This chapter is especially for Krista, Reiley and Spicegirl324.
Two weeks later, October 8
Jordan's Point of View, 10 a.m.
FBI Field Offices, 26 Federal Plaza
Greenwich Village, Manhattan
For some reason, things just feel a little bit strange today, and it's bothering the hell out of me because I couldn't figure out what it was at all. Normally, when there's a problem, I can figure out what it is right away.
But this… whatever it is, it has me totally stumped.
It's not like there are problems with my friends or family…
Things are pretty normal with my friends, especially considering that four of them are pregnant now. Amaya is thrilled to pieces to be pregnant again, but has made it clear that the child she's carrying now is going to be her last one. Emily is probably just as thrilled as Amaya, but is glowing more because this is the first time she's ever been pregnant. Lanie just seems to be content, despite the fact that Jessica had a little freak-out two weeks ago, for which she still hasn't apologized. And Kate? Everything is running smoothly for her, considering that there is a history of miscarriage on her mom's side. But just yesterday, Kate revealed that she's carrying twins! We were all very excited for her, and Amaya and I both promised to show her the ropes that comes with going through a twin pregnancy.
There's also my family and home life. I couldn't ask for life to be more perfect between Rafferty and I, and we're both being kept busy with work, too. (He's been down at the studio for the past three days, developing a huge order of pictures for the City Commissioner's daughter, who got married this past weekend. (Thank goodness he's almost done) I, meanwhile, was up to my neck in paperwork until about five minutes ago, and I'm happy to just be relaxing before Avery or someone else decides that I need more things to take care of) As far as I know, there aren't any problems with the kids, either. Justice and Jubilation both have the day off school today, so Calvin stepped up to the plate to look after them since Rafferty and I are both so busy with work. They could hardly sleep last night because they were so excited about spending the next day with their big brother because that always means that lots of adventures are to be had. Calvin himself is as happy, energetic and helpful as usual, and I would know if he was having any kind of problem because ever since his injuries, he has never kept anything from me or his father. There are no problems there.
And yet… I just can't shake the feeling that something is amiss in the natural flow of my day-to-day life. If only can figure out what it is…
A knock on the door brought me back to reality, and I was surprised and a little confused to see my son's girlfriend standing in the doorway by herself. Melissa's black princess pea coat was unbuttoned to show that she was wearing a beautiful cobalt blue dress, black engineer boots, and inexplicably, rainbow-colored tights. (I almost forgot about her henna tattoos until I saw them on her arms, as lovely as ever) A large book was tucked under her arm and her bag was slung over her shoulder, with a shiny visitor's badge was pinned to her dress. In a quick motion, took off her cobalt blue visor beanie, remembering that she was indoors. As cute as she looked, I could tell that she looked a little nervous because she's never been to my office before.
I rose from my chair to greet the young woman who will probably become my daughter-in-law in the next few years.
"Hi, Melissa." I tried to be as cheerful as I could as her things to hang them up on the coat rack near the door. I wanted her to be at ease because this was the first time she's been skittish around me. "What can I do for you this morning?"
"There's something that I want to talk to you about, Jordan," She said as she took the seat I indicated to her. "But I'm as nervous as hell because you're Calvin's mum, and the last thing I want is for you to get bad at me…"
I sat back in my own chair and raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you and Calvin having problems? Are you pregnant?"
Melissa turned beet red at the last question. "No, I'm not pregnant, but I know Calvin would support me without a second thought if I was. Madison and Emily would both be mad before they became supportive."
I knew there was a story there, but this was obviously not the time for that, so I worked on getting the conversation back on topic. "What do you want to talk about? And where is Calvin? You're almost never away from him during the day…"
"Calvin and the girls, and everyone else are at Washington Square, watching a show. I'm going to meet them and the others there after this." She answered, becoming more comfortable. "I came to see you because I want to know who Leila Ryan was to you."
