Fin was sprinting down the long hallway as fast as her could, his footsteps echoing in the vast stone chamber.
"Fin!" the scream of his terrified wife cried out. "Fin, help me please!"
"Liv!" he shouted back, his heart racing as he looked around desperately for any doorway, any corner that would lead him to his wife, but found none.
"Baby Girl, where are you? Talk to me, Olivia!" A terrified blood curdling shriek was his only answer followed by the unmistakable sound of a screaming infant from behind him.
The cry of his newborn son.
Fin raced down the hallway, the screams of both his son and wife growing louder with every second yet he couldn't place them. They were coming from everywhere, yet there was only him and the long cold stone corridor.
"Olivia, hang on! Just hang on!" he cried to her but her screams had morphed into pained moans and grunts mixed with her sobs.
"Daddy, please come get me!" sobbed Tina suddenly. "Why aren't you helping me? Daddy, help!"
Fin stopped dead and looked around frantically trying to find them but he was just as helpless as before. His family was screaming, crying out for his help, for him to be their savior, yet he could do nothing for them. He could only stand there while the screams and cries echoed louder and louder until finally he thought he would burst…
Fin never sat up faster in bed in his life, gasping for breath and his heart pounding so hard, he thought for sure it would explode out of his chest. He was finally beginning to understand the nightmares Olivia occasionally had about Sealview.
"Daddy?" Tina muttered sleepily from beside him as she rubbed her eyes. "What's wrong?" Fin looked down at Tina and let out a sigh of relief as he placed a hand on her forehead, making sure she was real.
"Noth- nothing, Baby. Daddy just had a bad dream. Go back to sleep." He glanced over at the clock and saw it was only 6:30, way too early to be up on a day off but he wasn't going back to bed. Not after the horror show his own mind had just created for him. Tina nodded before she popped her thumb back in her mouth and laid her head back down on the pillow, clutching Fin's shirt for comfort. Not wanting to leave Tina alone, Fin reached over and grabbed his laptop from his nightstand, popped in some headphones, and clicked on the movie that was already in there. Burning Tires 5, a straight-to-DVD car racing movie with a lot of half naked young females, violent fist fights, fast and dangerous racing, and huge explosions was what he had watched last time he used his laptop, but he wasn't in the mood for violence and sex. Not after what the one person he loved more than life had endured. He clicked off the movie, went to his stored videos file, and scrolled through them before he came to one that was dated several years back. Curious, he clicked on it and watched as a shaky camera came into focus into their bedroom.
"And here," he heard himself narrate with a faux hushed yet excited Australian accent as he zoomed around their bedroom. "Is the lair in which she sleeps. And… why yes… yes I do believe we're gonna get a glimpse of her. You must be very quiet, otherwise she might wake." Suddenly the camera shifted to the form of a sleeping Olivia who only had a white sheet covering her. The Fin watching the video chuckled as the camera zoomed in on her sleeping face.
"Lets sneak in quietly and see if we can get a closer look. Hmmm, that's a… a beautiful species right there…"
The camera made its way over her body before panning back up to her face where she now had one eye opened. "I know you're not filming me when I'm sleeping," she muttered sleepily.
"Oh hell no, Baby Girl," Fin lied as he reverted back to his regular voice. "I was just testing the batteries. I wouldn't do that to you."
"You're going to delete that."
"I'm not even filming."
"I can see the red light blinking."
"That means it's off."
Present-day Fin chuckled once again as he saw a momentary flash of a smile shine on Olivia's lips before she turned away from the camera.
"Come on, Fin, turn it off."
"It is off," he told her once more as he zoomed in on the curves of her ass. "Do you really think I would lie to the woman I just asked the other night to be my wife?"
"Yes."
Video Fin smiled as he climbed on the bed, the camera shaking slightly as she rolled over so she was on her back looking up at him.
"Turn it off," she repeated, but by the tone in her voice Fin knew she wasn't that serious.
