Chapter 5: Missing
Michaela was sitting downstairs in one of the wing-backed chairs, holding Daniel in her arms. Daniel had woken up with an empty tummy, and Michaela didn't want to disturb Sully while he slept. So, she had taken the infant downstairs so she could nurse him in comfort and not wake up Sully.
The baby was nursing hungrily, and Michaela had her head resting on the back of the chair. Her eyes were closed, but she couldn't sleep. She had barely gotten any sleep since she went to bed. She was so worried about Brian, and she felt bad that he felt like she and Sully didn't love him anymore. That wasn't true! There was nothing that could ever make them love their son any less. He was a beautiful, bright, wonderful little boy, and Michaela knew that he deserved a lot more attention that she could give him at the moment. But, she promised herself that she was going to try harder to make time for all of her children individually.
She looked down at her newborn son. His head was cradled in the nook of her arm, and his little hand was rested against her breast as he nursed. She gently stroked his soft head and smiled down at him.
"Your brother really does love you," she whispered. "He's just getting adjusted to having you and Connor around. We're all getting adjusted in our own ways, but we all love you very much." She kissed him softly and he pulled his mouth away from her breast. The boy was sleeping now, and she was happy that he had gone right to sleep.
She started toward the stairs, but stopped herself with the urge to go check on Brian. Michaela wrapped Daniel's blanket snugly around him, and put him down so she wouldn't have to take him out into the cool September evening. The wind was starting to pick up, and Michaela assumed that a storm was heading towards Colorado Springs. Sure enough, lightening lit up the sky long enough for Michaela to glimpse dark storm clouds just over Pike's Peak. Thunder followed the bright flash, so Michaela decided she would carry Brian in if he was sleeping.
As Michaela opened the door to the barn, she noticed that a lantern was lit. She picked it up and walked over to the fresh pile of hay. There was a blanket there, but no sign of Brian.
"Brian?" she asked. She looked around the lower level of the barn, while the horses snorted their obvious annoyance and the cow mooed in protest. Michaela sighed heavily and knew she shouldn't be climbing anything right now, but she had to check in the loft to see if Brian had decided to sleep up there. She knew there wasn't as much of a cool draft up in loft.
Once Michaela had reached the top of the ladder, she saw that the loft was completely empty
"Brian!" she shouted with more urgency. "Brian, answer me!" Her stomach began to knot up unpleasantly. A horrible dread was starting to form, and her heart began to race. She quickly climbed down from the loft and rushed out of the barn with the lantern in her hand.
"Brian!" she screamed out, causing a few coyotes to howl in the distance. The wind began to pick up, and rain started to pour down. She rushed up onto the porch and shouted out again, hoping to hear from her son. But, there was no answer, only the sound of the wind, thunder, and the rain on the roof of homestead.
"Sully!" she exclaimed as she got inside and put the lantern down. "Sully!" Daniel woke and began to cry. Michaela hurried over to him to try to comfort him. Sully came barreling down the stairs with Colleen and Matthew following behind.
"What's wrong?" he asked, immediately fearing that something was wrong with Daniel. He rushed over and looked his son over carefully. The boy was crying, and Sully's fears were beginning to grow. "What happened? Is he sick?" Michaela shook her head and began to tremble. She felt weak.
"Colleen, take him," she urged. Colleen took her baby brother into her arms and rocked him back and forth while Michaela tried to gain her composure. She felt as if she was going to start hyperventilating soon, and she didn't want that to happen. She had to tell her family, and she wasn't sure how.
"Ma? What's wrong?"
"It's Brian," she cried. Tears were trickling down her cheeks and dampening the chest of her nightgown.
"What about him?" Colleen asked quickly.
"He's not in the barn!" Michaela exclaimed.
"What?" Matthew asked. "He was getting ready to go to sleep when I left 'im. At least that's what I figured."
"Don't worry, Michaela. I'll go find him."
"In this storm?" Michaela asked. "Brian's smart. He's probably found shelter."
"Ya don't really want me to wait till mornin' do ya?"
"No," Michaela replied.
"I'll make us some tea. I ain't goin' to sleep till I know Brian's safe." Colleen put Daniel down and hurried off into the kitchen.
"I'll go with ya, Sully," Matthew offered.
"I'll move faster by myself. Besides, I want ya to stay here and watch after your ma, Colleen, and the boys." Matthew nodded.
"Bring him back safe."
"I will." Sully walked over and pulled Michaela into his arms. She sighed heavily and they kissed tenderly for a moment before she pulled away.
"Please bring him home," she whispered. Sully nodded.
