Don
Chapter 7
"Yes, it's da bomb!" Megan put out her hand and then she got serious, "The bomb disposal got it and the funny thing is that the timer stopped.
The BDU took it apart and we are taking it back to the lab to check for prints and don't be surprised if this was a present from Logan."
"Yea, I think so too. Well, he stopped the bomb from going off, I wonder why."
"Don, he could be still around here, you think?"
What was his motive? Is that a warning or what?"
"Mm maybe he stopped it when he saw Trixie with us? But how?
Unless….unless he was watching us.
Megan, can you get LAPD to go round the hospital grounds again, I think he might be still lurking around. I'm afraid he might do something else."
"Alright, I'll have a word with Officer Leslie; he's the one you talked to just now?"
"Yep, I knew his brother way back in Quantico."
"Oh, where's he now?"
"Up there." Don said pointing upwards, "A hostage situation gone bad. It's been some years now."
"Sorry. I'll have a talk with Leslie now." Megan said.
"Hey, Megan thanks for everything." Don nodded at her.
"No problem, waiting for you to get back to work, so I can hand over everything to you" Megan grinned.
She wanted to tell him what they found in Logan's house but that could wait.
She walked out to the entrance and spoke to Officer Leslie of LAPD.
Megan came back to Don, who was waiting at the entrance for her,
"Your dad's car is safe now. Go on and enjoy your day with your girl." Megan smiled widely and quickly went over to Trixie's side. She sat beside her and hugged her.
"Hello Alan." She greeted Alan over Trixie's head.
"Hello Megan. Thank you."
"You're welcome, it's our job. Hey missy, you alright?"
Trixie nodded her head, she smiled widely and asked, "Megan, we are going to Pecos for lunch, you wanna join us?"
"Oh ho... Inviting guests, are you missy? Have you asked your er… Don? Maybe now he had other plans."
"Alan, are we still going to Pecos?" Trixie asked Alan for Don had not come back and was walking towards Colby at the entrance of the hospital.
"Yes, we are and you can invite Megan and others to join us." Alan graciously told her.
Don came back shortly, "OK we are ready to go, join us Megan, David and Colby are coming. Pecos on Figueroa St near Downtown.. See you there."
Megan and Trixie were laughing.
"What? I've said something funny?"
"No, and thank you, we'll see you there." Megan said.
Trixie got out of the chair and automatically went to hold Don's hand much to the amusement of Megan and Alan.
Alan shrugged his shoulders and he stood back while Don went off with Trixie.
Alan turned to Megan and said confidentially, "Megan, umm I wonder if Trixie is a bit too attached to Don."
"Don't worry, Alan, it's a bit of hero worship and father figure."
"No, Megan that's where you're wrong." Alan went on and told her about what happened when Dr. Chandra implied that Trixie's was Don's little girl.
Megan laughed and said jokingly, "Here's your future daughter in law, Alan."
"Oh my goodness, you think that too?"
Megan looked at Alan with open mouth.
"No, no, Megan joking….joking."
Megan linked her arm with Alan's and they walked towards the entrance,
"You know Alan, in India, young girls marry at the tender age of thirteen and they do not marry boys, they marry men."
"Megan….."
"Well, you can ask Amita, she'll tell you its true."
"Megan..."
"OK, Ok, just letting you know. Come on, Don must be wondering what happened. I think in China they have child brides too."
Alan looked at Megan and shook his head, Megan laughed.
Megan left Alan to join Don and Trixie and she went off to where she parked her SUV.
David and Colby were hanging around still talking to the LAPD officers.
They arrived at the Pecos restaurant and it was fairly crowded and they managed to get a big table for the six of them.
Soon Colby, David and Megan arrived while Don and Trixie were perusing the menu.
They found out that they not only served tacos, they also served American hamburgers and other salads and soups.
Don told them that Miss Cameron wanted tacos and asked them what they wanted. Colby very nicely said it was OK with him, tacos would be fine.
The rest agreed and finally Don made the choice of tacos for everyone.
They all agreed that they will have three combo plates of tacos with combination of beef, chicken, grilled fish with side dishes zucchini, corn and string beans. They chose three salsas, all mild but Colby wanted a hot one. David said he'd preferred the honey chipotle.
Don changed to two mild salsas and added honey chipotle for David and the fearsome one salsa arbol for Colby.
Before the tacos came all of them had a small bowl of soup as a starter.
Don asked if they wanted anything else but all of them shook their heads and Megan quipped, "If we eat too much, we'll fall asleep at our desks and our boss may not like it."
There were smiles all around, the team was referring to Don but Trixie didn't know that, she said, "Megan you are the boss, so if you fall asleep, I'm sure David and Colby wouldn't mind."
