CHAPTER NINE

Rio walked around her room, picking up clothes off of the floor and throwing them in the hamper. She paused when she saw the picture of her and her family, framed and sitting at her desk. Sarah had surprised her by framing it for her. She found it waiting for her the second day of school. Rio had cried and thanked Sarah about a million times.

Oh, you got too warm, she heard a voice murmur in the back of her head weakly. The volume was small, as if the connection wasn't very strong.

Come on. Let's look pretty. Don't you want to look pretty?

Stopping herself from freaking out, Rio sat on her bed calmly and rubbed her temples from onslaught of pressure.

That's better.

She heard a door close, metal slamming on metal. She heard a shuffle of another door open before it closed too. She heard some sort of jingling, like car keys and the roar of an engine before the pain burst in her head like an explosion. She screamed in pain, falling on her back on her bed.

The burst was over as soon as it began, leaving Rio panting from the excursion and dealing with the echoes of a migraine.

"Rhiannon!" Sarah's worried voice reached her as the woman ran into her bedroom. "Are you alright, sweetie?"

Rio groaned, covering her eyes with her hands. "No—I'm not alright."

"What do you have on the victim?" Tom asked his partner as they surveyed the damage of the blown-up van.

"Mary Denneville," Diana read out loud from the file in her hands. "27 years old. The flower shop was her father's. She disappeared in 1999 but picked up her life right where she left off."

"Until today," Tom quipped, looking at the wreckage of the explosion that took the young woman's life.

"Are the 4400 that frightening to people?" Diana asked. "Are we too close, so we don't see it?"

Tom shook his head. "Something like this isn't fear. This is hate; pure and simple."

Tom walked into his house. It was more Linda's house now. But he moved back in for now, for Kyle. He met Linda on the stairs. "How is he?"

Linda looked worn and ragged. "You better see for yourself."

She led him to Kyles bedroom where he drew dots and curves onto a reflective map with expo marking, staring in rapt fascination and concentration even when the door opened. Tom crouched in front of him, looking at the map. "What are you doing, buddy?"

"I'm looking," Kyle answered blankly, not looking up from his work.

"For what?" Tom asked patiently.

"For me."

"Why'd you bring me here?" Rio asked curiously as Shawn led her down the beach on Mount Rainier by her hand. "It's deserted."

"It's quiet," Shawn said. "I thought it would be a good place to get away while your head is quiet too."

"For one whole hour," Rio sighed. "Sorry about freaking you out when you got home from school. I told Sarah not to worry but she just had to call your mom and get you because she knows-"

"She knows I can stop the headaches," Shawn finished for her. "Or at least dial them down a bit."

Rio nodded, intertwining their fingers. "I just feel so much better when you touch me."

Shawn ignored the possible innuendos and leaned down to give her a tender kiss. She caught her breath when he pulled away, still leaning his forehead down on hers. "Why do you love me?"

Rio didn't falter at the question. Or ask him why he was asking. She simply smiled and began to answer, "Well... you've been here for me even during your own struggles... every step of the way since that first day we got back, and you helped up off the ground..." She gestured around the beach. "It was this spot." She smiled at the memory. She took both of Shawn's hands in hers and continued, "You're my best friend in the world. The only one I can really relate to and talk to about being one of the 4400. Nikki's been like a real sister—but she doesn't understand really. You're sweet—funny. You've got a killer smile. And a really bodacious bod."

Shawn laughed at the last one, Rio grinning proudly at the sound. "Bodacious bod, hmm?"

She nodded. "I'm still gonna hold onto my eighties catchphrases no matter what year it is."

"No, I like it," Shawn assured her, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her close. "It makes you unique. Every time you open your mouth, I have no idea what you're going to say—and I'm constantly amazed at what you do say—or do. You're the only one who knows what I'm going through and you're the most beautiful girl in the world to me. I love you, Rhiannon."

Rio smiled, staring into his eyes. "I love you too, Shawn."

Shawn leaned down to kiss her. He brushed his lips over hers softly at first. But when she reached up to weave her fingers through his short hair he leaned further down, kissing her firmly and more passionately as the kiss lingered. He snaked his fingers through her brown curls, pulling them to the right side of her neck as his lips dragged over her chin and down the other side of her neck.

Rio's breath hitched in her throat as she felt Shawn's other hand dip under the hem of her T-shirt, caressing the newly exposed skin. She pressed her body further into his as if she couldn't get close enough. She wrapped both her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. "Shawn?"

"Yeah," Shawn whispered as his kisses started inching lower in the neckline of her v-neck.

"Do you have any twenty-first century protection?" Rio blushed as she asked.

Shawn chuckled against her skin as he traced kisses back up to her lips, his eyes half shut. "We still use condoms—and yes."

"Get one," Rio breathed, cupping his face in her hands and making him look at her. "Is that okay?"

"You're asking your very male and very hormonal boyfriend if it's okay to have protected sex." Shawn looked at her amused. "Hmm... let me think about it."

Rio rolled her eyes at him. "I can always take it back..."

