A/N: Every time I think this is going to be the last Rick arch chapter I come to the conclusion that there will be one more haha. So only one more to go, promise this time :) Enjoy xx Mariah
Jim - 45
Payne - 43
Melinda - 41
Katie - 16
Weekday mornings were always busy in Melinda's antique store. They always had been. It was when the little old ladies and tourists went walking around the square and gathered in her store. She was glad to have Delia's help in the morning even now that she'd taken some of her responsibility back at the real estate office to make extra money to help Ned with his college bills.
With Katie's graduation in the near future, Melinda certainly understood needing the extra cash. She shuffled through her morning with ease, working through the rushes and sending Delia off when she knew she could handle the store on her own. Plus she did have Katie in the back if it did get nuts again.
Melinda had been trying to give her space and her daughter wasn't showing any interest in wanting to come out and help in the store. The doors to the backroom were still closed when she looked over her shoulder around noon and decided against going back there.
Katie would come out and talk to her when she was ready. Her daughter was most likely giving her the silent treatment because she was still upset, probably because she and Jim had decided to ground her for three weeks. Melinda had tried to talk him down to one or two, but he'd been adamant about it. They'd decided against taking away her car mostly because they'd also stuck her with picking up her siblings after school now in order to sneak some alone time together.
After opening her computer to work on the monthly reports and pulling out her calculator from under her desk, it was easy to push out any worries about her daughter for at least another half an hour.
The bell dinged above the door as Rick walked inside and she smiled as she saw him bring her a coffee cup. "I come in peace," the man said and she laughed and typed up one of the totals for last week's sales.
"Hi, Rick," she said, holding her hand out for him to put it in. "Thank you for the coffee."
He nodded. "You look in a better mood than I left you in before," Rick said, eyeing her. "How are things with Katie? Is she feeling better since the accident."
"Yeah. Katie's feeling fine," she said, taking a sip of her coffee. "Fine enough to lie about where she was going last night, sneak out to a party, get pretty drunk, and nearly get drugged."
"Sounds like typical teenager stuff to me," Rick shrugged. "I can count the number of parties I went to on one hand. Let's hope Katie's been to more for the sake of her social life."
Melinda scoffed and raised her head to look at her friend. "It's not like my daughter. She doesn't do this stuff and she's never lied to me like this," she muttered. "You may find this funny, Rick, but I don't."
"I wasn't trying to make light of it. I am sure the kid's feeling harsh about going to the party today." He chuckled, sipping his own coffee. "Where is she?"
"In the back," she gestured and leaned back into her chair. "She's grounded and since she's still off from school she's retired to my office and is ignoring me."
"What kind of punishment you and Jim socked on the kid for her to give you the silent treatment?" He chuckled.
"Three weeks of picking up her brother and sister from school and she's grounded," she explained. "How about you? I feel like we never talk about you, Rick. Always me and my problems."
"I'm still looking at houses. There's not much going on in my life right now," he shrugged, leaning against the counter. "Now back to your daughter, I think you should cut her some slack. She's dealing with not only her turmoil and raging hormones as a teenager right now, but she has Millie attached to her with all of her turmoil as a dead teenager."
"Rick, I lived that already and I want to help her. I was a teenage girl once with the same gift, remember?" She sighed, rubbing her forehead as she felt a migraine come on. "And I don't want to hear your opinions on me and Jim's parenting."
There was a pulsing pain shooting from behind her eyes, causing her brain to almost go numb. She quickly set down her coffee as she placed her head in her hands.
"Mel, are you alright?" Rick came around the counter and placed his hand on her shoulder.
"Yeah. Just a headache," she winced, breathing in slowly. "It came out of nowhere, but I'm used to it." She rubbed her fingers down the bridge of her nose as she brought her head up slowly.
Melinda opened her eyes and saw Millie a few feet away, fading in and out. She focused on the girl and for a moment her eyes fell closed, and she felt her body lean back into her chair.
