Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from the CBS show Jericho. All OFCs are mine though. I do not earn anything from writing these stories, in fact the only thing you might get if you sue me would be my four troublesome kids and they are only worth something to me.
Warnings: Some bad language and a little strong imagery.
Timeline: 200X1129 (Bombs 60)
Feedback : Please! I love it, the more detailed the better so i can work out what parts to kick in the head and what parts to keep
Summary: Riss is reunited with her kids and other things.
Chapter 4
Morning broke in the town of Jericho to reveal the clouds breaking up and moving away, showing a bright blue sky underneath.
Over at the Green house everyone had been up and moving around for hours. April was putting the finishing touches on her hair in the bathroom and Eric was making his way downstairs to get some coffee before he headed off to Town Hall. Johnston was already there, he had left early this morning after talking with Gail at length, to try and sort out some more proposals for the refugees before they had to deal with Gray, who was the proverbial thorn in their side, later on in the day.
Eric walked into the kitchen where Gail was putting food on a plate and loading things into a basket.
"Good Morning mom."
Gail turned around, saw her son and gave him a warm smile.
"Hey Eric... Sleep well honey?" She looked at him, noting the dark circles under his eyes, and silently thinking that she should be pushing both him and Johnston to get more sleep. As well as Jake.
'Not that any of the three of them would listen to me for a second.' Gail thought with a chuckle to herself.
"Yeah, I didn't sleep too badly. Where are you off to with food so early in the morning? Where's Jake? We need him at town hall today to help us deal with Gray." Eric so wasn't looking forwards to that particular battle. He sighed in resignation at the fact that Gray seemed to fight them over what was good for the town, no matter what the right thing to do was.
Gail laughed at her son, the questions falling out one after the other, reminding her of when he used to do the same as a child.
"One question at a time, Eric…" She regarded him with a smile. "I'm off to the clinic to take breakfast to the girl that we took there last night and her kids. As for Jake, I left him sitting with her in the early hours of this morning." Gail took the look of surprise on Eric's face in her stride.
"Huh?" Eric was mildly shocked to say the least. It didn't seem like Jake to do that sort of thing.
"We had to do something. Riss was very restless and upset about her kids last night, and of course being the middle of the night there were no volunteers in until this morning. Jake and I decided to split the night between us." Gail spoke matter of factly.
"Oh well, just make sure he gets into town hall this morning as soon as you can spare him." Eric chuckled. "We need him for backup."
Gail made a face at the thought of anyone dealing with Gray; it wasn't high on her list of priorities at any time.
"Ok mom, I'm off." Eric drained the last of his cup of coffee and put the cup in the sink. He gave his mom a quick kiss on the head as he grabbed his jacket and headed off out the door.
"See you later!" Gail finished putting the food in the basket and went to tell April that she was leaving for the clinic.
At town hall Eric arrived in the mayor's office to the familiar sound of Johnston Green and Gray Anderson arguing over what should be done about the refugees. Somehow even though he wasn't expecting to have to deal with Gray this early in the morning, he wasn't surprised that he was already in there arguing with his dad.
"We can't just turn them out on the street Gray! What are you expecting us to do? Send them off on the migration trail like they never arrived here? What about the girl and her three children that are in the clinic at the moment? Could you condemn those innocent children to die?" Johnston was more worked up with Gray than he had been over anything in a long while.
"What do you suggest we do? We have barely enough supplies to feed ourselves over the winter let alone another 50 people. I agree with the sentiment you are expressing here, but seriously, are you going to let our children and grandchildren starve just so someone else's child can live?" Gray looked incredulously at Johnston.
They both stopped and stared at Eric like he had come from another planet and he felt a little uneasy at the looks that both were giving him.
Gray started first. "Eric, talk some sense into this father of yours. I don't see why he can't see what a hard position this town is in already and how the hell he plans to support these refugees!" The accompanying look with this directed towards Eric only made him surer that Gray expected him to go against his father and agree with the would-be mayor.
"Gray." Eric started hesitantly. "Honestly, did you actually look at any of these people? They could be our neighbors, the people we haven't seen since the bombs dropped. I would hope that whatever town our own people had stumbled into that they are treating them better than you obviously want to treat these people!" He finished talking and sat down in a chair, running a hand over his face, wondering exactly what Gray wanted of him.
