Chapter 21

Very Early Morning, Tuesday July 2nd, 2019

Before they realized it, they were honking farewells to Nancy, formerly the owner of 'Diner the Great' in Silver Spring, as she turned off at the exit for Taos. Now they were only two hours and fifteen minutes out from Albuquerque, under three hours to the ranch. With little traffic, they reached the city limits of their new hometown in ninety minutes. Shannon was driving and Jethro pulled out his phone to call his son. He looked at his watch, it was 0200 but they'd promised so he called.

Tim picked up right away. He'd given up trying to sleep and was again on the screened porch with Jerry and George. "Dad, Mom?"

"We're in Albuquerque, son, we'll be there in about 20 minutes."

"Wonderful, can't wait to see you all!"

"Same here."

"Your beds are ready, you can tumble right in."

He laughed when he heard his mother say, "I knew I loved you for a reason!"

They turned on the porch lights and the floodlight Tim had attached to the side of the gate at the edge of the driveway. He'd planned to put it on a power pole, forgetting the power and communication lines were underground out here. He'd also set up floodlights on one end of the barn and would turn those on when the first truck turned into the driveway. The shelter perimeter was outlined with double lines of solar lights and barricaded by the Bishops' vehicles, parked at a safe distance from the excavation site.

He walked out on the road, grinning as he saw the Ortizes had their lights blazing too. That was a nice welcome! When he saw dozens of pinpoints of light stretching back over the curves of the road, he knew it was the caravan, probably still a good 10 miles out. He took several photos hoping one of them would have some definition to it. It was a pretty sight, akin to a candlelight procession curving around although these 'candles' were large headlights. He watched for a minute and then hurried back to his driveway and waited, now on the front porch with Jerry, George, and John, who had joined them.

Toni appeared on the porch, fully dressed. "I saw the lights go on, are they close?"

"Yes, I walked out on the road and saw their headlights stretched out over Quail Hill, around that last curve before the road straightens out again. It was really something, a parade of lights. I think they were about ten miles out; they'll be here in a few minutes."

"Thank heavens!"

They all nodded at that and when Pete's truck entered the driveway, Tim felt one of the bigger knots in his stomach dissolving. Once again, his deepest fear - being separated from his loved ones - had been bested.

Out on the road, the other moving vans pulled forward as cars, the RV and pickup trucks pulled off to the side in preplanned, almost choreographed moves. The big trucks needed to enter the property and then back in fairly close to the house; they had first dibs on parking.

Most of the residents poured out of the house, guesthouses, and barn to watch the spectacle although it was a little ho-hum at first. Having discussed the layout with Jethro, Pete knew where he wanted the movers to park. Once he got situated, he honked twice and the next truck drove in and parked following Pete's direction. They followed that pattern until all four of the trucks were in place and then all four honked as a signal for the rest of the caravan to come on home. Even though all the floodlights were on, Tim, Leon, Rob, Jerry and John hurried into the yard with flashlights, directing traffic.

And then chaos descended on them as the drivers parked and poured from the vehicles to greet family and friends. When they finally turned toward the house, the children were on the porch, under the watchful eyes of the older kids. Ty and Brynie were nearly bursting with excitement and when their father got close he nodded to Matt Crane, who was closest to them, and with a grin, the young man said one word to Ty: "Go!"

He grabbed his sister by the hand and they ran to their grandparents, nearly jumping in their arms. Tim was prepared and put out an arm to slow them down. "No jumping, they're very tired!"

Poppy and Nonny were grateful for that, pretty sure they would have just gone straight to the ground if the kids had jumped them. Once the two had properly greeted their grandparents, they found aunts, uncles, and friends to welcome.

Within a few minutes, everyone was in or around the house. The movers were given a hot meal before three of them walked wearily back to their cabs to catch some sleep. Unloading would wait for daylight. Pete, an arm around his wife, disappeared into the library where she'd been trying to sleep.

At first they thought of unloading the cars and trucks but then Tim pointed out it would be confusing in the dark and they'd likely have to move some things again in daylight. That killed that idea in favor of food and sleep. They'd made bag lunches for everyone and handed those out as the drivers were escorted to their assigned beds with the Rourkes spending another night in their RV.

By 0330, ninety minutes after Jethro's call, the lights were out and the residents of Rancho la Serenidad were tucked in for the rest of the night. Serenidad is the Spanish noun for serenity, they'd finally agreed on a name.

By 0830, several people were up and moving around, fixing themselves breakfast and beverages. Keys to all the vehicles but the big trucks had been left out, labeled with the vehicle plates so the first folks dressed and not tending to little ones headed outside to start unloading. Over the last few days, the decision had been made to store items for After in the last two outbuildings not yet converted to guesthouses.