"I'll find him. I'm sure he didn't go too far."
"Be careful." Sully nodded and hurried out to battle the forces of nature to find his son and bring him home safely.
The rain pelted down heavily on the roof of the new Quinn homestead. Elizabeth woke to the sound of knocking on the door downstairs. She sat up in bed quickly when she heard the door squeaking open. Lightening illuminated the bedroom, and that was the last straw.
"Josef!" Elizabeth exclaimed, shaking her husband's shoulder to try to rouse him from his slumber. Josef mumbled something in his sleep and let out a snore. Elizabeth shook him harder. "Josef! Wake up! Josef! Honestly!" She got out of bed and walked around to Josef's side. She pulled the covers off of him and yanked on his arms, sitting him up. Josef felt the jolt and woke up quickly.
"What in the world are you doing?!" he asked.
"I heard something downstairs. I think we have an intruder!" Elizabeth whispered.
"Oh for Heaven's sake," Josef said, starting to get back under the covers. "It was probably a draft knocking something over downstairs." The squeak of a floorboard broke a brief moment of silence, and Josef looked at his wife. "You stay here. I'll see what this is about."
Josef slowly and silently crept out of the bedroom and started down the hall. He could hear forced quiet noises downstairs. He was shocked when those footsteps started coming up the stairs. He decided that he had to protect Elizabeth.
"Who's there?!" he asked.
"Grandpa?" came a voice a moment later. It was Brian! Josef breathed a sigh of relief.
"It's alright, Elizabeth," he called back to her. "It's just Brian."
"Brian?" Elizabeth asked, coming out of the room with a candle. Brian emerged from the staircase. He was soaking wet. "Brian! What are you doing out in the storm like this? Is it Michaela?"
"No," Brian said, shaking his head. "I'm runnin' away from home. Can I live with you and grandpa?" Elizabeth and Josef exchanged looks and Elizabeth sighed heavily.
"Josef, take him downstairs and start a fire. I want him out of those wet clothes. Josef nodded and took Brian's hand.
"Come on, son," he said gently. Josef took Brian's hand and Elizabeth went to get some blankets.
While Brian stripped from his wet clothes and put them in front of the fireplace to dry, Josef grabbed a blanket and put it around the boy.
"Thanks," Brian said with a cough as he sat down before the fire. Josef sat down beside him.
"Why did you run away, Brian?"
"Because ma and pa don't want me around anymore."
"What makes you think that?"
"They've got the new babies now," Brian replied. "I ain't important to the family no more."
"Of course you are, Brian," Josef said, patting the hair atop Brian's head. "Did your ma and pa actually tell you that you weren't important?" Brian thought for a moment before he shook his head.
"Well, no, but they're always spendin' time with the babies."
"But they have to, Brian," Josef explained. "They love you very much, but they think you're old enough to be able to do some things for yourself. I'm sure they want to spend as much time as they can with you, but the babies need them for everything. You're growing up, so you can do a lot of things for yourself."
"That's what I keep hearin'," Brian replied with a shrug. "I told ma that I wished the babies were never born."
"You didn't mean that, did you?"
"No," Brian replied. "I didn't mean it, but I made her cry."
"I'm sure she knows you didn't mean it, but I think that you should apologize to her first thing in the morning." Elizabeth walked down the stairs with two more quilts. She walked over to wrap them around her grandson.
"You're makin' me go back?!" Brian asked.
"You can't run away from being jealous, Brian," Josef said, looking at Elizabeth. Elizabeth smiled at her husband and sat down on the chair behind Brian.
"When Michaela was born, Brian, you should have seen her older sisters." Elizabeth chuckled. "I would dote on her every time she cried, and the other girls would get so mad that I wouldn't come to them when they would yell for me. Michaela had my attention for most of the day because she was so tiny and helpless."
"Did her sisters run away too?"
"Oh no, worse!" Josef laughed.
"They tried to sell her," Elizabeth said with a shake of her head.
"What?" Brian asked incredulously. Elizabeth nodded.
"Rebecca didn't have anything to do with it, because she was older and new better. She would actually help me take care of her, but Claudette, Maureen, and Marjorie would get so very jealous. One day, Marjorie wrapped Michaela up in a blanket while I was out of the room, and Claudette and Maureen opened the door, walked outside, and began asking people if they wanted to buy a new baby!"
"You're just makin' this up," Brian laughed suspiciously.
"No, she's telling the truth," Josef said with a laugh. "I was walking home, and I saw the girls outside. Harrison, our butler, was just scooting them inside. When I walked in, Rebecca was holding Marjorie by the arm, cradling Michaela, and Martha, our maid, was rushing down the stairs with Elizabeth right behind her. They got in so much trouble."
