Alexander
by Thomas Mc

Chapter 21 : The Love Story and The Fallout

Bill faced his morning status meeting with tired sleepy eyes. He had started reading Brigit's manuscript a little after noon when Paulette had brought it to him. At six this morning he had finally put it down to get ready for this meeting. Though he was only about half way through it, he already knew that come hell or high water he would do whatever it took to publish it. It would be a gold mine.

He took a deep breath to clear his head. "Good morning ladies and gentlemen. I wish to table all pending business for the moment." He set down the thick folder he had carried in. "I have a new manuscript that I received yesterday and I am going to put every resource in this company behind publishing it. If Paulette secures the publishing rights for us, I want to publish it as is, no changes, no editing. I also want an all out advertising campaign organized by the end of the week."

One of the editors spoke up. "Sir are you sure that is wise? What type of manuscript is it?"

Bill picked up the folder. "I have here a photo copy of an original, unpublished, hand written manuscript by Brigit O'Donnell."

The meeting immediately broke into pandemonium. Everyone there knew what an incredibly valuable commodity an unpublished book by Brigit would be. After a while another editor asked the big question. "What is the book about?"

Bill grinned as he prepared to drop the big bomb. "You all are aware of what happened at the UN two days ago and the President's news conference yesterday at noon." He now had their undivided attention. "Brigit actually met the first of their kind back in '88. His name was Vincent. This book details where he came from and his romance with District Attorney Catherine Chandler. It tells about their secret marriage and the birth of their children. There were two additional male children that no one knew about. One of them was the one named Jacob that was in yesterday's news conference. The other one was Alexander's grandfather, Charles. I haven't finished the manuscript yet but I peeked at the last chapter to see how the book ended and it ends with their involvement in a 9/11 rescue effort."

The pandemonium this time was almost deafening. Once it had calmed down he outlined his plans. "I plan to put all of our resources behind putting out the first run of the book as quickly as possible. Fortunately Brigit's handwriting is very neat and precise so the computers should have little difficulty turning it into printed text. Since the manuscript is hand written there will be no trouble establishing its authenticity. I also plan to release a very high quality limited and numbered special edition that will consist of exact reproductions of the original hand written pages. The price for the Special Edition will be high but I'm betting they will still sell like hotcakes."

Someone asked the all important question. "Are you sure we can get the rights?"

Bill smiled. "Paulette is out securing those rights as we speak. She seems to have the inside track. She's the one that brought me this copy."

The rest of the meeting was spent discussing logistics and the advertising campaign. By that evening Paulette had the contract and the publishing house went all out on the project. The one additional proviso was that the first five of the Special Limited Edition were to go to the family.

~ o ~

Three days after the President's hospital news conference Robert arrived at his restaurant to find a long line at the front door that appeared to go half way around the block. There was already some milling and jostling taking place at points along the line. He decided to go around to the kitchen entrance rather than chance confronting the crowd at the front door. Inside he found his staff in disarray. He finally located his manager in the main dining room talking on his cell-phone and looking very harried. "Oscar, what in the world is going on here?"

"It's insane." Oscar declared. "I came in this morning and checked the reservation log on the computer." His brows furrowed as he looked at his boss. "We're booked solid for the next three months and the reservation line is still ringing constantly but the system only allows reservations up to three months in advanced." He shook his head as he ran his hand through his hair. "Did you see that line out front? . . . Even if there were no reservations we couldn't handle that many people. There have already been two fights break out in that line." He glanced worriedly in the direction of the front door. "I called the police just before you got here. I don't know what else to do."

Robert thought a few seconds. "OK Oscar, here is what we are going to do. Turn off the reservation line then reset the reservation program from seventy-five percent of capacity to eighty-five percent. As of today we are by reservation only. Go outside, inform the crowd of the new policy then offer everyone currently in line the opportunity to make a reservation. Move the check-in desk over by the Valet parking desk. With the exception of those on our VIP list, no one is allowed inside without a reservation."

"I understand." Oscar looked down a moment then looked back up at Robert. "Was that really your daughter I saw in the President's news conference?"

"I'm afraid so." Robert glanced towards the front door. "And it looks like we are now dealing with some of the fallout." He shook his head with a short laugh. "And man is there fallout. Yesterday our home was surrounded by news reporters."

Oscar looked at him uncertainly. "If you don't mind me asking . . . How do you feel about what is going on with your daughter?" He looked down a bit embarrassed at his own temerity.

Robert thought for several seconds about his answer. "As far as her part in foiling the terrorists, I could not be more proud of her." He paused considering further. "About the . . . Alexander . . . I'm not sure how I feel. When my wife and daughter were mugged two weeks ago, he was the one that saved them. Kate tells me that he carried her all the way to the hospital rather than wait for an ambulance to show up. He got her there so fast that a potentially life threatening knife wound ended up being minor. And we all know about what he did at the UN." He rubbed his chin. "Taken as a whole he appears to be an exceptional person and my daughter's feelings for him are pretty clear. My wife seems to like him." He shrugged. "She could certainly do worse. I guess I will accept the situation . . . at least until I get a chance to meet him in person."