Leaving the movers to sleep, individual vehicles were unloaded first. Each box or item was labeled for either shelter or storage. Shelter items were trundled to the main door of the shelter and carefully piled there.

While one team did that, another team carried the boxes and items inside the shelter. Each item was placed outside the wall of the appropriate bedroom; Tim and Rob had stapled the name signs to the doors the day before. They'd thought to put odd items inside the rooms but realized that would hinder moving the beds. Boxes of books went to the library or classroom, depending on the labels.

By the time they had the Colonel's chair, the heaviest item from the individual vehicles, moved in, the movers were awake, fed and ready to start unloading. The beds, box springs and frames came first and Tim was very happy that everything for each owner had been carefully grouped together. While that was underway, Rob, Matt Crane (there were now two Matts, one a teen-aged foster of the Cranes, one a 7-year-old Bishop) and Emily Fornell helped move the Rourkes' mattress into their shelter room, laying it atop the platform made by Steve Ortiz.

Elaine beamed, "Thank you so much, oh this is wonderful!"

John and George had already moved a dresser from the house for them, which made the Rourkes even happier. Emily and Ainsley stayed to help with their suitcases while Jacob helped with the general unloading.

Once the beds and cribs were in, water and food came next. Several of the large containers of water were placed between the kitchen and laundry area with a length of hose and a metal bucket hung nearby on a hook screwed into the concrete wall. The shelter vendor assured Jerry that lightweight hooks, rated to hold up to 8 pounds, would not compromise the integrity of the shelter walls. The bucket and hose were there to make getting the water out of the huge containers easier; it could be siphoned into the bucket rather than lifting the whole container. One of the storage cabinets was placed there too. Laundry detergent and dishwasher soap would be stored in there along with various other items. The laundry schedule would eventually be taped to the doors.

The rest of the water containers were carried into the tunnel and covered with a large tarp. They'd move them into the shelter as needed.

Headboards and foot-boards came next while the movers got the appliances onto dollies and wheeled them down the ramps. Not surprisingly, many of the headboards and all of the foot-boards ended up in storage. The few headboards remaining were fastened to bed frames by their owners. The Carters had a clever shelf fastened to their headboard, running the width of their bed, essentially giving them most of the storage space they would have had with nightstands. There were even cables running along the front to prevent anything from sliding off and onto sleeping heads. Jethro spotted it from outside the room and asked to take a closer look. When Rick agreed to his suggestion that the shelf could handle a little more weight with the addition of a bracket attached all the way through to the concrete wall, Jethro grabbed his drill, bolt and anchor, a small bracket and had it done in minutes. As he admired the shelf, he decided to make a few, at least one for each of his kids; he'd brought some cut boards as well the lumber he'd bundled together. He'd have to modify the pattern a bit but that shouldn't be a problem.

While he helped move the ovens, freezers, dishwasher, washers, dryers and refrigerators in and then helped Tim get them hooked up to the power grid, he thought about that shelf and how many he could make. He'd start with one for his and Shannon's room, then one for each of his kids and if there was time, he'd do more if anyone wanted one. He had two big jars full of bolts meant for concrete and as long as they kept the weight load down, they should be fine.

The beds, appliances, water, and food were in and now they could see the back of three of the vans. Several couches were moved in and when there was plenty of room left, a few more were added. Several recliners and casual chairs joined them, enough for about 45 people to sit at a time. That was more than half of the population; with another three couches added, they were up to two-thirds. Side tables were placed here and there and the lounge was complete. The rest of the couches, chairs and side tables would go into the classroom, library, media room or storage.

The media room soon had 6 TVs and as many DVD and DVD/VHS players. Five sofas, several chairs, side tables and eventually a few dressers were carried in; the dressers would hold the TVs, players, VHS tapes, DVDs. A few blanket throws completed the furnishings. While the walls of the garden, media, library and fitness rooms were concrete, the shelter crew added prefab walls to the sides, front and then hung doors so that each of those rooms could be closed off for noise control and the illusion of privacy.

Next came the dining tables and chairs. Once they had all of them out of the trucks, the shelter residents chose several smaller tables, four and six seaters, and five large ones, including Ducky's. Again, these would seat roughly 2/3rds of the population at a time.

Tim was happy to see both the Colonel and Ducky's library tables go directly to the classroom along with Mateo's tiny table, more of the unused dining tables and nearly all of the side chairs. Two desks and rolling chairs came in and went on opposite sides and ends of the large room for the teachers' use.

Next was a screened room divider Tim hadn't seen before; Bob told him it was Mel's. She'd planned to leave it behind but they thought it might be useful for the classroom and brought it to the warehouse Friday night during the President's emergency address. It wasn't long enough for the entire length of the classroom but Jethro brought in unused wall and door partitions and those helped. Bookcases were placed across the back and front while two side by side bookcases formed the end of the divider, one facing one side of the room, the other facing the opposite.

