CONTINUING TRANSMISSION...
KIDS NEXT DOOR MISSION
OPERATION:
F.A.R.R.A.H.
Family
Acquaintance
Returns
Reporting
Alarming
History
TRANSMISSION ELEVEN:
FAMILY
WRITING OPERATIVE:
Sgamer82
Outside the courthouse a school bus was sitting on the curb. It looked no different than your everyday school bus. To the naked eye at least. There were four kids inside, running around acting rowdy, running around and yelling. Also inside was an adult who seemed to be trying to maintain control. To the average passerby, it would seem as if a class was at the courthouse on a field trip, and the kids inside were left in the bus for disobedience.
To those who knew better, a much different picture was clear. Yes, there were four rowdy kids inside the bus. Yes, they were running around yelling and such. However, there was no adult in the bus. Where most saw an adult there was, in fact, a dummy hitched up on a pole, with a speaker attached to it giving your expected adult commands. You know, "sit down", "keep quiet", and "you should've done that before we left!" The bus was also set up with all kinds the most sophisticated equipment one could get when working with Two-By-Four Technology.
A light on the dashboard suddenly began blinking, which caught the interest of the four members of the Kids Next Door inside. Numbuhs One through Four watched as a screen over the windshield came on with a floor plan of the courthouse they were parked in front of. A small red dot was blinking on it. It meant one thing, Numbuh Five was ready for extraction. The kids readied their weapons and piled out of the bus. They charged through the front door and headed for the stairs nearby to get Numbuh Five. They weren't stopped by security because they were currently busy dealing with fire-men destroying the courtrooms and malfunctioning sprinklers.
Had they not been so intent on their own destination, they may have noticed the five children who ran out of the courthouse, one of whom was being supported by the other four. The four carried their sibling down the courthouse steps before un-ceremoniously dropping her on the pavement.
"Ow!" cried the girl being held, Abigail. She couldn't get up without intense pain in her leg, so she sat on the ground and looked up at her brothers and sister.
"Why did you just drop me like that!" she asked. They looked at her, and the two whose eyes she could seemed to be struggling between emotions. If she could see eyes of the two brothers whose faces were obscured, she'd bet the mirrored the others. She knew full well what they would say next. She could probably say it along with them if she were so inclined.
"We are no longer in danger." they all replied simultaneously, "We have no reason to carry you any further. Sister or not, you have betrayed us! You betrayed father!"
"I know." said Abigail, "And I'm sorry. No matter how much it hurt saying those things in court I know you had to be going through much worse."
The four siblings' seemed to soften a bit at the apology. But it was nowhere near good enough.
"Do you realize how Father will punish us for your transgressions!" they asked, "When one misbehaves, all are punished! You know that! How could you!"
"Because it won't matter! After today none of us will ever need to fear Father again!"
That wasn't very convincing.
"Preposterous!" the children wailed, "Father will always be in our lives! He feeds us! Clothes us! Shelters us!"
"But does he love you!"
The other four Delightful Children from Down the Lane looked up to the top of the stairs. Farrah walked down towards her children. She clutched her right hand, burned when she attempted to stop Father's chase after Abby.
"That is not important!" the Delightfuls sneered.
"You didn't answer the question." Farrah prodded.
"Don't be stupid." they yelled, "Father's told us all about you! We won't fall for your tricks!"
"What? What has he told you?" Farrah asked as she reached the bottom of the steps. She knew deep down that she would never have another chance like this one. She could not let it go to waste.
"He told us all about how you abandoned us! How your only goal in life is to rip us from his arms! To turn us against him!"
"That's not untrue..." Farrah admitted, "What you may not realize is that my goal was never to turn you against your father, only to make you see what he is."
"LIAR!"
"You've been told all sorts of things about me by your father. But what do you, yourselves remember? I know something's got to be in there. You weren't that small when I left! Cade... Dylan... Brianna... Ethan... Please remember..."
The four Delightful Childrens' eyes widened when they saw Farrah crying. They looked to their sister and saw that Abigail was fighting back tears of her own. This was too much for them.
"Stop it! We already told you we won't fall for this! Why are you even trying!"
"Because I love you!" Farrah said, looking her children right in the eyes as she did so.
This shocked the Delightfuls to their core. They never answered Farrah's question. But they knew the answer. Father had never shown them any kind of love. Never even used the word. Not in any complementary way, at least.
"You're my children and I love you!"
The Delightful Children from Down the Lane, Abigail included, were simply staring at Farrah. They barely knew this woman. They had been taught for years to hate her. And she was declaring her love for them. It sparked memories...
The children remembered the night their mother abandoned them. No, the day she was made to leave. It was night, and she and Father had argued. The children had only been about five years old. They had been put to bed, but the shouting match had woken them up. They listened, not understanding why their parents were fighting and screaming at each other. When they heard the door slam they ran to their bedroom window and saw someone leaving the house. They saw their mother walking off slowly. She stopped and looked at them in the window and said something to them. They couldn't hear what she had said, but they could tell by how her mouth moved. It was something she said often.
The last thing they remembered of that night was their father coming into their room, wondering why they were out of bed.
"When you left..." said Brianna, breaking out of she and her siblings simultaneous speech...
"You told us..." Dylan said under his football helmet
"You said you loved us..." all five said together. But this time, their together-speak wasn't tainted by a near total lack of feeling. They were all looking down at the ground. They looked to their mother, the lies of their father lifted from their minds. The four uninjured children helped Abigail to her feet once more.
Farrah understood what had happened, she walked over and gave her children the first hug she had given them in far too long. She then walked to Abigail and lifted her up, so she needn't worry about her ankle. Farrah noticed her daughter was looking upwards, to the upper levels of the courthouse building.
"There's only one thing left now..." she said. "It's all up to them."
Farrah was puzzled as to what Abigail was talking about. But her siblings nodded, they seemed to have an idea what was happening.
END OF TRANSMISSION ELEVEN