~ o ~

The United Nations Anti-terrorist Conference went off as planned and President Carlton opened it with an impassioned speech that rocked the world. He pointed out the attempted destruction of New York the previous week as ample proof of how truly dangerous the terrorists had become. He also again praised the heroism of the two young Americans and the New York District Attorney that had foiled the plot. The book written by Malik, after the 9/11 attack, shot up to number one.

Nearly two dozen members of the terrorist group involved in the nuclear bomb attempt were captured over the following two weeks. The press and the courts were not kind. Their whereabouts had to be kept secret to avoid lynch mobs.

Three countries that had been harboring terrorists scrambled to arrest or expel the terrorists within their borders. A civil war broke out in one small mid eastern country that tried to take the terrorists into custody. The UN was debating on a resolution to send troops into that country.

~ o ~

In the next few weeks the media had dubbed the young couple 'Alex-n-Alex' and was full of the relationship between the two heroes of the UN affair. The public followed their story like they were media stars. On one of the major video networks a segment called 'The Wells-Chandler Report' was added to their weekly news roundup program. They kept a running list of identified members of the Chandler-Wells family. They also kept track of what was happening with Alex-n-Alex.

There was still the darker side to their fame. In Wisconsin a fringe religious group created headlines by railing against the Wells-Chandlers and trying to incite a holy war against them. They even tried to have Alexandra, Patricia and Linda charged with bestiality. The courts though ignored them and threw out the charges. They were finally discredited in the general media by being accused of racial bigotry. A religious group in Ohio Insisted that the Wells-Chandlers were not truly human and did not warrant standard human rights and citizenship. They tried to introduce a bill to that effect in Congress but were basically laughed out of the capital. The terrorist groups claimed that the lion-men were all Satan's demons sent to prepare the way for hell on earth. By now most of the world had turned against the terrorists and ignored their ranting.

In California there was a group that claimed the whole thing was just a hoax dreamed up by the government and Hollywood. A surprisingly large number of people, though still a very tiny minority, actually bought their line.

The administration at NYU, where Alexandra was going to school, had to ban news crews from campus. Her paper on the life of the Chandler-Wells families living in secret in the heart of New York won her very high marks and garnered her prominence in the anthropological scientific community. She had concentrated on the ones that lived Above and was very careful to avoid mentioning anything about the tunnel community. Her Professor gave her full credit for both semesters of his class which moved her much closer to graduation. She was already taking more than the normal class hours as it was.

~ x x x x x ~

Everywhere posters went up with the words "Once Upon A Time in The City of New York" in large letters. A week later the words "The origin of the Creature of Central Park" were added to the posters below the original title.

Two weeks after the hospital news conference the new Brigit O'Donnell book hit the stores and became the number one best seller within two days. The fact that the unexplained deaths in '88 and '89 had been in defense of Catherine as well as what they cost Vincent emotionally, actually helped improve the public's perception of Vincent and his descendants. Soon young teenage girls were dreaming of finding a lion-man of their own that would love and protect them.

The forever monument in Central Park was discovered by the media and quickly became one of the more popular tourist attractions. Most of the park entrances to the tunnels were locked off because of the massive increase in the park traffic. The old family brownstone on Central Park West also drew a large share of gawkers. Mail was soon being delivered to the residences of known family members and Alexandra's home by the bag full.

The public was amazed at how many respected public figures there were in the family. There were two Texas state senators, one US congressman from Texas and the wife of the current mayor of New York, all descendants from Jennifer Chandler-Wells. Naomi Chandler-Wells had died a hero in the line of duty in the FBI and both of her children were currently decorated members of the FBI. Catherine's two youngest daughters had produced one top fashion model, a popular Connecticut radio personality and a highly respected US congresswoman from South Carolina. Jacobs Daughter Caroline was the U S Senator from New Jersey. Clarissa's connection also became clear. Many of the family members were heavily involved in the day to day operation of the widely respected Wells-Chandler Foundation. The public also found out about the part Jacob and Charles had played in foiling the dirty bomb attempt back in 2024. It had always been a mystery who had intercepted the couriers and delivered the disabled bomb to the FBI anti-terrorist Department office. The security tapes had shown two large hooded, cloaked figures placing the device and three tied up terrorists in the lobby just before sunrise.

Patricia's published research on the Wells-Chandler genetic anomaly had cemented her already high standing in the scientific community. It also helped to put an end to the controversy generated by the ex-Science Advisor.

All of these events were duly reported in the weekly Wells-Chandler Report.