At some point, they'd discarded the plan to keep slaughter animals. They had powdered milk, powdered eggs, water to mix with them and freezers and shelves to store the meat they'd purchased. With three generators, they'd be sure to have some power and if the freezers or refrigerators failed for some reason, they had enough canned food, including baby food, and a large supply of jerky to last the duration. Jethro and Jerry moved two of the grills into the tunnel, along with several bags of charcoal and wood. Just in case or at least that's what they said.

With no natural light, floor and table lamps would be needed along with the overhead lights. Those were randomly placed; they could be moved around as appropriate and there were enough for each bedroom although several people brought their own.

At least forty containers of seedlings, carefully transported in the back seat of the Gibbses' truck, were brought down and Tim and Geo hung the grow lights for them while Bec and Kelly assembled the drip system piping that would keep the plants moist without wasting any of their precious water. Bec brought a small water tank, they would empty their filtered gray water into that and the drip system would distribute it to the plants. Along with carrots, spinach, cabbage, lettuce and kale were peas, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, red potatoes, corn, onions, several kinds of beans and several tasty or scented herbs.

Tim popped back in later to see what was going on and smiled when he spotted the pots of soy and canola beans marked 'for Tim's use only' – his future fuel! And then he grinned when his father carried in an apple tree. It wasn't the original one, that had been too big for the trip, but it would eventually give them home-grown apples. They wouldn't have any while it was in the shelter as they had no pollinators but he was happy to see it nonetheless. Pollination would be done by hand for the rest of the plants that needed it.

When his mother asked Tim to come outside he went, wondering what was happening. When he reached the trucks he remembered an off the cuff whimsical wish as Mover#4 backed a yellow and black muscle car out of the van and down the ramp.

The NCIS crowd gathered around as Jethro approached the car, the look on his face priceless. As if his fairy godmother had just granted a wish. He blinked and blinked again before reaching out to touch the vehicle.

Shannon kissed him, "Surprise, honey!"

He frowned, just as Tim predicted. "Who did this, Shannon? Such a lot of space, we could have used it for other things."

His kids edged up through the crowd, laughing at him and Geo called out, "Dad, you gonna send it back?"

He turned, trying to keep the frown but his grin won out and he swept his wife into his arms for a deep kiss, to the delight of the entire crowd. When she was back on her feet, she pointed at Tim, who'd retreated to stand with his wife, kids and siblings.

"It was Tim's idea."

Tim blanched and turned, trying to disappear into the crowd but his escape was blocked and then two strong arms wrapped around him. "Thank you, son!"

Cheers and applause went up from the bystanders, even the movers were laughing. Then, the break over, more dressers came off truck#4; they'd been tucked behind the Challenger. By this time, the residents were aware of the space available for the dressers and the measurements of that space. Those who had vertical dressers, sometimes known as 'highboys', had no problems, in fact in some cases they could fit two side by side. Some of the horizontal dressers fit but most would not. As there were extra vertical storage cabinets and vertical bookshelves, those would stand in for the dressers.

Several of the too-large dressers went into storage; a few were used elsewhere in the shelter. Three matching in height and depth became a long kitchen 'island' with oilcloth from someone's stash fastened on the top to prevent any damage, the drawers used for storage. Others were used in the media room; one went in the nursery as an extra changing table and three swapped places with the vertical storage cabinets in the pantry.

Tim was happy when all his family's dressers fit. The kids' dressers went in the nursery, girls' or boys' rooms, next to the crib or bed of each child. Brynie's had two drawers across and four up; a tall dresser painted her favorite colors while Tyler and Lia's were vertical also painted their favorite colors although Lia's was really her mommy's favorite colors. Tim's was vertical; Ellie left her horizontal bureau behind, bringing the vertical one from their downstairs bedroom instead.

Mac was pleased with his new dresser. Jethro and Shannon surprised Mateo and Rob with new dressers, ordered online and delivered here. Jethro took a few minutes to assemble them, with help from his youngest son, their new friend and Brynie who explained proudly that she and her daddy already built Grandpa's new dresser.

One of the questions asked while planning the bedrooms was if any of the singles might want to share a room. Now Tim and the shelter group were glad they shelved the idea as they'd be living communally anyway and the bedrooms were the only places with the slightest modicum of privacy.

They'd been a little surprised to find the bathrooms had three toilets apiece, in privacy stalls but still they were not separate rooms and of course there were no 'baths'. In place of sinks, a shelf held boxes of hand wipes and a tube of NoAgua, with a trash can below. When someone suggested adding portable fans to the restrooms, Tim again gathered his electrician's tools, adding an outlet to each restroom. Between the residents, they scrounged up enough fans of varying sizes. Each of those rooms also had storage for extra toilet paper and air freshener.

