Buried Emotions

Disclaimer - See Chapter One because I am still liking that one.


Chapter 4

Early May (so about four and a half months later)

Kate Tracy laughed even as she completed a report. The report wasn't fun but her father's story about the latest antics of her niece (courtesy of her brother, Danny) was hilarious.

"She didn't?" Kate chuckled.

"What can I say?" Don Eppes laughed. "She's a handful – just like her auntie."

"Oh? I didn't know Amelia had a sister," Kate teased.

"So – are you still going to be in Kansas next month?"

"Yes, Dad," Kate said before calling "enter" to a knock on her door. "And Alan and Tin-Tin are planning on their wedding in Bailey. The church where Jeff and Lucy were married has been renovated and Alan thought it would be great." Actually, Alan and Tin-Tin had wanted a family-only wedding on the north beach of the island, but had been talked into "something better". This was their compromise.

"Well, your mother and I are going to be in Kansas City the first weekend in June. David's daughter is getting married. I know you have meetings and are trying to help Alan since his wedding is only two weeks after that. So I thought your mom and I could take the boys for most of the weekend. You did say DJ is, um, he's"

"Yeah, Dad, I've stopped breastfeeding," Kate confirmed as she smiled, accepting a data pad from Julie Maxwell. The intern took it back once Kate had signed and moved to leave before Kate waved her back and towards a seat.

"Yes, that," Don groaned. He really didn't need to think about that and his baby girl. Frankly, Don would have liked to pretend his daughter was still an innocent virgin.

Forget that she was now thirty and the mother of two.

"I don't know, Dad," Kate hesitated. "You sure you and mom are up to that?"

"We raised you three just fine."

"Yes, Dad," Kate sighed. "And you were thirty years younger. OK, tell you what. Several of us are staying at a hotel on the edge of Bailey. I'll reserve a room for you close to us and that way if the terrible two start driving you nuts, you can toss them back."

"What happened to them being your little angels?"

"They spent too much time with Uncle Gordon," Kate muttered before saying her goodbyes to her father.

Kate turned to say something to Julie when a new voice was suddenly heard.

"Is someone taking my name in vain?

Both women turned to the door where Gordon Tracy was leaning against the frame.

"Gordon," Kate said in surprise, rising. "What are you doing here?"

Kate's surprise was genuine. She was fairly sure he wasn't dating anyone from this office.

At least not currently. And Gordon never liked re-runs.

Gordon held out a folder. "Dad asked me to run these over. Something about a client who is a real techno-phobe."

"Monsieur Devereux does not trust modern technology," Julie said primly. "He prefers what he can see and touch."

"Which is one reason why his business is in so much trouble and why Tracy Enterprises in negotiating a buy-out," Kate sighed. It was a good business and a valuable supplier for raw material in Europe but she tended to be a bit more cynical. If Jeff had been willing to wait a couple of more months, they could have negotiated a better price for the company. But Jeff held a more global community view than his daughter-in-law. He felt that buying now at a higher price would keep Devereux Textiles more respected and would pay off in the long run.

"And you are?" Gordon smoothly asked Julie.

"Late for her afternoon classes if she doesn't hurry," Kate said firmly.

Gordon snatched up Julie's hand as she passed by. "I can guess who you are – Julie Maxwell, the intern that Kate is already making sure she won't have to give up."

Julie blushed charmingly. "I am learning a great deal from Madame Tracy," Julie gushed with a slight French accent.

"Notice she is not learning to call me Kate," the other woman sighed before looking back over at Julie "I'll see you in the morning," Kate said firmly, countering an earlier comment of wanting Julie to come back after dinner to review some contracts.

She gave Julie a small nod when the intern looked at her strangely.

With a small sigh, Julie nodded in return. The college student was a huge fan of Gordon Tracy – well, of his swimming career.

When the door closed behind the intern, Gordon gave Kate an annoyed look. "What the hell was that about?"

"She's a good girl, Gordon," Kate said firmly. "The kind you marry not the kind you make a flavor of the week."

"She'd be good for at least a month," Gordon laughed before he saw the glare Kate was giving him.

"Do you know of her educational background?"

"Um," Gordon thought about a few conversations he had overheard since January. "Columbia, dual major of business and electronic science, now working on her masters."

"For college, yes," Kate admitted. "She will be twenty-one June 2nd. She started college at sixteen after ten years at a Convent School."