I blinked in surprise at Melissa's words. After nearly seven years, I'd heard a name—from someone else—that I thought I'd never hear again. All at once, I felt a sudden rush of bittersweet emotions rise up inside me as I thought back to my captivity.
"I don't want to know why or how you know that name," I began slowly. "But I can tell you that Leila saved me when I was first brought to the old tire warehouse for the duration of my captivity. True, knowing that I had Justice and Jubilation growing inside me gave me something to live for, but Leila was my angel."
"Why's that?"
"Leila appeared out of nowhere in the aftermath of my violation on the first night, she took care of me and nursed me back to health…" I can recall that time with perfect clarity, but it isn't often that I'm ask to remember. Sometimes, the weight of the memories alone simply takes my breath away. "I didn't expect her to, but Leila stayed at my side during the whole pregnancy, up until I was rescued." There was also the time when Leila had a serious drug relapse for awhile and practically lost her mind, but I showed her the true meaning of tough love, and she got clean again. "She was very lovely, but she was also one of the most conflicted souls I ever met."
"What makes you call her conflicted?" Melissa wanted to know.
"I never got a straight answer from her," I replied honestly. "But I think it had something to do with a family that she had a longtime ago because she paid special attention to the twins."
"How so?"
"For example, she talked to them often enough where it got to the point that they started kicking me in a total frenzy when she walked into the room because they recognized her voice."
"She sounds like a great friend, even if she had her issues."
"Leila was amazing, Melissa," I corrected. "And the girl and I wouldn't be alive right now if not for dear Leila. She meant so much to me that made sure that one of my girls got Leila as a middle name, and Justice does."
Melissa smiled at that, but asked about something else, instead. "I noticed that you keep talking about her in the past tense. Did something happen to her?"
I shrugged. "Unfortunately, I don't know for sure, but…"
"But…?" she prompted.
"Last year, during the retrieval mission, Jessica tipped us off that there was also a dead body in the building where the drugs were kept."
"Your team never found it, did they?"
"No, they didn't." I confirmed.
"And you think that they body was Leila? Did Jess ever tell you it was her?"
"Yes, I do think that it was Leila, but I pray to high heaven that it wasn't because I would have nightmares if Kate ever asked me to identify the body of the woman who saved my babies and me." I shuddered at the prospect of ever having to do that. "And no, Jessica never did tell me if it was Leila, but given my twisted Irish luck and knowing what kind of dangerous people were in the vicinity, I've never been able shake the feeling, even after a whole year, that it was her."
It wasn't until then that I realized that Melissa was taking down notes in her book, which was spread open across her lap. Leaning over my desk, I took a quick glance at the page that she was writing on. I was unable to decipher the younger woman's handwriting upside down, but there was a carefully detailed illustration around the border of both pages that made me sit back down right away as my system immediately jumped to red alert.
It was a dragon.
And that's when the pieces fell into place.
"Melissa Paisley," I spoke in a tone of very forced calm. "Stop what you're doing."
There was a halt in the movement of her pen and she fixed me with a curious glance, waiting for me to continue.
"Again: I don't want to know why or how you found out about Leila, but there I'm going to give you a warning."
"Yes?"
"Don't go looking for the Dragon!"
"I'm sorry, Jordan," She said sincerely in a tone that told me that she wasn't fazed at all. "But it's my duty."
"What kind of duty is a suicide mission?"
Her calm reply: "One that's worth all the risk if it means that I can set things right for my loved ones."
"Those reasons may seem sound now, but they won't seem quite that way when you're getting beaten day in and day out like I was!"
The look on her face that she fixed me with was so hard that it could cut steel.
"Jordan," she said in an equally steely voice as she closed her book and stood up, ready to leave. "If Calvin, Justice and Jubilation were away from you and Rafferty right now, and they had been for most of their lives, and you had one chance to make things right, you would go the extra mile to bring them home safely, wouldn't you?"
"Of course I would! Calvin, Justice and Jubilation are my babies!" I was appalled that she would ask me such a question. "But you aren't a mother!"
Melissa's eyes flashed dangerously. "In a manner of speaking, I actually am."
