Ana
"He's just so..." she brushed a finger over Teddy's soft cheek.
"Perfect. He's perfect." Christian leaned over them both kissing the tiny sleeping bundle on the head, and then brought his lips to hers in a kiss of pure tenderness.
"I do love you, Mrs. Grey."
"Hmm, yes, so so much." She answered. Everyone had come and gone, his parents, Kate and Elliot, Mia and Ethan. Her mother was already on a plane, not willing to wait for Christian to send the private jet, and Ray was driving up later. It was just the two of them now and the life they created, a living breathing miracle, bathed in the soft glow of low lamp-light. He was, as Christian said, perfect.
A soft knock on the door, had them both looking up to see Aunt Talulah enter. Normally only immediate family could enter the rooms, but with Auntie being some famous celebrity Doctor Genius, the rules probably didn't apply.
"I'm sorry to interrupt, but I'm leaving soon." She crossed over to them and ran her eyes over her namesake.
"A first-born male is very rare in for those with McGovern blood." Smiling she reached down with one finger and stroked Teddy's arm through his sleeve, "He will grow to be a remarkable man."
Alrighty then, she wasn't arguing. Even if she wanted to, she wouldn't have a clue where to start.
"I have something for you," Aunt Talulah brought up her other hand. It held a book, a very old one.
Christian reached down and took Teddy from her.
With great care, Ana took the book and opened it. Her eyes took in the carefully preserved pages, the hand written words, the signature, "Oh my God.." She looked into the woman's serene, smiling face, "I can't accept this."
"Of course you can dear. It's your birthright. Besides, you can't refuse a boon."
"A boon?"
"A gift granted, there are certain occasions that call for them. The birth of a new McGovern is one."
"I...well..alright, Thank-you." No way were those words adequate.
"They were McGoverns you know."
"Really?"
"Oh yes, just like you they were direct decedents of Laird McGovern's youngest daughter, Alliana Rose. So, of course this belongs with you."
Ana closed the book reverently. A collection of letters, between the Bronte' sisters. It had to be worth...well...a lot, "I don't know what to say."
"You needn't say anything child. You're a McGovern. You're family." Talulah then turned her gaze on Christian, "You too, are entitled to a boon..."
"The scone recipe." the words leaped from his lips causing Auntie to blink a couple of times and then erupt into laughter. Oh wow, so this was where Mckenna got that disturbing laugh. Shivers went up and down Ana's spine that didn't stop until the woman sobered.
"Very well, I suppose it's a fitting gift for the man who has everything." another small chuckle escaped, "And now I'll say good-bye. I need to be in New York this evening, and I have a couple of things to discuss with the girls, some loose ends to wrap up..." the woman shrugged a shoulder very much like what Ana had seen Lena do numerous times.
"My jet is at your disposal."
"Well, thank you, that's so very kind," And there were Allie's perfect manners, "but I already have transportation. Some old friends of mine are doing me a favor. Congratulations to you both, and again, welcome." and with that, gracious, kind, generous, well-mannered, scary as shit Great Aunt Talulah turned and left.
"Damn," Christian shook his head, "How the hell does she do it?"
"Do what?" What the hell did she do?
Christian took the book and laid it on a side table, then handing Teddy back to her, he climbed into bed and wrapped his arms around them both, "How does she manage to be so gracious and so terrifying at the same time?"
She smiled up at him, "I'm so glad you said that. I thought I was just being paranoid."
"Oh, hell no, not possible with that one. Damn, I'm glad we're family. If I knew that woman was out there somewhere and not an ally.. Shit, I wouldn't sleep nights."
She would have called Fifty out for being over-protective, but as she felt the same way, it would have been disingenuous.
Mckenna
Here it is, the moment of truth, everyone else has left the hospital, but Auntie had asked us to hang around, so we could have a nice little chat. Uh-huh, Auntie's chats are a lot of things, nerve-wracking, unsettling, and sometimes, downright terrifying, but nice, no not so much. Standing in front of us with her arms crossed in front of her chest, her eyes watching, I get the distinct impression there's nothing we could tell her she doesn't already know, "Now, exactly what have you been up to?"