Throughout all this, in part due to the clever way Brigit wrote her book and in part due to just blind luck along with certain erroneous assumptions by the public at large, the existence of the tunnel community had remained unknown.

~ x x x x x ~

The first week of February, a few days after Brigit's book came out, Alexander came home to the family brownstone from the hospital, accompanied by a great deal of fanfare in the media. His parents had moved there from Below in order to prevent exposure of the existence of the tunnel community. Doctor Peterson put Alexander on a very rigorous regimen of physical therapy and, to everyone's relief he quickly showed signs that his body was responding. By the middle of March, he was beginning to get some function back in his legs and he was able to get around on leg braces and crutches.

The third week in March, Alexandra's family was invited over so that her father could meet Alexander and his family. The first thing that struck Robert as they entered the brownstone was the quiet elegance of the place. He was informed that there had been very little change to the place since Vincent and Catherine's time. Most of the furniture was over a hundred and fifty years old. Susan and her husband were also in town and were invited along. Norman was feeling under the weather and had stayed home. All of Alexander's siblings were present. His cousin Thomas had come Above with his wife Sara and their two children, Adam, age 5, and Phillip, age 2.

Dinner conversation was lively and pleasant. Robert was impressed with William's culinary skill and there was some exchanging of recipes. Robert asked for and got permission to add two of Williams favorite recipes to his restaurant's menu. After dinner, William and Patricia related the story of how they met and their early difficulties. Robert also learned about the nature and extent of the empathic link between Alexander and Alexandra. These revelations gave him a lot to consider. He was touched when told about their habit of sending an emotional 'I love you' to each other when they went to bed each night.

Later that evening Robert and William ended up away from the others, discussing the relationship and future of Alexander and Alexandra over a game of chess. William told him what it was like for those like him to be in love and to be linked. Robert found that he envied William having that close of a relationship with his mate. They ended up pretty evenly matched and it was a hard fought game. By the end of the game a strong friendship had developed between them.

Kate and Patricia ended up in the nursery "oohing and aahing", and generally bonding over the two children. Kate found that she was now actually looking forward to the possibility of grandchildren like these. Sara and Patricia both gave Kate some insight into what it was like being in love and married to a Chandler-Wells. She found herself intrigued, amazed, and just a touch envious.

Alexander and Alexandra took the elevator to the rooftop garden and did what young lovers normally do when they get a few moments off alone under the stars.

Around midnight when Robert and Kate got ready to go, they found the lovers sound asleep in each other's arms on the divan in the rooftop garden. After a bit of quiet discussion about the situation Alexander woke up and, taking in the group standing around them, gently woke Alexandra. About a half hour later Robert, Kate and Alexandra headed home.

Robert had been very impressed with Alexander's family and he had actually developed quite a fondness for the boy. Alexander's personality was very much like his own had been at that age. The image of the two of them asleep on the rooftop divan, particularly the sweet gentle way he had awakened her, had touched his heart. He decided that Alexa had actually done very well in her choice of a mate. As close as he and Kate were, and they were still very much in love, it was nothing compared with the close relationship that Alexa and Alexander would enjoy.

~ x x x x x ~

By the middle of April, Alexander was able to get around with the help of just a cane. He started using a cane he found in the basement with a head shaped like a springing lion that was supposed to have originally belonged to Catherine. His right leg was fully functional but his left leg was still very weak. The two young lovers decided to try going out for dinner. Robert suggested they come to his restaurant, on the house. They soon found out what it was like to be major celebrities out in public. The staff of the restaurant was expert in this type of situation and was able to keep it down to a reasonable level.

At least a dozen young teenage girls wanted a picture with him and/or his autograph. Many other's just wanted to meet the saviors of New York. Alexandra had become accustom to the attention her stunning good looks produced but this was different and at times just a touch unnerving. Despite the multiple interruptions, they both managed to enjoy themselves. After dinner they went to a Broadway play. Since the massive renovation of Broadway thirty years ago it had again become the center of culture it had been before. At the end of the first half the manager of the theatre announced that Alex-n-Alex were present in the audience and they were energetically applauded.

At intermission they were nearly mobbed by all the people that simply wanted to see them. They also got a taste of the royal treatment from the theatre staff and, after the play, were invited backstage to meet the actors. They were both a bit star struck, though the actors were the ones that were the most star struck. All in all it was an experience they would not soon forget.

~ o ~

The next day, Alexandra, Alexander and Clarissa all received invitations from the Whitehouse by special courier. They were invited to bring their families to Washington D.C. in one week where they would be presented with the Medal of Freedom award for their parts in preventing the destruction of New York City.

Continued in Part 22

'Beauty and the Beast' and its characters are owned by Witt-Thomas Productions and Republic Pictures. No infringement on copyrights is intended. This story is presented merely for the enjoyment of fans. Original concepts and story elements may be used by other authors as long as appropriate credit is given.