I was curious about what she meant by that, but stuck to the situation at hand as I repeated an earlier point. "I don't know what this 'duty' of yours is, but I forbid you to go looking for the Dragon because I don't think that any of us—especially your family and my own—would be able to take it if you left and never came back because you were injured or worse yet, killed!"
"Good thing I'm strong enough and quick enough to prevent either situation from ever happening." The young blond woman replied coolly. "And what if I found out what happened to Leila? Wouldn't you want to know, so you could finally rest a little easier at night?"
I hated to admit it, but Melissa had me, there…
"Of course I would want to know!"
"Then don't tell me no or try to stop me."
"Fine." I huffed. "I don't know what you're doing, but just be careful, okay?"
"I intend to."
Melissa retreated to the coat rack and gathered her things together, and then left my office in complete silence.
I stared after her, wondering what in the world that girl was up to, but my attention was quickly diverted when I realized that a new person had walked up to my door. My mood went from anxious and curious to surprised and joyous in the blink of an eye once I registered who it was.
"Krista!" I cried happily, hurrying over to her. "Krista, you're back!"
"Yes, I am." The other woman pulled me into a warm hug. "We just got back yesterday morning, but I needed a day to rest before I came back to work and surprised you."
"Come." I pulled away from her and led her towards the couch by the window. "Come here and we'll talk. I want to hear all about your trip to Ireland."
Krista agreed to this and we sat down so we could catch upon things.
See, Krista Riley is a dear friend and a colleague of mine. She's ten years younger than me, and I've known her for her whole life, but that's never kept us from being friends. (Age is just a number) When she was a kid, she always looked up to me because I protected her from the local bullies after I learned how to stand up them. She's also been one of the few people who ever saw past all my geekiness and always told me when I didn't want to believe it that I'm beautiful and that I have a purpose in life. (I've never told Krista this, but in the months before I turned twenty, and she had just turned ten, I was very depressed and wouldn't listen to anybody about anything—not even Rafferty. It became so bad I had decided I was going to jump off a bridge on my birthday. Just as I was trying to figure out which bridge to find, the front doorbell rang and little Krista was standing on my front step with a wrapped birthday present, flowers, balloons, and the biggest smile on her face. The first words out of her mouth: "Happy birthday, Jordan! I love you lots and lots, and I really hope I can be just like you when I grow up!"Krista saved my life that day) Despite the fact that my family comes from money and that Krista grew up at the complete opposite end of the spectrum, I've always held her as close to my heart as I held Leila.
Krista doesn't know where she comes from, really, because she was abandoned in the back of an Irish pub shop that's just down the street from my childhood home. The family who owns the place, the Rileys, live in aloft above it, and they took her in and adopted her without any hesitation, even though she was probably an hour old, at the most, when she was found. Mr. and Mrs. Riley—Ian and Shayna—raised her alongside their own children, and they've been a very happy family, even after Ian died. (He was in the Bureau, too, but I've looked into his files because they circumstances of his death were that suspicious. I would say that he was assassinated, but Shayna will readily argue against that) The Riley family has always been a shelter in a storm for me when I got tired of the life that comes with being a trust fund baby.
Krista and I have always been close, but we became even closer in the past few years because thanks to her skills as an FBI profiler, she was able to put together a rough profile of one of the Dragon's right hand men who had abducted me and led the retrieval mission to bring me home. She was as startled as anybody to see that I was pregnant, but she stayed with me all the way up until the last ten minutes before Rafferty came to see me.
But anyway, I digress...
Last year, Krista decided to take a one year sabbatical in Ireland with her husband, Gavin, and their son and daughter, Jacob and Savannah. I was a little sad to see them go, but perhaps it was because of the strength of mine and Krista's relationship and after all of the things we've been through together over the years, we were able to keep in constant contact during the time apart.
And as we sat there on my couch with her recounting a story that involved Jacob and Savannah being fascinated by the concept of a stone beach, her words were cut off by the arrival of a new visitor.