And that's all it takes. The four of us start babbling at once.
"Well, Grey saved Nigel, and Granny Rose is dead..."
"...she got back from Scotland and just took the...fu..uh...fudge off...
"..I missed the sale at Neiman's...Gavin flew us..."
"...I found a Jack in the alley...he's really sweet..."
"...car blew into a fire bomb..."
"...I was a little tired...took me awhile..."
"...gave the kitten to Jessie..."
"...technically illegal, but he had a heart condition..."
"..that Skeevy bitch knew more..."
"...Skank...withheld info..."
"...Evil troll...probably drowns puppies for fun..."
"...it was a nice salon..."
"...Mac scared her spitless..."
"Stop." Auntie didn't raise her voice even a smidgen, but it cut off our rambling instantly, "Anwynn Mckenna, you frightened this woman?"
Oh, shit. "Well, uh..."
"Girls, you know how I feel about making threats."
"Yes, ma'am." I nod
"It's in bad taste.." Allie offers.
"..and ineffective.." Christy's twisting her hands.
"..and a waste of time." Lena finishes, her head down.
"Yes, that's right." Auntie nods, her eyes skirting over us, "I must say, I'm disappointed that you would resort to such a tasteless display."
"Yes, ma'am.."
"...sorry.."
"...we'll do better.."
"..won't happen again..."
"Oh, I don't believe that for a minute." A ghost of a smile flows over her, and I see the affection that always warms me when I'm in her presence, "You're young, and some things are only acquired with time. Temperance is one of them. However, I am quite proud of how you handled this over-all. You did extremely well."
Whew, okay yes we're relieved.
"Now, I need to speak to Mckenna privately, then I'm off to New York." Auntie leans in and kisses my sisters goodbye, "Behave."
"Yes, ma'am." my sisters respond in unison and high-tail it while the high-tailin's good. They're down the hall and around the corner in half a second. Lucky Bitches.
"Now, walk with me Mckenna, I believe there's a coke machine down this hall somewhere and I intend to find it."
Yep, Auntie loves her Coca-Cola.
We head out of the waiting area and down the hall in the opposite direction of my sisters. It's basically deserted as it's barely four a.m. The echoing silence the only sound besides our own voices.
"I heard about what happened."
Of the numerous things she could be talking about I know it's about my confession, "I needed Lincoln to move."
"Yes," Auntie lowers her head in a thoughtful nod, "it's always best to get the snake out of the tall grass."
"Right, so we needed to look vulnerable." I tell my aunt what no one knows. That those excruciating moments in the kitchen had been a predetermined, calculated decision on my part.
"So you told your mother's story." She receives this information with nothing more than another nod.
"Yes, and mine."
"Yes, child, always. It was always yours to tell or hold."
"It worked." It seemed right somehow, telling the story of the mother I lost, to save the woman who was so like her.
"Of course,when do your plans not work?"
Well, she had me there.
"You and Gavin have come to terms."
Come to terms, what a way to put it, "I suppose, yes."
"Some things in this existence run deeper than our very souls. There is no fighting them. The bond between Gavin and yourself is one of these."
"Yes." Aunt Talulah could wax poetic with deadly accuracy.
We continue down the hall in silence. My Aunt's heels clicking on the linoleum. She, like Allie has a fondness for stilettos. You'd think a seventy-something woman couldn't carry that off, but then Auntie blew every little old lady stereo-type all to hell and back.
"Thresher got away." The quiet words fall from her lips and into the cold silence and...wait..what...
"What?" Lincoln's partner. The single largest human trafficker operating in the former soviet block. An old enemy, the man behind Allie's kidnapping years ago. Him getting away, again was not good.
"I'm sorry, he was prepared for the possibility of failure."
"Damn, smart mother-fucker."
"Anwynn Mckenna!"
"Sorry.."
"Not that I don't agree, "She sniffed, pushing through two swinging double doors, into yet another deserted hallway, "He set it up so that there was a choice of going for him or saving the child."
"That's how he got away before. What the hell? They weren't prepared for that?"
"There were numerous hostages spread out around the compound, all strapped to motion sensitive explosives."