"I wasn't gonna try to sell 'em," Brian promised. Josef chuckled.
"I'm sure you weren't," Elizabeth replied. "But you do need to realize that your parents are going to love you forever, no matter who else comes along. The new babies can't take your place or anyone else's."
"Really?"
"Really."
"Are you feeling any better?"
"A little," Brian admitted.
"Well, I have some freshly baked cookies in the kitchen. I'll bring you some and a glass of warm milk." Elizabeth started off toward the kitchen. Josef looked down at his grandson.
"If you promise me that you'll let me take you home first thing in the morning, the two of us will spend the entire day fishing."
"You mean it?"
"As long as it's okay with your ma and pa." Elizabeth brought in the milk and cookies, and before too long, Brian was asleep in front of the fire. Josef and Elizabeth decided it was time to turn in again as well, so they left their young grandson alone to catch a few winks of sleep for themselves.
Colleen had been kind enough to take Daniel up to bed. Now she was sitting at the kitchen table working on a dress she was making for the annual Christmas dance in town. Michaela was sitting in a chair and staring into the fire. Matthew was sitting at the kitchen table, trying to read his homework. It was late, and he knew that he should be sleeping because he had a test in school the next day, but he wanted to stay up in case Sully came back with Brian.
Michaela realized how late it was getting, and she knew that due to the storm, she probably wouldn't see her husband or son until the morning.
"Children, why don't you both go up to bed? It's getting late, and I'm sure that Sully has found Brian and they're taking shelter somewhere until the morning."
"You don't think they'll be back tonight?" Colleen asked, biting her bottom lip nervously.
"I'm not sure. I'm sure they're safe. Sully knows what he's doing."
"But Brian doesn't," Matthew replied quietly.
"Please just go up to bed. It'll make me feel better to know that you're resting."
"I ain't gonna be able to sleep."
"Please try for me, Matthew." Matthew finally gave up and nodded his head. He and Colleen went up to their rooms while Michaela stared into the fire.
She was so worried about Sully and Brian. She knew that Sully would be able to find their son, but she was afraid of what he would find. Brian wasn't nine years old, and even though he'd lived in Colorado Springs for all of his life, that wouldn't protect him from whatever creatures prowled around in the night.
She didn't want to think about all of the bad things, but she knew that not wanting to was not going to prevent it. She sighed heavily and decided that the best thing to do would to be to try and get some sleep. The babies needed her to rest, and she needed to rest.
As she climbed the stairs, she thought about Sully, worried about him, hoped that he was going to be okay. She trusted that he could take care of himself, but being married to him made her worry all the more.
Once she got into the bedroom, she closed the door and walked over to peer into Connor and Daniel's cradles. Both boys looked exactly alike and looked equally beautiful as they slept. It was amazing how much they looked like their father. She couldn't wait to see them grow up into handsome young men. Never in her wildest dreams would she have ever imagined her life would turn out the way it had.
She had known Sully for just about a year, had married him just nine months ago, had celebrated her twenty-sixth birthday, and had given birth to the two most beautiful babies she had ever seen. Her life seemed to be passing by so quickly but slowly at the same time. Everything was happening so fast, but it seemed as if only one day had gone by.
Being Sully's wife was better than she could have ever imagined it could be. Sully was a kind, generous man who put her needs first. He would make love to her just to let her feel pleasure. But, there were nights when she would be the one to take the initiative and let him feel all of the pleasure he brought to her. Being with him was like learning something new each day. She couldn't wait until she was healed enough from the birth to make love again. It had been awhile since she and Sully had been fully intimate, and it made the nights especially difficult. They would love one another in other ways, but Michaela had to admit that she was eager to feel him inside of her again and hear him call her name out the way he did in the midst of passion.
The thoughts she had made her feel weak in the knees. She slowly walked over to the bed and climbed under the covers. She shivered as thunder rumbled again. She hoped that Sully was safe and warm somewhere, and that she would see him first thing in the morning.
Sully stepped up onto the porch of the Quinn's house. He had followed Brian's tracks all the way out there. He peered into the front window and saw the boy curled up in front of a fire. Sully breathed a sigh of relief just in knowing that his son was safe. He saw a light on in Elizabeth and Josef's room, so he assumed that they were still awake.
He knocked on the door, and saw that Brian remained asleep. A few minutes later, Josef appeared at the door. He was about to yell at whoever his visitor was, but when he saw that it was his son-in-law, his anger subsided.