There, darkening my doorway after a twenty year absence was Meredith.
Both Krista and I got to our feet right away, and my heart sank when Krista stood behind me slightly, seeking protection. After all these years, she obviously hasn't forgotten about how Meredith had bullied her when they had been kids together.
"Hello, Jordan!"Meredith chirped as merrily as you please, as if twenty years hadn't gone by at all. "How are you?"
She glanced over at Krista, and her disdain was clear. "Hello to you, too, Krista."
I couldn't help it, but I slipped into pure defensive mode. Meredith has been known to scare Krista in years past, but she also scares me. Plus… she's always been a little… off.
"What the hell are you doing here, Meredith?" I asked her angrily.
"Is that any way to greet your baby sister after twenty years?" she demanded, walking into the room like she owned it, all the while showing off a ridiculously expensive-looking outfit. "You could be a little nicer, you know."
"Look who's talking!" I had to work double time to keep manger under control because I was dangerously close to slapping her. "Why the hell are you here, Meredith?"
All this time, poor Krista had been getting edgy. (Normally, she's a very strong person, but Meredith is the only person who can really scare her, and that's really saying something because Krista profiles serial killers for a living) Without breaking eye contact with my sister, I found Krista's hand and held it tightly, something I always did when they were younger and Meredith was being a bully.
"I'm here because I'm in town for an audition and I thought I'd pay my sister a visit."
"This is the part where I remind you that you hate my guts and you made a damn good job of letting everybody know!"
Meredith ignored that, but it was very true. "I'm also here because I want to see my daughters. I missed Lily's birthday in September, but Alexis' twenty-first is tomorrow."
I made an as-if noise. "I'm perfectly aware of when my nieces' birthdays are, thank you very much. I'm also aware that you lost custody of Alexis and LJ both, and that you are legally bound to stay away from until she's of age. That rule expired for Alexis when she turned eighteen, but I know that she wouldn't go near you again after you hit her when she was pregnant." Meredith bristled noticeably at these words and made a hissing noise like a pissed off goose, the same noise LJ had made the first time we met. "And as far as I know, the girls are terrified of you, especially. Did even know that Alexis, LJ and Tobias—your grandson—were missing last year?"
Meredith's eyes widened slightly at this, but she didn't even talk about that, and I was once more trying as hard as I could to not strike her dumb.
"Alexis kept the baby?"
"Yes," I replied curtly. "And apart from having been diagnosed with partial heterchromia when he was born, Tobias Noah is a very healthy and darling little boy, loved by everyone in his life."
"I need to see Alexis…"
Of course Meredith wouldn't pay attention to my previous words. She's always too busy making up the rules for the world inside her head.
"Stay away from Alexis!" I yelled at her.
"Alexis isn't yours!" Meredith snarled angrily. "Neither is Lily Joy! You're their aunt!"
"Meredith, I'm telling you now that there's going to be hell to pay if I found out that you went near them!" I snarled back. "And I won't help when Rick sets Kate on you, and I can promise that a pissed off Kate is very dangerous."
"That muse is still around?" Meredith's voice was full of disgust. "Last time I saw her, she was pregnant."
"Her name is Kate, and she and Rick had a son together, but since you aren't technically related to him, you don't get to know his name." I decided to use the older sister card at this point and get on her nerves a little bit more. "Guess what, Mer?"
"What, Jordz?" she asked in an irritated tone, using my old nickname since I had used hers.
"Kate is just like a mother bear, so don't think for one second that she'll be calm once she finds out that you're even in town." I told her smugly. "She loves her children—all six of them."
This number threw my sister for a loop. "Six?"
"Uh-huh." I nodded. "There's Alexis and LJ, their little brother, and of course, Tobias. He's Kate's grandson, but she's always loved him like a son."
"But that's four." Meredith had been counting on her fingers, but now sounded confused. "You said six kids."
"Rick and Kate—who are happily married, by the way—are expecting twins. They make numbers five and six."