Suddenly, she was back in tunnels and she closed her eyes. Oh, God no. Melinda did not want to be back down here. Or worse, trapped in the tunnels again but only in her mind. It was like the walls were closing in and she couldn't breathe all over again. Until she remembered, this was a dream... or no... it was a vision.
She looked around and saw nothing but darkness until the rustling of footsteps came closer. The streams of light from a flashlight came around the corner and brightened the ground around her daughter. She watched as Katie slowly walked past her, eyes traveling slowly around every crack and crevice as she paid attention to every sound.
"Millie? Where'd you run off to?" Her daughter called out, sighing. Katie was frustrated and didn't know where she was going. "I can't help you if you keep disappearing. You were just telling me about your dad, and I don't even know where the hell I'm going. I just want to help you."
Melinda felt a pang in her heart when the last words came out. There was a lot of pride in the courage she knew it must've taken to follow Millie even after all of the warnings about the tunnels. Her daughter was so much like herself that it scared her. Had she taught her too much too soon? She didn't want Katie to put herself in situations with danger like this. Not like she has time after time.
She reopened her eyes to find herself back in the store, in her chair, and she sprung up. "We need to go." She said, trying to collect herself as she shook everything off the best she could.
"Where?" Rick asked, following her as she went to the double doors of the office and flew them open.
Melinda's entire being hoped she'd find her sixteen-year-old daughter sitting behind the desk, typing away at her laptop as she glanced over the empty desk chair. "Just follow me," she muttered.
"Where's the kid?" Rick asked another question like he always did and not waiting for an answer. "I thought you said she was back here."
She stepped closer to her desk, picking up a piece of ripped-out notebook paper with her daughter's handwriting on it.
Mom, I had to go down there. Please forgive me. I'm going to get information from Millie. I'll be back soon. I love you. - Katie
She sighed. "She's gone. She went after Millie," she sighed, stomping off toward the stairwell that leads to the basement for most of the storage for her extra inventory. "Follow me, Rick."
"What? Where?" He asked, following her as she'd asked. "Where are we going?"
"To the tunnels," she muttered, cursing under her breath as she started to search for two flashlights.
"No. No way!" Rick objected. "I'm not going back there."
"You're the one who told my daughter about them," she hissed, turning on her heel with her finger pointed. "Jim and I would have never told her about them until we needed to if it weren't for you. You're coming with me. Don't make me pull you by your ear."
"Fine. I'm sorry about telling the kid about them," he sighed, groaning. "I never would've mentioned them if I thought she'd go down there!"
"You never think before you speak, do you?" She yelled, throwing a flashlight at him as she went to the door.
She saw the bolt unlocked and pulled it open, flashing her light down the tunnel.
"Not usually, no," he muttered.
"Enough with the jokes, Rick. This is my daughter we are talking about here. Not some random girl off the street. This is my blood. My first baby," she said, turning her head to look back at him. "Let's go, Rick. We have to find Katie."
She heard the cracks of gravel falling and squeaks of mice as she stared into the dark winding path of the tunnel before her as he fished his phone out of his pocket and sent a quick text off to Jim. Telling the man facts rather than spending time to give any real detail about what was going on.
Katie ran off in the tunnels. Melinda and I are going after her.
Jim was going to have a cow when he found out about this.
"Okay, I'm coming." He said, sighing. "And hey, I promise I'll never doubt your parenting again. You're oddly mystifying yet incredibly terrifying when you're riled up, you know?"
She ignored him as she walked inside with Rick slowly following behind her just like old times.
Katie walked endlessly through the dark shadows of the tunnels. She hated the dark, especially when all she could hear was whispering. It was the most terrifying thing to come out of a horror movie's playbook, and being who she was it was even worse. She could hear all the different voices that would come to her ears, soft and loud.
The teen tried to block them out, using any of the methods her mother had given her but nothing helped. She kept her eyes on the ground, on the gravel, and on her own feet as she walked. That gave any spirits the notion she couldn't see them at least.
