here we are, the last chapter of this installment. please enjoy! - Dee
Matthew had to stifle his laughter when he looked up from his newspaper; Joan had crawled over to the couch where Alice was napping and pulled herself up in front of Alice's face. The baby watched her mum very closely and then looked to him; he had to physically cover his mouth with is hand when Joan reached out and patted her mother's face quite incessantly.
"Bloody hell!" Alice shot up as Joan plopped down on her bum - laughing brightly, and Matthew couldn't help but join in.
"I see we're having fun at my expense."
"She's only being curious, sweetheart."
"Usually I'm happy about that, but not when I'm sleeping," she grumped and rubbed at her eyes.
Joan squealed and pulled herself back up again - laughing when Alice picked her up and tickled her stomach.
"Alice? Are you home?" Jean's voice called out as the front door opened.
"Parlor, Jean!" Matthew answered with a smile.
"Ah good! Could both of you come here please?"
Alice looked at him with a frown, but he just shrugged and got up from the chair.
"Here, I'll take our funny little girl," he held out his arm for Joan as Alice stood.
"Please, I don't think I can handle any more of her charm right now."
"Come on, Joan, let's go see what your Auntie Jean wants," Matthew kissed the top of Joan's head as the Lawsons joined Mrs. Blake in the hallway.
Jean beamed and reached for Alice's hand once they were within range, "Close your eyes."
"Both of us?"
"No, silly, just you, I have a belated birthday gift that didn't get here until today."
Alice looked between Jean and him - eyes narrowed, but she didn't pull her hand from Jean's; Matthew gave her an encouraging nudge and smiled when his wife frowned at them both, but sighed.
"Alright, this better not be a prank."
"It's not, Alice, now close your eyes," Jean squeezed Alice's hands - grinning when Alice closed her eyes and covered them with her free hand for good measure. "I won't let you bump into anything, I promise, we're just going outside."
"Alright…"
Matthew followed Jean and Alice with Joan cooing in his hold as Jean carefully led his wife out to the end of the drive and stopped in front of the brick pillar that had Lucien's plaque on it (and Old Man Blake's before that). Jean had covered it with a drop cloth and Matthew tilted his head to the side as Jean situated Alice in front of it.
"Alright, open!"
"You… got me a drop cloth."
"Oh, you," Jean laughed as she pulled the cloth from the pillar, "Happy Birthday again, Alice."
Alice's hands came up to cover her mouth as both she and Matthew realized what was hanging below Lucien's plaque. There, on its own wooden board, was a plaque for Alice.
Dr. Alice Lawson, Physician & Pathologist
"Oh, Jean!" Alice immediately pulled Jean in for a hug - tears dripping down her face.
"Is it too much?"
"No, it's perfect," she hiccuped and held Jean tighter. "I never… I never thought I'd live in one place long enough to warrant one."
"This is your home, Alice," Jean kissed his wife's cheek and then pulled him and Joan into their hug. "This is your home."
Looking at the bright, shiny new plaque that held his wife's name (and achievements) for all to see, Matthew smiled; they were home.
She hurried back to her house as soon as the news reached her - her heart racing and panic rising in her chest.
"Li? Li, are you here?"
"Up here, Mama!"
Running upstairs, Mei Lin could hear Li crying long before she reached the master bedroom; pushing open the door, her heart leapt at the sight of her daughter and granddaughter curled up on the bed. Joining them, Mei Lin smoothed back Li's hair from her face - a bruise darkening on her daughter's jaw.
"What happened?"
"Don… Don's been arrested," Li whispered. "They came early this morning and took him away - I got hit in the disturbance."
"I'm surprised they didn't take you too, my treasure."
That only made Li cry more, "Don said we weren't involved - he insisted on it. They barely let me pack up a few things before kicking me and Yu out."
"I'm so sorry, Li."
"What will happen to him, Mama?"
"I don't know," Mei Lin kissed Li's forehead.
"Will he stay alive or… or am I a widow now?"
"I don't know… but I'll try to find out."
Li held her daughter close and leaned into Mei Lin's comforting touch; Mei Lin kissed her forehead again, wondering if the government would come busting down their door and pull her daughter away from her yet again.