As I looked at my sister, I saw signs of the Green-Eyed Jealousy Monster showing itself through her eyes. I thought she was going to snap, but she didn't. Instead, she took a deep cleansing breath and slowly let it out.
"I have to go now." She spoke in an alarmingly calm voice. "Goodbye."
"If you go near the girls…" I said warningly.
Meredith ignored me again and turned to Krista, who was still very quiet. "See you around, Krista."
The quiet woman just nodded, and it wouldn't really have surprised me if she was remembering back to when Meredith had been the playground bully and tortured her. Surprisingly, my sister made a very quiet exit, which I considered a major step back, given that she's always been known as the family drama queen.
"Jordan," Krista said as she pulled her hand out of mine. "Do you remember when you and I suggested to your sister that she see a doctor?"
"Do I ever! My parents disowned me entirely, but they left my trust fund be." I tried to block out memories of the day that I finally lived up to my reputation as the family black sheep. "Thank God the kids never knew my dad and that they don't know my mom…"
"Okay, okay." Krista sat down on the couch again and I joined her. "All of that aside, do you know if she was ever diagnosed with anything? Anything at all?"
"No." I answered honestly. "It's not like she would tell me, anyway. Ever since we thought that Meredith might not be entirely sound upstairs," I tapped my right temple for emphasis. "She's denied all relation to me, which means that nobody—not even Rick, her ex-husband, knows that I'm her older sister! It makes me sick, but I'm pretty sure that everything she ever had with him, married life and children included, is… or was just part of one of her many schemes to make it big in the acting world. My sister is, among other things, a very clever con artist."
"Why, that conniving b—"
"Save it, Krista." I interrupted her. "It's not worth calling her a bad name. It never has been, and you know that all too well."
The younger woman sighed, obviously frustrated because she knew that I was right. "Let's talk about something else, then."
She thought for a minute and then brightened. "Will you tell me about your nieces and nephews? I want to know all about them."
First floor, Meredith's Point of View
After returning my visitor's badge to the front desk, I headed out to the street to catch a cab back to the Plaza, where I was staying for the time being.
My head was swimming with all sorts of things, including all of the emotion that always came with visiting Jordan. (It was a total double-whammy that Krista was there, as well, because when I look at her, I see my ex-best friend from childhood who one day decided that hanging out with my big sister was a lot better than hanging out with me. I mean, hello! She used to be my right hand girl when we were kids! I know she's been afraid of me for the things I've done to her since the day she turned her back on me, but she had all of that bullying coming to her) The sooner I can leave this town, the better!
Maybe I can catch the next flight out after the audition, since it's in less than two hours…
No, no.
That's wrong.
If I can't see Lily Joy, then I can at least see my firstborn. It would take a lot of guilt-tripping, but I know Alexis would come see me, no matter what. I'm her mother, after all! I gave birth to her, and she's on this planet because of me, as is Lily. (In more ways than just the obvious, I mean)
A sudden movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention, causing me to turn. When I did, I was face-to-face with an older African-American woman, and the chipped old metal cup she was waving at me, along with her shabby state of dress told the whole world that she was a beggar, and probably has been for a long time. It didn't take a genius to see that she was as blind as a bat, too.
When the woman started asking me for change—in Spanish—and I felt a twinge of pity as I thought remembered back to how I was almost the homeless one, twenty years ago when I was pregnant with Alexis. Once I made it clear that I didn't speak her language, I looked around and spotted a pile of her belongings and a blanket next to the entrance of the building and helped her back over to her area since she had been dangerously close to the curb. (I didn't fail to notice that she started talking to herself, still in Spanish, making me wonder whether or not she was entirely stable, especially since she didn't seem to be all that aware of me)When the woman was settled, I gave her five dollars, and I was surprised when she thanked me in perfect English before she started talking to herself again.
I walked back towards the curb to hail a taxi, feeling a lot better than I had during the visit with my sister. Good deeds pay off.
I hope everyone liked this one. I promise there is going to be some Caskett pieces in chapter 12!