"My brother killed me," one voice said, whimpering in her ear.
"Can you help me find my mommy?" A little girl cried out, voice echoing around her and sending chills down her spine.
She could hear shivering before anyone spoke. "Somebody's got a gun," another voice whispered. "I think we should try to sneak out the back. Don't you?"
When Katie glanced up she noticed that ghost turned around and her head was blown off. She wanted to get the hell out of here. Where was Millie?
"Millie?" She called out again, slowly moving her flashlight up from the floor and into the dark space in front of her. "Millie, where are you?" She raised her gaze from the floor again and regretted it, coming face to face with a bloody man in front of her. "Oh, shit." She gasped, trying her best to hold back any scream in the safety of attracting more. "Oh, fuck."
"You can see me?" The man whispered as he noticed Katie jumped back from him and avoided looking at his bloodied face.
"She can see us?" Another ghost gasped, a woman that came up beside her.
Katie continued walking, trying to ignore the, and walking around the ghost to be respectful as she looked over the face of each passing spirit. One of them had to be Millie. Where the hell was she?
"There's another one of you," a man in the distance whispered.
There was something about that voice that stopped her cold, a chill running down her back. It reminded her of her mother's story. The tunnel had collapsed. Had one of the spirits caused it? Was that why her mother and father had been so upset when she brought it up? Maybe it was even the man behind that voice she heard.
She had no idea about any of that being true, but she knew she wanted to stay away from where the voice had come and turned as quickly in the opposite direction as she could. Katie darted down the next corner she could find. "Millie?" She called out again and noticed the girl around the next corner. "Where have you been? I have no idea where I am going down here. I need your help, and I am trying to do the same for you."
"We'll find our way out. I think your mom is onto you," Millie explained, groaning. "I lost control and appeared to her. I was trying to find you. Lots of whispers about where the one who can see us is."
"Good. I hope my mom finds me," she moved her flashlight around herself, looking around the different corners and crevices. "I have no idea where I am. I'd rather be grounded forever than die down here in a pile of rubble."
"You aren't going to die!" Millie chuckled. "Stop being overdramatic."
"You don't know what's happened to my mom in these tunnels," she muttered. "Don't say that."
"Fine. I'm sorry. Let's go this way," Millie said, pointing right and appearing down there.
"Why should I follow you? You got me lost in the first place," she said and walked toward the left. "You owe me information by the way. I followed you, tell me a little bit into why you're still here, huh?"
"It's a long story," Millie said, appearing in front of her again. "You know some of it already with the stuff about my dad."
"Yeah and good thing we're trapped, just the two of us in these tunnels then." She said, slowly walking toward where she flashed her light down the tunnel and saw a few more roaming spirits. "Well, almost. But you can tell me, how else will I be able to help you?"
"You still want to help me even after I got you lost?" Millie asked.
"Of course. That's why I have this gift, Millie, I'm supposed to help you find peace," she said, trying to keep her mind on the positive. "So what's on your brain? I have an open mind and ear."
"Do you? How can I even begin to find peace? I can hardly figure out why I'm still here," Millie huffed, sighing.
"Well, what was something you were struggling with?" She asked. "Why did you go to the party that night to blow off steam? Was it boy trouble? Was it school? Was it your friends?"
"It wasn't school and it wasn't my friends. I'd been having trouble with my boyfriend," Millie answered slowly. "You know how that is, right?"
"Yeah, I guess. I haven't had a boyfriend in a long time, but I've had one before..." she shrugged. The more she tried to think of Henry the worse she felt about herself. And she didn't want to be thinking like that ever again. "We broke up and I'm focusing on other stuff. I'm trying to get into a good school. Boys aren't my priority."
"You don't have a boyfriend? If you'd gone to school with me you would've had the pick of them all," Millie snickered. "Times have changed when the pretty girls aren't the ones they are going after."