"Shit...oh sorry."
"Hmmm, yes, I wonder if we should have washed your mouths out with soap growing up." we turn a corner and there, like a beacon in the night, the bright red and white neon logo, Auntie's steps quicken.
"Well, I don't know...if the wooden spoon didn't work..."
"True, true..." We stop in front of the coke machine. Auntie reaches inside her designer jacket and pulls out the exact amount needed . As soon as we hear the bottle drop, I see her shoulders relax. Pulling it out she twists off the cap and takes a huge gulp...and another...and another. How she does this I don't know. She reminds me of Lena , with her coffee, or anybody's coffee for that matter.
After gulping half the bottle, she reaches back into that inner pocket, this time she produces a thumb drive, "I need you to review this."
I take the thumb drive, I prefer hard copies, but I can make do, "Yes, of course."
"It's everything we found at the compound. The photos disturb me, but I can't nail down why."
"I'll look at it immediately." If Auntie's bothered there's a hell of a reason.
"Call me as soon as you know something. I'll be occupied this evening..."
"I'll leave a message."
"Good, now, walk me out and tell me more about this - what did you call her, skank, bitch, troll person."
Elena
She stepped out of her front door and took a deep cleansing breath. Stretching in preparation for her morning jog. It centered her, and right now she needed to be centered. Art was dead. Her lawyer had called her at one a.m. He didn't know the details. She didn't need them. If Christian hadn't killed him, he'd arranged it. He took care of what was his. She refused to acknowledge the bitterness that filled her at the thought. His wife and now his child. He thought he was happy, maybe he was...for now, but she consoled herself with the knowledge that it would only be a matter of time before he'd crave it. The pain and the pleasure, and she would be waiting.. ready.. when he needed her again. She was just into her final stretch when the limo pulled up in front of her house, "Christian..." she jogged easily down the walk, not wanting to appear eager. She wasn't after all, no she was patient.
Just as she reached the vehicle, the door opened, and a man got out. Dressed in a dark suit, wearing dark glasses even though the day was overcast, "Ms. Lincoln?"
"Yes,"
"I'm here to escort you."
"Oh, should I change?" What was Christian doing? Probably apologizing for those insane females threatening her.
"No ma'am, that won't be necessary."
"Alright," she climbed into the limo, and her breath caught. There on the seat sat a silver tray laden with chocolate covered strawberries. They were her absolute favorite confection. He used to feed her...with a shaking hand she picked up the card, the heavy white linen felt rich in her hands. Flipping it open she read one word penned in dark heavy calligraphy.
Enjoy.
Joy and vicious satisfaction bloomed in her chest, warming her. She plucked one of the strawberries up and bit into it, the juice running down her chin, greedily she lapped it up.
He was back. Hers again. Her mind raced with the possibilities. He needed to be punished for all he'd put her through. She reached for another berry, her body heating as the images ran through her mind.
Christian
"Dr. Bronwyn Theodora Ward...You're serious?"
"Yes, you've heard of her, I assume."
Flynn's bark of laughter filled the sparsely populated waiting room, "You could say that. Everyone in the medical field has heard of her."
He'd found Flynn in the waiting area holding a huge bouquet of flowers in one had and a bunch of balloons in the other, when he'd stepped out of the room to take a call from Roz.
He'd briefly filled him in on the last twenty-four hours. Beginning with getting hit in the head by one of his security team, followed up with the weapons hidden all over his house, Trudy's dramatic rescue of his wife, and Lincoln's gory demise. The Doctor had taken all this in rather serenely, having already been desensitized to chaos thanks to his McGovern exposure, but when he got to the part about Aunt Talulah's actual identity the man quite literally flipped.
"Wait a minute...shit" Flynn began muttering, his eyes taking on a distant look, "Oh shit... oh fucking shit...Holy Moses..." The doctor's face losing all color, he sank into one of the waiting room chairs.
What the fuck? He'd known the man over ten years, had never seen him like this, "What, what is it?"
"Remember, I told you a woman came and checked Miss McGovern out."
"When she was a child, the hospital. Someone with a lot of influence...Aunt Talulah."