When they had everything inside if not exactly in place - the canned food was still in boxes in the pantry - they were hungry. Back outside, they made a group decision to have another barbecue. With Jacob coaching as to quantities, Jethro and Jerry fired up four of Jethro's grills. Tim, Ellie and Shannon washed, sliced and prepared several pounds of potatoes for roasting while Tobias and Tony did the same with Mrs. Wares' fresh vegetables. Wrapped in foil, the potatoes and veggies went on the grills first as they'd take longer to cook than the burgers. Sarah and Bob made iced tea, iced coffee and lemonade, first making sure there was enough ice.

While the prep work was in progress, Rick, Geo and Ned drove to the nearest grocery store, a 10-mile drive, buying enough ice cream for dessert. On their way to the store, they stopped at a roadside stand selling locally grown fresh blackberries. The men purchased the entire inventory of blackberries along with every other fresh fruit or berry the vendors had.

By the time the shoppers returned, the rest of the crew had a very long makeshift table in place with patio chairs, chairs from the house and shelter. And five high chairs for their babies and toddlers. While Arin DiNozzo was old enough for a booster seat, he was a tiny little boy and felt more secure in a high chair.

The three movers weren't leaving until after dark, they had a shelter waiting for them in eastern Arizona and planned to drive to their destination that night, still convoying. Each of them had shipped personal belongings ahead so once they got to their destination they'd lock up their trucks, prepare the cab for long-term storage, grab their go bags and take shelter.

Today was July 2nd; they were cutting it close but all three were confident they'd get to safety in time. The youngest one quipped that they knew how to make a trench shelter under the trucks if they had to. There was dead silence and then Geo said, "Take some of the plastic bags then, I've seen pictures of people covering themselves with those to protect from the stuff in the air."

"Nah thanks; we have plenty of those ourselves and we'll be there in plenty of time, it's less than a 4 hour drive to Winslow, where we're sheltering."

Pete looked at them, "Send me a text when you get to the shelter."

They agreed and the others relaxed. As they sat around the table, enjoying their feast, most couldn't help looking around at what they could see of the ranch. For those who'd driven in early this morning, this was really the first chance they'd had to catch their breaths and look around.

With a slight breeze to keep the insects away, everyone relaxed as they ate and drank, almost able to forget their troubles. The food was delicious and best of all there was little mess to clean up as they'd used disposable plates and utensils. Those were swept into garbage bags and placed into bins that were rolled out to the road; garbage day was Wednesday.

After cleaning up, the three truckers wished everyone good luck and took off for Arizona. The makeshift table was dismantled, the furniture returned to house, shelter or storage, the younger children bathed and tucked into bed.

Radios and laptops were turned on for the news. The government reported that 89% of the population in the designated evacuation zone had been evacuated. The US Navy, Coast Guard ships, Royal British and Canadian Navy and several other countries' ships and private boats were assisting, reminding history buffs of the rescue at Dunkirk during World War II.

Private yachts, fishing boats and others formed flotillas and took their passengers north to Maine, Canada or south to Florida and some of the Caribbean nations. The various Navy and Coast Guard ships continued to evacuate people from the offshore islands, along the coast, around Chesapeake Bay, heading for parts unknown.

Dave and Jim looked at each other before Dave said, "They're taking them to Canadian seaports, Puerto Rico, the American and British Virgin Islands, Jamaica, Trinidad-Tobago and Guantanamo Bay. There's plenty of room at Gitmo now and the Cubans will help."

They nodded when ZNN broke the news that the Cuban government was taking in thousands of refugees from the U.S. The irony of that was lost only on those too young to remember the years when thousands fled Cuba in frequently inadequate boats.

Although the government target for evacuation was 100% it was also reported that thousands of shelters were being built everywhere along the East Coast of the US and Canada, and as far west as Arizona. Officials reported that all the government servers and vital equipment had been removed from the expected blast zones as had the documents and treasures from the National Archives. The Smithsonian, National Art Gallery and many other museums had moved as many artifacts as possible to safer locations and Tim looked at Ducky who looked relieved and saddened. He felt the same way but at least they'd had warning.

He sighed, saying, "Every life, every treasure saved we owe to those two agents who died getting those files. And to the allied agent they gave that thumb drive, for getting it to the U.S. They're the heroes in this story."

Ellie leaned into him, kissing him softly, "You're right, sweetheart, and you helped continue their mission by breaking that last code. If you hadn't done that, we'd still be in DC and millions would likely die."

Tim blinked, he hadn't thought about it like that. He was doing his job but so had they and they were heroes to him. He kissed Ellie. Exhausted from the long day of physical labor, the group turned in early.