Gordon's eyes went wide. "I didn't think they still had those."

Kate shrugged. "They do in France. And now she either goes to school, comes here or swims."

"She swims?" Gordon asked in amazement.

Kate nodded. "It was, from what little she said, one reason her stepfather brought her back from France. He's Cedric Maxwell."

"The sports promoter?" Gordon asked.

"Her coach in France put her in some competitions. Maxwell wasn't about to think it looked good for his stepdaughter to be swimming for another country."

"Where does she swim?"

"Gordon!" Kate said sharply. "She is a good girl, back off."

Gordon looked like he wanted to say something before he stepped back. "Listen, where's Dad?"

Kate sat back down, gesturing upstairs.

"In the penthouse. I was supposed to join them for lunch. You can give my regrets – and bring me back a plate."

Gordon headed for the elevator, pressing a palm print to get access to the penthouse that was his family's New York home. He wondered briefly who was joining his father for lunch.

And he hoped his father had ordered out.


"Dad?" Alan called out. "What kind of dressing do you want for the salad?"

"Ranch is fine," Jeff replied from his bedroom.

Alan continued to set up the meal on the patio. It was such a perfect New York spring day…

Hearing the front door open, Alan turned with a smile. He had been hoping that Kate would join them for lunch…

"Gordon?" Alan asked in shock. "What are you doing here?"

"Gordon," Jeff sighed in relief as he entered the living room. "Do you have those files?"

"Right here, Dad," Gordon said, eyeing his younger brother oddly. "Sprout? What are you doing here? Don't you have classes?"

"Better research facilities," Jeff absently explained as he looked over the files. "Alan has permission from Harvard to do his testing for his engineering final project down here. It's ninety percent of his grade. And he is doing tele-classes this week."

"I have to video record most of the field testing for my professor as documentation but I finished this morning. And I don't have Friday classes this semester. Well, one lit class but that is the one where we have to complete an outline of a novel and certain other points as if selling a book."

"How is that one coming?" Jeff asked as he made some notes, setting everything up to call Mr. Devereux after lunch.

Alan shrugged, then gave a small smile. "I finished it by spring break. Not just an outline but a whole book. I showed it to John and he sent it to his publisher. I was going to wait until Father's Day, but…" Alan pulled out a book from his backpack on the couch.

Jeff took the book from his youngest son's hands with delight. "Allie! Your first book! That's fantastic, isn't it Gordon?"

Gordon was frozen for a minute before he smiled as well. "Yeah, Sprout. Amazing. Wow." Looking towards the table, he smiled more easily.

"So what's for lunch and how did you know I'd be here?"

Alan blushed slightly. "Actually, I hoped Kate would change her mind. But there's plenty…I better set aside a plate for Kate. She loves spaghetti carbonara."

Gordon inhaled deeply. "Smells awesome. Garlic bread, too?" he asked as he snagged a piece and took a bite. "Delish!"

"Thanks," Alan murmured.

Gordon looked confused before he asked, "Where did you order from?"

"Order?" Alan chuckled. "Nah, I made everything."

The chewing stopped suddenly as the bread lost all flavor in his mouth. Gordon eyed his younger brother. "You cook too? I mean, not just basics, but like this?"

Alan smiled. "Onaha taught me the basics. And if I wanted to stay in good shape, I learned to cook healthy a long time ago. Otherwise the dreaded Freshman Fifteen would be haunting me."

Jeff laughed as he locked up the reports and contracts. "Kate gets Alan to cook whenever he comes down here and freeze food for her so that she isn't as dependent on take out when she comes to New York."

"It's healthier, Dad," Alan laughed. "Not Kate being lazy."

"You say potato…"

As the three Tracy men sat down around the table, Gordon filled his plate and took a bite. "Wow. Great, little brother. Is there anything you can't do?"

Alan looked at Gordon in confusion while Jeff cast a warning look at his fourth son. Alan had accepted the half-hearted apology that Gordon had given him at Christmas, seeming to go with the old adage of "less said, soonest mended".

"How's the work going on the underwater retrieval system?" Alan asked between bites.

"Pretty well," Gordon admitted. "I think I worked out the kinks. Dad, will you have time to go over them?"

"I'll take a look later," Jeff said just as his phone rang. Standing up, he moved away from the table to answer it.