"I will. Just let me get one little close up," he bargained as he grabbed the top of the sheet and started to pull down. Olivia raised her brow as she grabbed the sheet before he could expose her curves.
"No looking until the camera gets turned off." To counter her words he pressed a button on the side of the camera, triggering a bright light that lit up her body in spite of the sheet draped around her.
"Damn," he moaned appreciatively as the camera made its way over her curves, now easily visible because of the camera light. "You look good enough to eat, Baby Girl." Olivia smirked as she grabbed the camera and turned it towards her face.
"If you turn the camera off, maybe you'll get a taste," she purred as she licked her lips saucily. The camera went dark and the video ended. Fin chuckled sadly at the memory as a sad smile graced his lips. He wondered if she'd ever be that playful again.
Clicking the player off, he quickly scrolled through until he found another video. This one had a smiling and laughing Tina in a highchair, so it couldn't have been that bad. He quickly hit it, and Olivia graced the screen. She was standing over a large chocolate sheet cake that was already covered in white frosting and was making a large decorative "1" with pink icing.
"You put Betty Crocker to shame, Baby Girl," Fin's voice said behind the camera as he zoomed in on the cake. Olivia chuckled as she put down the tube of pink icing and picked up a yellow tube and began to make stars to border the "1."
"Why thank you," she answered as she used her finger to clean off the icing and stuck it in her mouth.
"It's good?" After a moment Olivia swallowed and nodded.
"Taylor thinks it needs salt," she commented as she wrapped her hand around her flat stomach with a grin.
"No salt on the birthday cake," Fin told her with a laugh. "I'll give you a salt shaker for your piece but no one else's." Olivia laughed before she scooped another fingerful of icing off the tube and held it out for him. Fin's head came into view and licked the icing from her finger.
"Damn, Baby Girl… that's a good cake!"
"And you wanted store bought," Olivia reminded him with a smirk as she lifted up the cake. Fin followed her to the table where their colleagues, Simon, his family, Ken, Tianna, and Kathy, who held a two year old Eli on her lap, were gathered around the table. A one-year-old Tina sat in her highchair with her hair in two pigtails, wearing a pink and white frilly dress, an Elmo paper plate in front of her. Olivia set the cake down in front of her and picked Tina up from her highchair.
"Hey, little Lovaloo!" she cooed with a beaming grin as Tina looked down at the cake. "Are you ready for your first taste of big girl food?"
Tina responded with an incoherent babble of baby sounds but there was a large smile on her face so Olivia took that as a yes. Fin's hand came out from behind the camera and put the "1" candle in the center and lit it with the lighter laying beside it.
"You know it's actually better to start babies off on normal food when they're about six months," came Tiannna's criticism from off camera. "I don't know why you waited this long, Odafin."
"We checked it out," Fin's slightly annoyed voice rang out as he saw the slightly defeated look on Liv's face. Ever since Tina was six months old, Olivia was adamant that Tina's first 'normal food' experience would be her birthday cake. "A lot of doctors say it's actually healthy to keep them on formula until they're about twelve months."
"Well I started you at six months," Tianna told him. "And I made sure Teresa did the same thing with Ken. I guess some parents like to baby their kids more."
"I'm not..." Olivia began to protest but Alex interrupted.
"How about we let Tina blow out the candles?" The camera stayed on Olivia and Tina who was babbling away happily before Olivia nodded and regained her former smile.
"Yeah let's," Olivia agreed Fin rolled his eyes at his mother's interruption as he continued to watch the video. Fin on the video lit the camera and someone turned off the lights so only the candle from the cake was shining and at once the small crowd began to sing. "Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday, Dear Tina! Happy Birthday to you!" Olivia held Tina close enough to blow out the candle, but far enough away to prevent her from burning herself. With minimal assistance from her mother, Tina blew the candle out. There was loud applause and someone turned the lights back on before Olivia put Tina back in the highchair. Fin shot as Olivia cut the first piece, a corner with a lot of frosting and placed it on the Elmo plate on Tina's highchair. Then, with slightly shaking hands, she picked up a baby spoon, scooped up some of the frosting and held it out for Tina.
