14.
"Why is Diana passed out in the car?"
Jordan, Rachael, and Robin looked up from where they were making dinner at the stove, while Daniel crawled after the chicken. The three kids shared a look and quickly picked their spokesman: Jordan. Who turned to his Aunt Lily and informed her, "She's sleeping. She had a very big day."
At that Jordan turned back to the chicken breast he was boiling for the pasta dish he and his sisters were making for dinner. He peeked at the garlic Robin was cutting up.
"Why isn't she in here?"
The three kids shared a look and Robin peeked over her shoulder, "Look Aunt Lily, Mom is really tired and when she is really tired it's smart not to wake her up…she can be violent. Unless there is a big fire and a lot of blood…don't wake her up."
Purely stunned Lily stood in the doorway for just a minute, then she walked in the kitchen to her family, "What are you three making, it smells good." She peeked on her toes as Rachael moved.
Robin pointed, "Chicken and noodles in a garlic butter sauce. If we can find some cheese we'll have cheesy bread to go with it."
Chicken, beef, turkey, lamb and fish were common meals at the Sanderson house, no pork.
"Yeah, dad'll be home soon. He's going to change, he's got a press conference to go to," Rachael added, half in the fridge on the hunt for cheese.
Out in the driveway…
The day had been hell and it wasn't getting better for Colonel Sanderson.
Not only had one of his Operators opted out for Intel work. Two of his Operators were in the field and their objective was MIA, meaning that they had bad Intel, or they would be in the field a lot longer then planned for: his pager was on along with his cell phone for any updates.
Then there was the home situation. He had heard his son was trying to get a letter from the governor to go to Annapolis. He had heard rumor there was a Ranger hanging around his house. Then there was the wife.
He literally slammed his car door and stormed up the driveway.
Millions of things ran through his head.
If Diana would just quit, she could handle everything at home and he could worry about work. He walked past her new car and then froze. He almost didn't want to turn and look.
But he did.
He looked down into the drivers window, seeing his wife sleeping across the backseat in the scrubs she had worn in the morning when he had last seen her. Her nursing sneakers were gone, replaced with his sisters hiking boots, which he knew were a size smaller then Diana's feet.
"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I'm going to kill this woman," he mumbled. He seriously considered taking a pin from his uniform and using it to pick the car door, which was locked.
He didn't have anything on him to pick the lock. So he knocked on the window. He knocked and knocked and knocked.
He could see she was breathing, she even rolled over onto her side to get more comfortable.
At that he stormed up the driveway and into the house. Where he began to yell for one of the kids. He didn't need all of them, just one, and the car keys. It was Rachael who appeared with the car keys, "Yeah dad?"
"Why is your mother locked in the car?!"
Calm and collected, she replied, "She's sleeping Dad. Don't wake her up…we locked her in so no one would violate her."
Sanderson took the key ring and Rachael grabbed his wrist with her smaller hand. She looked up at him with her father's brown eyes and called him Dad, "Dad, listen, she sleeps good in the car. Everything is fine in here. You got to get used to the way things run since you're gonna be home more often. Plus…she's going to be really sore. She was chasing the kids all over, up and down the gorge today, and is crashing from a major caffeine and sugar buzz."
Softly he told her, "Things change."
The pictures on the wall of the hall were more the symbolic of that. Wedding pictures from the first weddings of not just Sanderson and Diana, but friends who were long gone, or with someone else: and then the more recent wedding pictures.
"Excluding mom's ability to get super pissed off."
He smiled and tugged on her hand, "Come on, you can hold the front door open for me."
The Kitchen…
With Diana on the bed and her feet freed from their prisons, Sanderson dug around under the kitchen sink for the "Goody Box" for some stuff to put on the open blisters. "Has Diana unpacked her box yet…or did you guys move it?"
Jordan looked to Robin while he cut up the cooked chicken breast.
She shrugged, and looked to Alexandria, "Check the bathroom."
From under the sink came, "I just looked there."
The phone rang, with garlic infused olive oil coated fingers, Robin picked it up, "Colonel Sanderson Residence…"
Jordan examined what appeared to be a bone, and tossed it in the trash, "Dad, there is some stuff in her backpack. I think it's on the couch."
Muttering what sounded like Spanish, Sanderson crawled out from the cramped sink managing to overhear Robin's puzzled voice.
"No, they don't live here. Who is this…uh-huh, no she's in bed would you like to talk to her husband…the colonel…how'd you get this number?"
Who is it? He mouthed to Robin, stepping over Daniel.
She shrugged, then informed the caller, "Well that's none of your business dude…" Her mouth dropped and Sanderson took the phone from her hand, clearly outraged she hissed, "What an ass. We should get caller ID."
Sanderson put the phone to his ear and quickly walked from the kitchen, into the almost unpacked massive living room. Which was open with the kitchen in the quite large house.
"Who is this?"
On the other end there was a pause, and then the person hung up. Sanderson looked at the phone, and then Hoot's oldest daughter, "Who was it? What'd they want?"
She waved her smelly hands and went back to mashing the garlic oil in the bowl with her fingertips, "I have no clue. He wanted to talk to Aunt Lily, he knew her from Home Depot. Then he wanted to talk to the other…well, he called her a…the B-word, so I'm assuming he means mom."