"Tracy. What?"

Looking over at Alan, Jeff paled slightly as he hung up.

"Allie, stay in the penthouse. Gordon – please, stay here with your brother. Family rules."

With that said, the frantic father ran out of the penthouse, leaving behind two confused sons. Gordon waved to Alan to continue eating, picking up on the rule…

Watch out for your brother.


David Sinclair sighed as he watched Kate Eppes Tracy frantically move about the office. Daria Delgado merely raised an eyebrow and tried not to laugh. She had warned AD Sinclair that Eppsie would freak out.

Just because the Assistant Director for the Midwest had known her since before she had been born - Literally.

"So was Director Eppes really as bad as Eppsie?" Daria asked casually.

"Don had his moments," David sighed again.

Before David could say anything, the door burst open and a frantic Jeff Tracy stormed in. Daria raised an eyebrow again as she looked him over and pushed down a grin. Damn, the man looked good for his age. Especially in those jeans and polo shirt, similar to what he had been wearing the first time Daria had met him.

Come to think of it, that had been about Alan as well.

"Mr. Tracy," David said firmly, standing up and holding out a hand to Jeff. "I'm Assistant Director David Sinclair of the FBI, we met at Scott and Kate's wedding."

Jeff turned and absently shook David's hand but before he could say anything Jeff spotted Daria.

"Agent Delgado," he sighed in relief. "Can you please tell me what is going on?"

"I'll tell you what is going on," Kate snapped. "They lost two dangerous criminals who are a threat to Alan!"

"We didn't lose them, Kate," David groaned.

"Are they in prison where they can't hurt Alan?" Kate yelled.

"They did manage to escape," David admitted.

"And you tell Dad when?" Kate growled.

David looked confused until Daria nudged him. "Father-in-law, not father," she whispered.

"Yes, well…"

"Three days ago, Dad?" Kate yelled. "Those sons-of-a-bitch have been on the loose for three days."

"Wait," Jeff said in confusion. "You said Kyle Westcott had escaped from prison."

"And Jack Mitchell," Daria admitted. "The prison system had reported that they had become friends. It was only after they had escaped that one of the snitches on their cell block revealed that they were brothers. The late Mrs. Westcott had buried a great deal about her first marriage – including the son she abandoned."

"Jack Mitchell never had a personal grudge against Alan," Jeff said, confusion plain in his voice.

"Until Westcott went to prison based on a case partially built by Alan," Kate grumbled. "Then Alan was at fault for everything that "poor baby" suffered."

"How did they escape?" Jeff asked.

"We are currently investigating that…" David started only to have Kate cut him off.

"Translation – they have no clue, which is why they didn't admit it for three freaking days!" Kate yelled.

"Kate," David tried to calm the woman only to have her go off again.

"No ! Alan has been walking around the city for days. DAYS. With no one keeping an eye on him."

"Kate," Daria said in a soothing tone. "Alan is twenty one years old, not twenty one months old. And it's my opinion that most of your family can handle themselves."

Kate glared at her friend. Yes, Daria knew about the other "family business" but David didn't…

"Against most people, yes," Kate said with false calmness. "But you are talking about a couple of killers here."

"Actually, as far as we know, Mitchell never killed anyone," David injected.

"But he had no problem standing by while others were hurt," Jeff said fiercely. "I was there when he let that monster touch my boy. He would have let him do a lot more, and not care a bit, just because Alan was my son. Now you are telling me that Westcott is his brother and apparently the only person he really cares about. And Westcott hates Alan – he wants him dead. Worse, he wants Alan to suffer as much as possible before he kills him."

"Would it be possible to get Alan to go back to the Island?" Daria asked.

A new voice suddenly entered the conversation.

"No, it wouldn't," Alan said firmly, entering the office from a side door – one that connected to an outer hallway, leading to the family's private residence.

Alan stood his ground while Gordon looked annoyed – and obviously still hungry as he ate another slice of garlic bread.

"I am weeks away from graduating from Harvard," Alan said firmly. "I have a major track meet next week – not for school, that's finished for the year. But this is a fundraiser for a project near and dear to my heart. I have a life and those two idiots are not taking it from me…in any fashion, Dad," Alan quickly added the end of his sentence when he saw Jeff was about to object out of fear that the two escaped criminals wanted to do that – take Alan's life.