Another harsh bark of laughter from Flynn, "Damn, Talulah." he shook his head, "Dr. Bronwyn Theodora Ward, was a prodigy and brilliant. She's an OBGYN. You wouldn't believe the strides she's made in women's medicine, as well as the amazing things she's done with charities to protect and care for women. She keeps it all very quiet, but her work is the stuff of legend."
"Yes, she seems a remarkable woman." But that wouldn't cause Flynn to go weak in the knees, "What are you not saying."
"Plenty, believe me, but this is what you need to know. "Dr. Bronwyn Theodora Ward is the world's leading authority on plant based toxins."
"What?" He wasn't as shocked as he should have been, from what he already knew about the McGovern women and his specific impressions of Auntie, it made sense in a way.
"Oh yes, she's a brilliant chemist. She taught at MIT for years, and is rumored to be a consultant to various government organizations, including, but not limited to the CIA.
Now that would make a man weak in the knees, and his were feeling downright wobbly, "Shit, you mean..."
"I'm not saying she's a cold-blooded killer, or anything like that. I've never met the woman."
Well he had, and hell yes, she was a cold-blooded killer.
"But I did do a little research after reading Mckenna's file. There was one oblique reference to the three researchers testing her..."
"Torturing her you mean."
"Yes, it was the number three and the year that made me curious. She was admitted to the hospital March 14th 1994. That same year three of the leading authorities in the field of Neuro-science died, a heart attack, a stroke, and anaphylactic shock."
"Shit!"
"Yes, quite the coincidence, isn't it."
Elena
The limo stopped. Excitement ran through her veins, heating her blood, even her skin felt flushed. The door opened, "Christian..."
The word froze on her lips. It wasn't Christian's auburn head, but a silver one that filled her vision. A woman entered the limo. An older woman, impeccably dressed in an elegant navy suit, her silver hair gleamed in the brief morning light before the door was closed. Elena took all this in, before settling on the woman's eyes. The woman's cold dark, nearly black eyes. Her heated skin suddenly chilled.
"Who are you, where's Christian?"
"Christian? The woman's elegant brows rose, as if the question were absurd, "Why, I imagine he's at the side of his wife and newborn child, basking in the glow of his love and happiness."
"I don't understand."
The woman's face warmed to something like pity, but not quite, somehow this was more frightening than the cold darkness, "No, I can see you don't. Sometimes, it's what's right in front of us that we fail to see."
"What is this?"
"An offer for your future happiness."
"Please explain."
"Of course, first I should introduce myself and apologize."
"Apologize?"
"Yes, I believe my nieces gave you a bit of a nasty fright."
Elena's gaze shot back to the woman's eyes, just like the woman at her salon, "They threatened me."
"Yes, the little scamps can get carried away I'm afraid."
"Carried away?They told me they could kill me in under ten seconds."
"Ah, yes that would be Lena. She's quite fast."
Something about all of this was very wrong. Her skin felt chilled and clammy, she went to rub her arms, but had trouble lifting her hands.
"I'm their Aunt, and I'd give you my real name, but for the purposes of this visit it's unnecessary. You may call me Oleander."
"Olle ...aa..nder.." her lips stuttered over the word.
With increasing panic, she saw the woman reach inside her jacket and pull out a syringe, "Wwhhhatttt..."
"Don't try to speak dear, it will just take needed energy from your vital organs." the woman held up the syringe, pushing the plunger, and tapping the side with one beautifully manicured finger. Elena saw fluid shoot from the needle, as gray dots floated across her eyes. Oh God...Oleander...her eyes darted to the strawberries.
"Yes, it was in the berries. Poison is such an insidious weapon. If one knows how to use it, there is no way to guard against them."
"p..pp..leeez...zz..." inside she screamed, cried, begged, desperate horror gripped her lungs, there was no air...please, please ...but her body did nothing.
"I don't want you dead, child." The woman's eyes warmed once again to that look that was at once comforting and terrifying, "In fact, I want you to be happy, and you can't truly be happy until you let go of the past."
The woman kept talking but she couldn't understand the words. Through slitted lids she saw her sit forward, felt the sharp bite of the syringe...
8