Soon everyone was laughing and Megan hugged her and whispered, "The boss here is Don, Missy."
Trixie looked at Don made a 'O' with her mouth and all of them laughed.
David sat next to Don and while waiting for the food, Don turned to David and asked if they had found anything in Logan's house.
Don knew that Megan would have been there in the morning but didn't have time to tell him what happened.
David told him that when they went to the house in the morning, they found that the yellow tape was torn apart and someone had been inside the house. They found leftover food and evidence that someone had slept there.
He also said that they had to call in the bomb disposal Unit for they found some highly inflammable materials and some other materials that used to make small bombs or fireworks.
David told Don that they were able to catch the bomb disposal guys before they left and got them to follow them to the hospital after the Logan house job.
He also informed Don that they had been processing the place for two hours and after they had collected the things from the house, they had resealed the place and this time they had installed a lock on the door.
Don threw in a question or two and said he'll be back in the office in two days' time.
They had spent the one hour enjoying themselves with the food and soon Megan, Colby and David had to leave. Megan told Don that she would call regarding the homemade bomb.
After lunch, Don and Alan took Trixie to a bookshop and Don told her to get the books that she wanted to read.
Alan went over to the Magazine section to look out for the latest Sodoku book and Don went with Trixie.
Trixie went to the Science Fiction and if Don was surprised he said nothing.
She picked out two of Terry Goodkind's latest books and turned to Don,
"You have to pay for me, I'll get back the money from Mommy."
"No problem, go ahead and choose more. I know you read quite fast."
"OK, then I'll get the whole set which is 4 books."
"Sure you want only four?" Trixie nodded and Don took the books from her.
"I'll get it for you." Don said.
"No, thank you Don, my mommy can buy it for me."
"Trixie, it's OK."
"Thank you Don."
Don took her books and together with her they went to the cashier's counter. He found his father at the counter, waiting to pay.
He told his father to give the book to him and he put the Sodoku book together with Trixie's books and paid for it.
"Wow, Trixie, you read those books? Isn't it a bit tough for you?" Alan asked taking the paper bag containing the books while Don waited for his credit card slip.
"No, Alan, it's not difficult, I've been reading for a year now and I find it very interesting. If there are words are too difficult, I'll look it up on on my laptop."
Alan raised his eyebrow, 'ummm she has a laptop?, oh dear what happened to the good ole dictionary?' , and said to her, "that's great."
When they came out of the bookshop, Don asked her if she had any special place she wanted to go or any show that she wanted to watch.
Trixie said that she would like to go home and spend the day with them in Charlie's house.
Trixie played on the old piano in Charlie's house; both Alan and Don were amazed at her talent.
She played a few pieces by memory for both of them and then she turned and said, "I'm sorry, I'm not very good, I have not been practicing for almost a month now."
Alan and Don disagreed with her, they told her that she was very good; she then told them that she started playing around four and she also stopped playing for sometime during that period.
Don knew it must be after the time she was kidnapped and he said nothing.
What she said next surprised Don.
She told Don that she would teach him a simple piece so that he could practice.
Don looked at his father and said, "You've told her?"
"No, Donny no, I did no such thing."
"No, Don, don't blame Alan, it was Amita who told me about you and Charlie playing the piano when you were small and that recently you started playing again."
"Yes, but it was my mother's composition and it's a simple piece." Don searched the pile of music notes and showed it to her.
Trixie took it and looked at Don, "Can I?"
"Please, go ahead; you probably played it like my mom." Don said, looking at his father.
She played it beautifully; she played it twice since it was a very short piece.
She was just a carefree girl enjoying herself, she was relaxed with them, the weather had cooled down a bit and Don suggested that they go and sit by the Koi pond.
They played a game of naming the Koi and she gave the fishes fanciful names.
She said it was the names of the Knights of the Round Table.
There were King Arthur, Sir Lancelot, Sir Galahad, Sir Gawain and so forth.
They both had a good time by the pond, arguing and laughing.
Later Alan brought out some muffins and lemonade for both of them and he was pleased that Trixie was bringing laughter to Don.
Alan seldom see Don so happy and carefree and especially with a kid.
Trixie must have spun some magic on him.
Trixie soon tired out and she took a nap in Don's room. It was around 6 pm that Don got her to wake up.
He told her to take a shower before they went for dinner. Trixie took her backpack and told Don that her packet of 'shower-dri' was at the side pocket.
He took out a piece, and simply put it over her hand and tied it off on top of her cast. This way it will prevent the cast from getting wet, then came the awkward part.
He was a bit embarrassed after helping her to take off her outer clothing.
Trixie saved him by getting him to call Alan to her.
Alan came and Don left Trixie to his dad.