"No," Shawn protested with an eager smile and kiss. "Nope—don't need to think about it anymore."

Rio giggled as he kissed all over her face as he scrambled to pull his wallet out of his back pocket. She pulled back and grabbed his hand, pulling him a little further up the mountain and then laying down, leaning up on her elbows. Shawn gulped at the anticipation as he crawled over her, stripping his jacket as he lowered his lips to hers.

He pulled the tin foil square packet out of his wallet and laid it on the floor next to her head, pulling back to look her in the eyes, trying to portray his concern and love. "Are you sure?"

Rio smiled at his consideration, raising a hand to stroke his cheek as she looked him back in the eyes, using the connection to express all the love and adoration she felt for her best friend and boyfriend.

"Yes."

"Do you need any help?"

Alice turned to see Ethan standing with Teddy's hand in his at the kitchen entryway. She smiled and shook her head. "No, I'm just about done." She scooped out the grilled cheese sandwiches she was making from the pan and plopped them onto a plate.

"Are you worried?" Ethan paused to ask, leading Teddy over to his highchair.

"About?" Alice prompted him, cutting up one of the sandwiches into bite sized pieces.

"These bombings," Ethan told her. "That list."

Alice shook her head. "Sure—my name and Teddy's name are on that list. But this apartment isn't. The list was leaked before I submitted our living arrangements to Homeland Security."

"So, people don't know where we live?" Ethan guessed, smiling in relief. "Good. I can't imagine anything happening to you guys."

Alice smiled fondly as Ethan stepped towards her and dropped his lips onto hers briefly. "Is this home for you yet?"

Alice looked into his eyes, pausing to glance at her baby boy gabbing on in his highchair, and then smiled to her boyfriend. "You both are home. That's all I need."

Tom and Diana debriefed with Ryland after they found the garage behind used as an amateur bomb factory. "The tire prints matched the phone company's service trucks," Tom explained, "So, we pulled their personnel records and found one Dean Keating."

"As in Gail Keating—Friday Harbor murder victim?" Diana remembered.

"Dean's her older brother," Tom informed her.

"Not only that," Diana began, looking at Ryland. "Gail's younger brother, Glenn works construction and on his last job the company was short two dozen blasting caps."

"So, one of the returnees kills their sister and these guys get their revenge," Ryland summed up.

"And the 4400 go from being a threat to being sympathetic victims," Tom theorized.

"Your ripple effect," Ryland pointed at Tom in agreement. "All right, put out an APB on Keating's truck, and you'd better not let that truck get to where it's going."

Richard stood in his suit and earpiece in front of the Collier community gate, on high alert, when he saw a company truck driving straight towards the gate. He lifted his small mouthpiece to his mouth. "Code Red. Main gate."

The other guards readily gathered with Richard in front of the main gate with rifles in their grasps, aimed for the oncoming threat.

A helicopter flew overhead, housing Tom and Diana. Tom stood at the open side with his own gun, aiming and getting one of the boys in the shoulder. The boy tumbled out of the truck into the street with an agonized howl.

The other brother jumped from the van, but it still headed with slight distortion toward the gate. Richard and the guards raised their rifles and shot round after round into the truck. Richard managed to shoot on of the back tires. The truck set into a spin and tipped over, landing on its side just short of the gate.

Tom and Diana stared from overhead before the van suddenly exploded, leaving no lasting damage to anyone.

The helicopter landed next to the Keatings brothers, Tom and Diana running out with their guns aimed.

"Hands over your head!" Tom shouted at them, roughly pushing Dean on the floor. "Down! Down! Down!"

"On your stomach now!" Diana yelled at the younger brother, Glen, as he painfully rolled over onto his chest.

Tom laid his knee onto Dean's back. "You are being arrested as a terrorist. You will be treated as an enemy combatant. You do not have the right to remain silent. You do not have the right to an attorney. Whatever you say will damn sure be used against you!"

Shawn laid flat on the back seat of his car, Rio laid comfortably on his chest, only dressed in her t-shirt and underwear, as was he. She nestled into the crook of his neck. "Whatever plan they have for us... I'm glad we're a part of it."

Shawn smiled to himself, craning his neck to kiss her forehead. "I am too."

Tom had just let himself into the house when Linda rushed to him in panic. "Tom, you have to come quick!"

"What?" Tom asked urgently.

Linda flapped her hands for him to follow her. "Just come on!" She led Tom to their backyard where Kyle was sitting in the middle of the grass, naked, being rained on by the sprinklers in the night.

Tom held back his gaping mouth and rushed out to crouch next to his son. "Kyle! What are you doing?"

"I know what's wrong with me," Kyle spoke numbly. "I finally understand."

"What is it, Kyle?" Tom asked desperately, blinking heavily under the spray of water. "Tell me!"

"There's only one explanation," Kyle stated. "Why I remember everything but can't feel anything. Why all the people in my life seem like strangers... they're not strangers—I am." He slowly twisted his head to look Tom right in the face. "I'm not Kyle Baldwin."