"Come on in," Josef said, letting Sully in and immediately handing him a blanket to wrap himself in. "Come sit by the fire." Sully walked over and sat down on the floor beside Brian's sleeping form. "You know my daughter's going to have your hide for letting yourself get soaking wet from the rain."
"I think I can handle it," Sully replied. He warmed his hands by the fire. "How's Brian doin'?"
"He's fine. We got him out of his wet clothes. I believe they're dry now, but he's sleeping now, so I don't want to wake him. Do you want your clothes dried too?"
"No. I'm fine. I'm used to roughin' it."
"Are you sure? Mike will have my hide if you get sick."
"I'm fine," Sully assured him.
"Brian's very jealous of the babies." Sully nodded.
"It happens to all children, I assure you. Most of the girls were jealous of Mike when she was born. They got over it, and so will he."
"I know," Sully replied. "I'm just worried that he ain't gonna bond with 'em the way brothers are s'posed to bond."
"He will. Just give him some time," Josef promised. Thunder roared outside and Sully sighed.
"Looks like we ain't getting back home till mornin'. Ya don't mind if I stay here, do ya?"
"Make yourself at home," Josef replied. "I'll let Elizabeth know you're here. We'll see you in the morning." Sully nodded and Josef went upstairs to finally get some sleep. Sully leaned back on the floor and stared into the flames of the fire. He was just dozing off when Brian stirred, sat up, and saw his father lying beside him.
"Pa!" Brian exclaimed. Sully sat up quickly and looked at his son.
"Hey son," Sully replied.
"What are ya doin' here?"
"I'm came to find ya."
"Why?" Brian asked, pulling his blanket around him tightly to keep out the chill.
"Why?" Sully asked with surprise. "Because we love you, Brian. Your ma and I were worried sick when we found out that ya ran off. Your ma went out to the barn to check on ya, and it's a good think she did. What were ya thinkin' runnin' off like that?"
"I thought you didn't want me there anymore."
"What could ever make ya think that?"
"The babies are more important."
"That ain't true. Brian, ya gotta understand that your ma and I are never gonna stop lovin' ya. Nothin' is ever gonna happen to make us stop." Brian nodded. "But your ma and I are gonna have to punish ya for actin' the way ya did." Brian sighed heavily. "We're just doin' it 'cause we love ya."
"I love you too, pa."
In the morning, Michaela was sitting in the porch of the house. The twins were sleeping just inside. Matthew and Colleen had left for school despite the fact that they wanted to stay and wait for Brian. Michaela was sure Sully was going to bring Brian back. Since the day was bright and sunny, she figured that if he found him, they'd be home soon. She didn't want Matthew and Colleen missing school because they had a big test. She told them that they could come home after their test if they wanted.
Just as Michaela suspected, Sully came riding up on one of Josef's horses. Brian was sitting in the front of the saddle. Michaela jumped up from the porch and rushed out to greet her son and husband. Sully helped Brian down and he rushed to Michaela. She knelt and pulled him into a hug.
"Oh thank God you're alright!"
"I'm sorry ma," Brian cried. "I'm sorry for what I said about the babies. I didn't mean it."
"It's alright sweetheart. I know you didn't mean it. I love you so much. Never forget that."
"I won't," Brian promised. "I won't run away again."
"I'm so glad you're safe." She looked up at Sully gratefully. She smiled at her.
"Pa said you gotta punish me for what I did."
"He's right," Michaela replied. "For what you did, you're grounded for a week. You can go to school and back, but no playing with friends or getting candy at Mr. Bray's store for a week."
"I was s'posed to go fishin' with grandpa!" Brian protested.
"I'm sorry, but it's going to have to wait." Brian sighed again and walked up to the house, shutting the front door behind him. Michaela hurried over to Sully and he pulled her into his arms, greeting her with a loving kiss.
"Told ya I'd find him."
"Yes you did. Thank you for brining him back safely." Sully kissed her again. "I love you."
"I love you too. How are the boys?"
"They're sleeping," she replied. "They missed you."
"I'm sure," Sully said, rolling his eyes.
"They did," Michaela insisted. Sully laughed. He looked toward the house.
"I s'pose we better go talk to him." Michaela nodded.
"I believe you're right." Sully took Michaela's hand in his, and together, they walked up toward the homestead. They both knew that the next few weeks with Brian weren't going to be easy, but they were going to try their best to give Brian more attention than usual. Neither of them had expected to be raising three children so early into their marriage, and now they were raising five. It was going to be awhile before anybody adjusted, and perhaps it would take forever, but they were willing to wait to make sure that all of their children felt secure and loved.