She looked unsure at first but Olivia put the spoon to her daughter's lips, and when Tina opened her mouth Olivia fed her the frosting. Tina spit some of it out but her eyes seemed to widen at the new taste. Olivia repeated the process and Tina opened her mouth much more eagerly then before.
"She's eating!" Olivia cried out in joy as she used the spoon to capture what Tina had accidentally spit out and fed it to her again. "Oh God, she's actually eating! Good girl, Tina! Good job, Honey!" Olivia praised gleefully as there was another round of applause. Fin caught the makings of joyful tears in his wife's eyes as she fed Tina another scoop of frosting. She turned up to look at Fin, a beaming smile on her lips.
"She's actually eating…"
"Daddy," the real life Tina muttered sleepily. Fin tore his attention away room the video to his daughter who looked up at him.
"What's wrong, Baby?" he asked as he took the headphones off.
"I can't sleep," she muttered as she cuddled in closer to him. Fin closed the laptop and sat Tina up.
"You sure you can't sleep anymore, Tee?" Tina nodded and Fin gave her a warm chuckle. "Alright, Baby. Come on, let's go out to the kitchen. We can make pancakes, and I'll even let you eat in the living room in front of the TV." Tina's eyes widened.
"The living room?" she squeaked. "Mommy never lets me eat in there," Tina said, still in shock.
"Well, we'll just have to keep it a secret from Mommy," Fin said with a wink. " So, how 'bout it? I can make a pretty mean pancake." Tina nodded eagerly and Fin chuckled once more before he kissed the top of her head. He threw the covers back and led Tina into the main area of the apartment, Olivia's t-shirt billowing around her.
"You wanna watch Oz from where you left off last night or the beginning?" Fin asked, popping the disc into the living room DVD player.
"Beginning," Tina answered. "I like the rainbow song." Fin started the movie from the beginning, tucked her in tightly and added his pillow to Olivia's so Tina could sit up comfortably before he headed out into the kitchen.
"You know who else likes the rainbow song," Fin said as he started pulling ingredients out of the kitchen cupboards.
"Who?" Tina asked curiously.
"Mommy," he answered, his mind already heading to a place far away from here and now.
Four and a half years ago...
Olivia stared at the blank white walls of the second bedroom of their apartment. She had finally persuaded Fin to clear out the room so they could start transforming it. She rubbed her swollen belly protectively as she looked about.
"What do you think we should do in here, Little One? Winnie the Pooh? Mickey Mouse? simple pink or blue?" Olivia jumped as the tiny life inside her picked that exact moment to stretch almost violently, practically knocking the wind out of her.
"Ok, you don't like any of those ideas. You could have been a bit more subtle about it," she chided. She heard the main door to the apartment open.
"Liv?" came the familiar voice of her husband.
"In here!"she called back to him.
"Hey...what are you doing in here?" he asked, spinning her in his arms so that he could hug her and rub her belly at the same time.
"Just trying to figure out what we should do about the nursery," she said softly.
"What's there to do? We paint the walls pink or blue, throw in a crib and a rocking chair and something to hold the kid's clothes and we're done," he said confused.
"No, silly, a nursery should have a theme. You know, like Winnie the Pooh or something," Olivia felt another sharp jab at the mention of the yellow bear and her breath hitched in momentary pain. "Only your child seems to have something against the Hundred Acre Woods." Fin chuckled at the thought of his unborn child already becoming as opinionated as his wife.
After dinner had been eaten, Olivia seemed paler than usual, so Fin sent her to lie down while he took care of the dishes. When he finished, he joined her on the couch, and she shifted against him into a more comfortable position.
"Feeling any better?" he asked. She shrugged.