"I… I want to leave, Mama," Li whispered, "it's not safe for Yu anymore, and I want to get out before it's too hard to leave. I can't... I can only think of what's safest for my daughter now."
"Of course, my darling," Mei Lin kissed Li's cheek, "it can't be right away, not with your husband recently arrested, but let's aim for getting you out of China right after the holidays… does that work for you?"
Li nodded, "Will I go to Jean?"
"Yes, I'll write to her about it in my next letter; I'll send you and your daughter to her while I stay behind."
"Mama, no!"
"Someone has to," she smiled, "I still need to find your father, and now I'll keep an ear out for anything on Don."
"You'll be careful?"
"Of course."
"And you'll follow?"
"Once I find our boys."
Li sat up slowly and hugged her mother, "Find them, Mama."
"I will, I promise. And we'll get you to a safe place in a couple of months, for now you need to lay low."
Li nodded, "I'll stay inside and out of trouble."
"Good," Mei Lin kissed her forehead. "Sleep, my treasure, I'll wake you when dinner's ready."
Li laid back down - her daughter instantly curling in her arms once again - and Mei Lin stayed there, standing guard until her loved ones fell asleep; it would be hard, to let Li go once again, but she'd be safe in Ballarat with Jean and Mei Lin could breathe a little easier with Li and Yu out of the country.
Smoothing a hand over Li's hair, Mei Lin silently got up and moved to her desk.
'My Dearest Jean,' she wrote, 'It has been some time since my last letter and I'm sorry for that, life got in the way and I know you're familiar with how much can come up at the last minute. I have a favor to ask of you and I know I'm in no position to ask this of you, but I need your help.'
They'd grabbed him one day - right in the middle of a dream of a memory with Jean - and pulled a bag over his head before he could realize what was happening; he was half-pulled/half-dragged from his cell - the floor freezing beneath his feet, and the footsteps of the guards echoing all around them.
'Concrete,' he mused. 'Must be underground or in a remote prison.'
They turned so many times that Lucien couldn't keep up with it, but he knew how long it took to get to the… interrogation chambers and this current walk had gone on longer than those walks, and worry started to settle in his bones.
Was this it? Had they finally gotten tired of him?
As he walked, Lucien tried to forget the worry about what was to come, and instead focused on the memory of his wife's smile, the gleam in her eye when she sassed him, the sway of her hip when she walked away from him, and the feel of her skin on his.
'Oh, my darling, I'm sorry… I never wanted to leave you.'
A door opened, and Lucien felt sunlight on his skin for the first time in a long time; it didn't last long, as they threw him in the back of a ute. If he thought the walk was long, the drive - they must have purposefully picked the most bumpy, jolting ride - was even longer.
Were they taking him elsewhere to kill him? Was he to die alone and forgotten out in the wilderness?
He could hear them shouting in Chinese - too faint for him to make out the words - and others answered back; on top of the shouting, Lucien could make out the sound of a gate opening and the fear of a firing squad slowly disappeared as the fear of that sound filled his head. He knew that sound, but it had been some time since he'd heard it.
The ute screeched to a stop and Lucien was pulled out of the back and roughly forced to stand. The bag was wrenched from his head and he blinked in the bright sunlight - the cold starting to seep in as he took in the view of a camp.
A prison camp.
"Oh, bloody hell," he whispered.
"Lucien?" a voice next to him whispered and he turned to see the bruised and bloodied face of his son-in-law. "Oh, thank God you're alive."
"Don?"
"Find me later," Don urged as they were pushed and separated. "And stay alive!"
"Easier said than done," Lucien muttered as his hands shook; his feet felt like lead as they were urged through the camp. He couldn't appreciate the sun on his skin for the first time in months, nor the fresh air, not while he was back in a camp yet again. No Allied Forces here to save him this time, no saviors to come marching in like they had in 1945. Lucien gnawed on his lower lip to the point of bleeding as he stumbled into line with other new prisoners.
'Oh, my darling… I'm in it now, aren't I?'
How in the world would he get out of this?
FIN