"I've had my fair share of experiences. Trust me. Boys are dumb and the only thing on their mind is getting laid. I try to stay away from all that pressure anyhow. I'm busy with school and all my extracurriculars." She sighed, shaking her head. "That's why my ex-boyfriend broke up with me."
"I think that's why my boyfriend and I were fighting. That's why I drank so much," Millie said. "I wasn't ready. He was."
"Coach Graham, you mean? He was your boyfriend, right?" She asked.
"Yeah, Freddy was my boyfriend but it was more complicated than that now that I think about it," Millie muttered. "We were best friends too."
"Complicated how?" She stepped carefully as she walked past some uneven ground. "Wait, his name is Freddy?"
"It's Fredrick, but that was my nickname for him. I didn't love him like that, but he was nice to me. He let everyone think we were dating, but we were just friends. He was better than the other boys," Millie explained, but then blurted out, "I loved someone else, but I never told them."
Katie stopped in her tracks, glancing back at the ghost behind her. She had a gut feeling and acted on it without thinking. "What was her name?" She asked.
"Kimberly," Millie told her, smiling. "She was on the soccer team with me, but she would've never understood. She would've told everyone and I… I couldn't have that. My parents weren't exactly the most open-minded people."
"Millie, who you loved doesn't change you. It doesn't make you a bad person. Love is love whether it's two guys, two girls, or one of each. Why should it matter?" She explained, thinking of every talk or sit down she'd had with her parents or an adult in her life. "Real love is hard to come by, so I think when someone finds a sliver of it they should never let it go."
"Yeah, I guess. I just don't know if my parents would have thought the same thing." Millie sighed, disappearing again. "Things weren't like they are now. No one talked about it back then."
"Millie?" She called, flashing the light around the area surrounding her. "Oh, c'mon Millie don't run off now."
Katie heard a mouse scurry by her foot and practically dodging out of the way.
The second she moved like that she had felt her ankle wobble under her weight with the quickness of her step. She felt her left ankle give up and crack under the full force of her weight as she dodged out of the way of the mouse and onto uneven ground. The unstable gravel gave out from under her and she fell a foot or two.
Pain shot up her leg as her ankle rolled the wrong way and she fell to the ground with a thud.
She screamed in pain, holding onto her left leg as she glanced down at her feet. The skin was scratched and bloodied from loose gravel while her ankle was bruised and swollen. Plus, she couldn't move it even a smidge without crying out in pain.
How in the hell was Katie going to get out of here now?
Jim barely even had time to register that his phone vibrated on the table as he read over a patient's file until everyone around the hospital board table glanced at him.
He cleared his throat and leaned forward, hardly glancing over the text message as he slid his phone into his pocket. But the name on the new text made him frown. Rick Payne. He was surprised he even had his number saved after all this time.
"Sorry." He apologized and they all turned back to reading over the patient's file.
The board was currently meeting to decide whether or not they had the money to take on a no-insurance patient that was in need of surgery. He hated this side of the job. It only proved to him how much the practice of medicine had turned to be about making millions of dollars being billed in and not about the treatment of the patients.
Jim had so many important board meetings this week when he could've been in the OR teaching residents how to do procedures instead, but it was a never-ending cycle.
When his phone vibrated a second time in his pocket, his eyes fell shut and he sighed. What could Rick Payne possibly want? He slid the phone out of his pocket, groaning to himself when he remembered that Rick had been helping Melinda and Katie with a spirit lately. Rick's office was their destination when they'd gotten into a car crash together.
He pressed the button on his phone and his screen lit up as he discreetly tried to check the texts under the table.
Katie ran off in the tunnels. Melinda and I are going after her.
His blood froze in his veins and he mumbled something about going into the bathroom, seeing as everyone around the table glared at him as left abruptly.
"What the fuck, Rick," he said, hitting the dial button and putting his phone to his ear.
He could already hear his heartbeat ringing in his ears as he loosened his tie and ran his fingers through his hair. It rang and rang until he heard Rick's stupid voicemail message.