Alan did the trick by wrapping her first in a towel and helped her wriggle out of her inner clothing.
Alan turned on the shower and left all the things on the chair for her.
He told her to come out the same way after shower.
Soon a very wet Trixie came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped round her body.
Alan took another towel to dry her wet curly locks and after rubbed her all over her body with the towel wrapped round her.
He then slipped on an inner tee over her body and did the same with her undies, all done and he pulled away the wet towel and plastic covering her cast.
He then helped her with her pants and pulled a flowered Tee over her head.
"There you go, all done and clean and nice. Do you have a comb?"
"Yes."
"Well go down and get Don to comb your curly locks for you. He's good at it."
"Thank you very much Alan." Trixie said and hugged him.
"Well, OK go down, I'll take care of the bathroom and I'll put your clothes in a plastic and get it down to you later."
"OK, thanks." Trixie went down to look for Don.
She saw Don at the piano, playing a simple piece, she went and sat down beside him and she played with two fingers accompanying him.
Don smiled and tried to catch up and soon it was in a fast tempo.
They stopped and Trixie held out her comb to Don, "Please."
Don took the comb and slowly combed out her curly locks.
Don gave a call to Charlie and asked him what time they should go and meet up with him and Amita for dinner.
He reminded him not too late for he needed to take 'cutie-pie' back to the hospital.
Charlie suggested that they meet up at a restaurant near CalSci, so that he and Amita need not travel far for they were still working on a project.
He then gave the name and directions to Don and the time to meet.
After their respective showers, they were ready and on the way to meet Charlie and Amita at the restaurant.
During dinner Trixie told them about her school and her love for music when she was a very young girl.
Almost all looked at her with huge smiles on their faces.
Trixie stopped eating and looked at them, "Ok, Ok, I'm not so old now but when I was much younger."
"Well how old are you now?" Charlie asked her.
"I'm going to be ten this coming February." She said.
"Oh now you are only nine."
"Nine plus." She said.
"OK nine plus."
She pulled at Amita's hand and Amita bent down her head to her level and she whispered to Amita which made her smile.
//I didn't want Don to think that I am a little girl// she had whispered to Amita.
"Yes, Trixie, I understand." She then whispered to her.
Trixie smiled at her and said, "Thank you.,"
"What was that all about?" Charlie asked.
"Nothing, it's a girl's thingy, nothing to do with you boys."
Trixie laughed.
Trixie enjoyed herself very much with the Eppes and Amita and Don promised her that they would go out again soon.
Trixie had announced at the table that the next time the dinner will be on her. That got them laughing.
"It's alright Pixie, you don't have to treat us to dinner." Dan said ruffling her curly hair.
"No, No, it's OK I can just tell them who I am and we don't need to pay them.
We'll go to my mother's family restaurant. The WCR, the food there is very nice."
"Oh yea, your mom's a Whitney of the Whitney Classical Restaurants isn't it" Charlie asked her.
"Yes."
"Who is running the restaurant now?"
"The restaurant has a manager who sees to everything."
"Your mother's family has no one else to run the restaurant?" Charlie asked.
"I have two other uncles and an aunt, they do not run it because they do not live in America."
"So where do they live?"
"Let me see, uncle Bob is in Switzerland, my aunt Cheryl is living in Italy and another Uncle, Uncle Tom is married to a Japanese lady and they have a WCR in Tokyo. He is the only uncle running a restaurant. The others are not.
Uncle Bob in Switzerland is a Doctor and he runs a clinic with his wife, my aunt Mary who is also a Doctor.
My aunt Cheryl is an artist in Italy, she's not married. I would introduce you to her, Don but she's too old for you."
That got all of them laughing and Alan got interested, "How old is she then"
"Forty-five, my mum is forty seven and my other uncles are in their fifties."
"Well, I'd say forty five is not too old, my dear girl, it's just that you are young, very young that's why you'd say forty five is old."
"I'm not that young." She said, looking at her drink.
"No, no, not that young but you are not old either. Do you know how old am I?" Amita asked Trixie.
"You're twenty five years old." Trixie said.
"Well, now how do you know that?"
"I guess." She said and she pulled Amita down again and whispered something to her. Amita tried not to laugh but she could not control herself, she started laughing.
//I wish I was twenty years old and not ten.// Trixie said.
"Hey, not fair, share the joke." Charlie said.
Amita pulled Charlie to her and she whispered in his ear and Charlie smiled.
//She wished she was older… you know what that mean?// Amita had whispered to Charlie and Charlie knew.
Don looked at his dad and Alan said, "Kids!"
"My goodness, that's why your mother has no one visiting her," Don said.
"My mother told my dad not to let them know."
"Why and where is your dad?"
Tbc.
Thanks to my beta Mikis