"I won't go anywhere alone, I'll make sure my security system at the condo is always on-line and I'll keep the watch on me at all times," Alan assured his father.

"Watch?" David said in confusion.

The Tracys froze, having forgotten that there was someone in the room not in on the secret. Kate recovered first.

"The watches that the family is beta testing for Tracy Enterprises," Kate said with a smile. "Wrist communicators and personal security system combined." She pressed a small side button and the sound could be heard on the other watches.

"Cool," David grinned. "Just like Dick Tracy, huh?"

"Huh?" Gordon said in confusion. "We don't have any relatives named Dick, do we?"

Alan sighed. "C'mon, Nemo. I have a tiramisu upstairs. Come on up and I'll tell you all about Dick Tracy and how much better looking our clan is. Especially in noses. And better taste in clothes. And seriously, Dude – do you ever read anything except sports magazines?'

Gordon and Alan were almost out of the room when Kate began to speak. Alan turned and coolly responded, "No, Kate. I'm twenty-one years old and I can make my own decisions. And my chief decision is not to let fear rule my life. I will be responsible and take all due precautions. But I will not hide myself away and stop living. As one of my favorite films said, "Get busy living or get busy dying." I have no intention of dying, so I'll just start living."

That said, Alan turned and left the room. David turned to Jeff, and desperately said, "Mr. Tracy, can't you do something?"

Jeff gave a bittersweet smile. "No. As Alan said, he's an adult – a trustworthy and responsible one at that. There isn't much I can do at this point. You, however, can catch those two and throw them back in prison before they can hurt my son again."

Gordon, who had lingered behind when Alan had left, quickly turned to catch up to his younger brother. Jeff joined his two sons at the elevator and as the doors opened, he turned and looked at Gordon, exchanging a small nod. Gordon smiled, letting his father know – message received and processed: protect your brother.

Once her family was gone, Kate moved around the desk, propping her hands up and glaring at two people she usually was very fond of.

"Alan has just a few weeks left of college. The first weekend in June, we'll be in Kansas, planning for his wedding. I'll let the sheriff know so she can keep an eye out for strangers. Jeannie Landman knows everyone in the entire county, forget just Bailey. And she's a family friend, she'll be taking this personally. So get those bastards before they can hurt Alan again."

"Kate," David assured her, "we are going to do everything we can, trust me."

"I do trust you," Kate said with a cold smile. "But if they hurt Alan, Scott will not be pleased. Nor will John – you have to watch out for the quiet ones – Virgil or Gordon. And that will be nothing compared to the Tracy daughters. I can assure you, they will suffer tenfold for any hurts inflicted on our boy. And there will be no remains for the authorities to find. My. Vow. To. God."

Kate showed them out as Julie came back in, handing Kate a stack of files.

At the elevator, David muttered, "She's way too much like her father sometimes."

"Actually," Daria said with what David wondered if it wasn't misplaced cheerfulness, "she's worse. Trust me."

Getting on the elevator, David sighed. Yeah. He could believe that.


Author's note:

Sorry for the extended silence. First let me say, I appreciate the prayers, warm thoughts and outpouring of support. With the rare exception, fan fic readers are some of the best people I know.

The tests for Mom's cancer came back as positive and they are beginning chemo as soon as possible. This will not save her life but may extend it and give her some quality of life. If my writing is delayed or reviews are not answered, I apologize in advance. But my family comes before everything else.

I have been pretty lucky in my parents. My dad was my hero, the one person I turned to first on all important decisions. To this day I still find myself thinking "I should talk this over with Daddy." And Mom? I am proud to say my mom is one of my best friends. The day the cancer (stage four colon cancer, having spread to her right lung and her liver) was confirmed, I did the whole "stay strong and carry on" until I got back to my desk at work...and proceeded to break down. My boss sent me home and I had forgotten my daughter had semester finals that week. So I had to explain to my little girl (I don't care if she is a sophmore in high school, she'll always be my baby) that Grammy has cancer. Having lost her beloved Poppy to cancer just fourteen months earlier, she was of course devastated. After a good long cry, she told me "Well, we'll just have to show her how much we love her for as long as God let's us have her, right?"

I have an amazing kid.

SO - when it is what I like to call "a dark day", I may not write much. Otherwise, I might kill someone. In my writing only. It's too messy in real life.

Take care and I hope to on a semi-regular schedule again soon. ~CC