"So what did they give you, Dad?" Frank spoke into the speakerphone in his home office.
Shay heard the ringing of the fax machine from her vantage point in the den where she sat watching cartoons with LJ and Ariel. "Stay put, Little Man," she ordered, patting him on the head. She put Ariel in her playpen and then went across the hall to the office, leaving the door open to keep an eye on the children.
"It should be coming over the fax now, Frank. I've sent a copy to the nest, also," Thomas informed him.
"It's coming through now, Dad," Shay acknowledged, pulling the sheets off the machine as they spit out.
"Here, too," Cody was heard through the speaker. Frank had them all on a conference call.
"You there, Jake?" Frank called, flipping through the pages Shay handed him.
"Here," Jake acknowledged.
Frank heard an irritated hiss from the speaker and knew Jake was trying to read the pages that were printing out. Each page was littered with large black patches, concealing top-secret information. "You didn't actually think they would release sensitive information, did you?"
"How about some clue as to what the hell this woman is about?" Jake growled. "This doesn't tell us shit."
Frank smiled softly at Shay who was skimming over the same documents. "The most important thing we need to know is on those documents."
Shay chewed on her bottom lip as she read over the pages. "I have to agree with Jake. This is a bunch of...holy shit!" she exclaimed.
Frank chuckled when Shay looked up from the pages and made eye contact with him. "What did you find, Shay?"
"Documents filed by clerk 9376418," she cried excitedly, reading the stamped markings from the pages. "Oh man...we just have to find who..."
"Frederick Maxwell Martin," Thomas announced clearly.
"Damn, Dad...that was fast," Shay remarked.
"Hey, I wasn't the head of the CIA for nothing," he teased. "I'm off, kids. I'll check with you later to see if there's anything else I can do to help."
"We'll track down this Martin guy and get the information to Alex," Jake assured, ending the conference call on his end.
Frank clicked off the speakerphone just as Shay gasped and clutched her abdomen. "Ashling?" He jumped from his chair and ran to her side.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," she assured as he helped her to sit on the small couch in the office. "I think you've got a linebacker here, daddy." She smiled reassuringly and hugged him tightly.
"Damn...I'm getting as jumpy as I was with Ariel." He shook his head and kissed her forehead. "Baby, I'm worried about you and all the stress this is putting you under."
She curled up into his embrace as he leaned back against the couch. "No more than you. You've not said much on the whole subject. You've been suspended, your life is in an uproar, and all you seem to care about is..."
"You," he finished. He stroked her hair lovingly. "I haven't done anything wrong, Ash, so I'm not going to waste my time worrying about my job. If I never go back, I'll deal with that, but I will never accept anything that affects you negatively."
"I won't go back without you," she admitted, nuzzling his neck. "We've given the government enough of our lives or they've taken what they've wanted." She sighed heavily when he tightened his embrace.
"It's going to be all right, Ashling. Alex and Frankie are going to track down the information we need to straighten this mess out. In the meantime, Miss Charles will be served those papers today. The wheels are turning, baby." Frank looked down when he felt his pant leg being tugged.
"Daddy...is Mommy okay?" LJ asked, concerned.
"I'm fine, sweetie," Shay assured and rubbed her belly. "Your baby brother is rather active today and making Mommy very tired."
LJ nodded as if he understood exactly what she was going through. "When will he get here, Mommy? I wanna meet him."
Frank lifted LJ up onto his knee and Shay took his little hand and placed it on her stomach. "Do you feel that, Jake?" When LJ nodded, she said, "That's your baby brother. He's growing every day and in just a short while, he'll be too big for Mommy to carry and will be here with you."
LJ smiled happily and snuggled into his parent's embrace. "Can I name him?"
Frank and Shay laughed softly and Frank replied, "We'll all decide, if that's okay with you, Jake?"
"Okay, daddy," he agreed and kissed both parents on the cheek before climbing off their laps and going back to the den to watch his cartoons.
"Kids," Shay said, laughing.
Frank grinned and leaned down to kiss the swell of her stomach. "They amaze me every day."
****
Irritably, she pushed away the lock of hair that fell across her forehead before inserting the key to her apartment in the lock.
"Excuse me? Daphne Charles Donovan?"
She turned quickly to find a young man dressed in a cheap off the rack business suit. "Yes?"
"A delivery, Ma'am. If you'll sign here, please?" he said, holding the clipboard steady for her to sign. Once her signature had been scrawled on the appropriate line, he released the large manila envelope to the extremely beautiful woman. "Have a nice day," he called and left her to open what he knew would be bad news.
She grimaced at the envelope and then pushed open the door to her apartment. Once inside, she tore open the flap and pulled out the document. She stared at it for a moment before releasing a wicked laugh. "Oh, if you think you can get rid of me this easy, Frank Donovan...you've got another think coming." She glanced toward the back of the apartment briefly before picking up her purse and heading back out the door.
****
To be continued...