Johnston just stood there, the emotion radiating off him in waves. Anger directed at Gray who was obviously expecting him to condemn these people to death, fear for the people he had known all his life, who weren't safe in the boundaries of Jericho at the moment and hope for a future for these poor people that had walked so far to get to food, shelter and water. All of this was running through his head at once, and Johnston knew that there was no way he could throw these people literally out into the cold.
"I'm sorry Gray, but despite the discussion, you know that as mayor of this town, my word is ultimately the final one. I cannot and will not let myself be swayed by you or anyone else that says we cannot take care of these people and our own at the same time. There are crops that will need to be harvested if we can get them planted, and farms that are going to need tending come springtime." Johnston paused to take a breath before he dropped the next piece of his speech onto Gray. "And I expect these refugees that have come in here to be able to help with that. I know they will be able to give something back to Jericho then, when we need them." Johnston shut his mouth with a determined stare at Gray, who looked like his brain was going to fry with all the work that it was doing.
Resisting the unexplainable urge he had to clap for his father after delivering that speech, Eric just sat there, waiting for Gray to deliver his next line of doom. But it seemed the subject was closed for the moment, as Gray backed out the door, and disappeared to his office on the other side of the corridor. Eric was sure that wasn't the last they had heard on the matter though, just the last they had heard for the moment.
Johnston sat in his chair and sighed. He wasn't feeling as good as he could be this morning, hadn't been for the last week or so if the truth be known, and he had a feeling that it had more to do with the constant challenging of his position by Gray Anderson that he dealt with on any given day, rather than a medical reason.
His voice took shape in the quiet of the office. "Tell me I'm doing the right thing Eric. Tell me that I am doing the right thing supporting these people as well as I would our own." Johnston suddenly stopped.
Then he started talking again.
"No, Eric, don't tell me. Actually, I'm damn sure I'm doing the right thing by these people. It's just Gray keeps on putting these stupid doubts in my head when I know very well that I shouldn't try to second guess myself." Johnston was aware he was basically talking to himself, that he couldn't expect Eric to answer something like this, but he needed to hear the words out loud to reassure himself if nothing else.
"You know what your mother has planned, son? " He looked at Eric expectantly.
"No dad, I have no idea, but knowing mom, it's something big and involves adopting something or someone." Eric allowed himself a small smile at this.
His dad and mom over the years had been adopting everything and everyone they found without a home or family. Mostly his mom though, his dad just seemed to go along with it. Including April, who he would never have gotten as close to as he had if it weren't for his mother insisting she meet the school bus outside their house every morning, to escape from waiting for it in front of her own house where her mostly-drugged mother didn't drag herself out of bed every morning till about 11am.
Eric was still glad for the turn of events that had allowed Gail to invite April to live with them when she was 16 and thinking about continuing on with school in spite of her mother's wishes that she just take a job at Gracie Leigh's supermarket so her mom could spend more money on drugs. He and April had been inseparable since then, and even when April was off finishing her doctors training in Rogue River one or the other of them used to drive the couple of hours each way just to be able to spend the night and days off together.
Shaking himself mentally Eric dragged himself back to the here and now and started actually listening to his father.
"Your mother got me up extra early to talk to me this morning. She has this idea that because we don't use the rooms underneath the house at the back that they could be turned into a temporary flat for the young woman that is at the medical clinic with her children at the moment. Of course I agreed, what else could I do?" Johnston looked a little concerned with the fact that he had given into his wife so easily once again, but his consternation broke into a grin when he thought about how excited Gail was at having the children living there.
Eric just laughed. "Sounds like mom! I was sure it would involve us taking someone in, somewhere along the line. Has she given you plans on how you should billet out the rest of the refugees yet? "
Eric laughed again at the thought that Gail probably had been running everything behind the scenes again. As usual, it was just something she did without thinking. Organizing people and helping them find homes was one of her happier pastimes. Gail often did it for animals too, and people had learnt to come to Gail if they wanted someone, or something, rehomed.
Johnston chuckled. "Yup, she has told me exactly how many people I need to put where, and who with. Seriously, I didn't think she had enough time to even figure out how many people arrived last night, let alone where they should be going when they are billeted out! The quickness of your mother never fails to amuse and amaze me son. I don't think I'm ever going to get used to it!" Johnston and Eric both dissolved into laughter at this comment.