"I'm always nauseous after I eat these days. I thought morning sickness was supposed to go away after the first trimester," she told him. He held her tighter and wished there was something he could do to make her feel better. Knowing that he couldn't, he picked up the remote and flicked on the TV. A familiar black and white set of a Midwestern prairie filled the screen. Fin raised the remote to change the channel, but stopped when his wife gently placed a hand on his wrist.
"I haven't seen this since I was a kid! Don't change it, please," she said with excitement. Considering Fin could never say no to his wife, he indulged, watching the 1939 classic film with her.
Judy Garland's famous song echoed through the living room as Olivia gently took Fin's hand and placed it on her belly, just left of center. Every time he had tried to feel his child move within its mother's womb, he or she suddenly seemed to freeze. And then...there it was. A flutter, very very faint, flipping across the palm of his hand.
"Is that..." he began.
"That's your child," Olivia whispered. He tilted his head close to her belly without ever removing his hand from her skin.
"Hi, Sweetie, it's Daddy..." he said, talking to Olivia's swollen stomach. He looked back at the TV, then back to his wife's smiling face.
"Think she might like a Wizard of Oz theme?" he asked. Olivia chuckled.
"What makes you so sure it's a 'she'?" she asked.
"I just am. But think about it...we could put a rainbow on one of the walls with a yellow brick road and the Emerald City, and..." he went on excitedly.
"Stop, stop. You had me at the rainbow. I think it's perfect," Olivia said. Fin smiled, and still feeling his child flip lazily around inside Olivia, leaned forward and kissed her gently.
Fin couldn't help but smile as the memory played out perfectly before him while he worked on the pancake batter. The first time he had ever gotten to feel Tina move inside Olivia. He had felt his daughter move several more times but after that, Olivia had always miscarried before she was far enough along for anyone to feel the baby move.
A frown replaced his smile as he was remembered the cruelty that had taken John away from them. He swallowed hard before he heard Tina singling softly along with Judy Garland's low sweet tones. Despite all that had happened in the past week, it brought a smile to his face once more.
Fin turned back to the pancakes and began to mix the milk in to the dry batter when the buzzer sounded at the door. Confusion ran across his face as he abandoned the mixture and headed towards the door. He glanced through the peephole and saw the friendly doorman that had worked security for the building since long before the Tutuolas moved in.
"Sam," he said, greeting the familiar face.
"Good morning, Detective," Sam said smiling. He held out a non-descript box wrapped in brown paper. "UPS man dropped this off for ya this mornin'. I was on my way out, so I thought I'd bring it up here personally for ya."
"Thanks," Fin said. "Can I get you a cup of coffee or something before you go?"
"No, thanks, Detective, but I appreciate it. I read about what happened to your family. If there's anything at all you need…" he began.
"Thanks, Sam. We'll keep that in mind," Fin said. Sam tipped his hat politely and headed towards the elevator while Fin took the box inside. Tina was still mesmerized by Kansas, so he carefully opened the box. He fought hard to contain the shock and horror he felt upon seeing its contents, for the pure and simple fact that he did not want his daughter to see the display in front of him. Laying inside the box was a large raccoon skin, still moist from the blood that had currently flowed through it. Next to it was a smaller, baby raccoon skin, just as recently separated from its previous owner. The smell of death was palatable, and had he not had several years of investigating homicide under his belt, he surely would have vomited. Instead, he notice a plain, white card, accompanying the two skins. The words had been written with an old fashioned style typewriter and below the short intimidating message was a bright red swastika drawn in blood.
Burn the tares in flames
Hang the traitors of our race
Judgment Day is here
The hand of God is in this place
Drive you out or cut you off
Your blood will surely flow
Avengers of the innocent
The Earth will soon now know
Fin quickly searched the box for a clue as to its origination point. He paled when he saw the label. Downtown Hospital, the very same place where his wife was recovering in ignorant peace.