each of them and then putting back on her sunglasses as well as a hat...
And she was dead...