Johnston continued suddenly sounding more serious. "But it all depends really on who wants to take in the refugees. Gail gave me a good idea of who would take some in, and who wouldn't, but we need to call a town meeting to decide and get votes from Jericho none the less." He groaned inwardly at the thought of mixing the community with Gray and giving him a chance to speak.
Eric voiced Johnston's concerns for him. "We really need to make sure that the town isn't swayed by Gray's point of view though, that could be disastrous to the end results."
Johnston nodded in agreement. "Some planning in is order I think."
Eric nodded and the two of them started fleshing out a plan to keep the community on their side.
Over at the clinic the patients that could move about were up and trying to complete morning routines without too much fuss. Riss was hobbling towards the bathroom at an extremely slow pace when a little voice came around the corner of the doorway attached to the barreling body of a toddler.
"Mummy! My mummy!"
Tears started to rise in Riss's eyes as she turned around to see her three angels at the door. Gail had managed to fit Jessica and Emaly into a wheelchair, and the little voice had come from Dominic, who had wriggled free of his sisters lap where she was holding him and ran to Riss who was already holding up her arms in welcome.
"Dommie! My baby boy. " Riss didn't bother to hide her tears after that. She hobbled over to the wheelchair in the doorway and was met by Gail pushing it into the middle of the room. Riss just reached out and grabbed the two girls, holding them close to her.
Gail and Jake shared a look which spoke volumes… Jake wasn't surprised at all that his mother had come to the room bearing the children this morning; he had either expected that to happen or for her to take Riss to them…
"Oh my goodness, my angel babies. Mummy missed you so so much." Riss bent down and sat on the floor with Dom crawling into the middle of her lap and the girls finding their way onto each knee.
"How are you both? Are you ok?" Riss asked Jessica and Emaly the question that she had wanted to ask them since she woke up the night before.
Jessica was the first to answer, and the only one, as she usually spoke for her sister anyway. "I'm fine mum, Em and I are both fine. Very sore though." Jessica's face screwed up for a moment as she shifted on her mother's lap. "But Dr Ken… Kenchy… was really nice to us and Jessica was helping him too. You know I like Jessica. She's so funny!"
Riss just looked at Gail in gratitude. "Thank you so much for bringing my babies to me. I missed them too much. " Her voice cracked as she spoke. "I'm not sure what I would do without them, most days they are the sunshine to me."
Gail just looked at Riss in silent understanding, knowing exactly what it cost her as a mother to watch her sons leave every day for their lives. How much it tore at her heart every time Jake drove away, not knowing if he would come back. Gail looked at Jake again, searching every line in his face, silently thanking God that he had been back near town when the bombs hit. Knowing how hard it would have been for her if he had've been anywhere but Jericho, Gail quite often sent up a silent prayer of thanks for letting her have her family close in this time when nothing was certain.
Jake stepped towards Riss.
"C'mon girl, let's get you up off that floor and onto the bed with these kiddies." He put one of Riss's arms around his shoulders and Jessica inserted herself under the other side of her mother's arms, knowing instinctively that she needed to help her mom to the bed.
Once the kids and Riss were settled on the hospital bed Gail turned to Jake.
"I'm supposed to tell you to go down to Town Hall Jake, your father and Eric are already down there. They wanted your help in dealing with Gray I believe. " Gail gave her son a look which he read as being that she wanted time with Riss too.
"Ok. I'm gonna leave you ladies to your bonding session." Jake looked at his mom and then Riss before he started to walk out of the room.
"Hold on. Jake?" Riss spoke, her voice still awash with the emotion that came from having her children safe in her arms.
Jake turned around to look at Riss expectantly.
"Thank you. For staying with me last night and trying to protect me from myself. "
Riss gave a wry laugh. "Even if I didn't need it."
"Don't worry about it. All part of the service." He gave her a slightly rakish smile, taking in the sight of her with the children once again, and headed out the door. He could hear Gail and Riss already talking as he shut the door behind him. Jake was just happy to hear her voice sounding so much more alive, so much happier. He tucked the memory away to keep him going through the day ahead and continued walking out the exit, heading to Town Hall.