Jim wanted to scream, dialing again and again. Rick still didn't pick up.
He remembered the drive in the car when he'd brought Katie home from the hospital. All those questions she had about the tunnels and the fact that Professor Payne had told her about them. Melinda still had neglected to mention any of it to him. Even in bed this morning when they had both reached their peaks and had talked each other's ears off after.
He knew that there was a ghost pestering them, creating ruckus in their home and work lives, but it had never gotten to the point where Melinda was hiding things from him. Not since before they'd had kids.
He called his wife next, but it rang out too. It went to voicemail again and again. He was going to lecture everyone. If they even made it out alive. How could Katie do this after he'd strictly told her never to go down there? Was she out of her goddamn mind?
Jim walked back into the meeting, the door almost slamming open against the wall. "I have a family emergency and have to leave," he said and walked right out, leaving the board members shocked.
In less than two minutes he'd run through the hospital and across the square to Melinda's shop. It was empty and he took the time to lock up the front door and turn the sign to closed for inventory as he went into the back room.
As he pulled out his phone to call Melinda again, he saw her phone sitting on the shelf next to her purse and sighed. That woman always forgot to grab her phone when things like this happened. It was the one thing that irked him about her more than anything else.
Why couldn't his wife just call him during times like this and always keep her phone in her pocket?
He moved to sit down in the chair at her desk, not knowing exactly what he wanted to do at the moment. He supposed it would be better to stay here and wait for anyone to come back. It wouldn't do any good for another person to go into the tunnels and get lost.
Melinda was trying her best not to take off running down the tunnel and leave Rick behind her. She had no idea where Katie could be in here. Her daughter didn't know these tunnels like she did.
Had Katie even taken the right path, to begin with? Or was she wandering about in one of the uncharted and closed off tunnels that led nowhere?
She looked around again but saw nothing. Well, not nothing, but not her daughter. Ghosts were littered around everyone and she tried her best to keep from making eye contact with anyone. "Are you keeping your ears open?" She asked Rick. "I have too much background noise."
"Right. All of the ghosts." The man said and shook his head. "I don't hear anything, only our footsteps," he moved the flashlight around and she followed it, but didn't see Katie. "Do you think she could've gone back to the store already?"
"We would've seen her or heard her by now," she said, walking with purpose through the next series of tunnels. "Katie?" She called out. "Katie?" She was over just looking around for her daughter. Maybe if Katie heard her voice, she would call out from where she was. "If you can hear me, say something please."
There was no answer.
Her heart sank and she withdrew more and more from the possibility that she was going to find her daughter without a scratch as she walked down to the other side. "Katherine? Can you hear me?" She called out again. Her voice sounded desperate as she pleaded for her daughter to hear her voice and call out to her. "Katie, where are you?!"
She felt tears rolling down her cheeks the more she called out for her and there was no answer. Melinda felt so defeated. She couldn't even find her own daughter. Her knees buckled from under her and she plopped down on the ground, her tears taking over.
Melinda sobbed as she thought about her first baby that she brought into this world trapped like she had been, alone and scared, and stuck in the tunnels where she might not be able to breathe.
Rick was no good at consoling her either. He was good with emotions and wasn't a touchy-feely guy, but he sat down next to her as a show of support. That was the most he could do.
"What if we don't find her?" She spoke out loud this time instead of letting herself wallow in her own guilt.
"Do you know yourself, Melinda? You'll find her," Rick said, shaking his head. "If you set your mind to something, you always see it through."
"You're right," she said confidently as she wiped the last of tears away and stood up. "Let's go find my daughter."
Katie rolled her head back against the wall as she felt the sharp pain of her ankle start up again as she tried to move it. The whispers and the mice were getting to her, but what she could do? But all she could do was wait, pray to God, and hope her mother would find her soon.
She believed with every fiber in her being that her mother would never give up until she found her. It was almost like she could hear her name being called, but it was too far away.
Millie didn't have any energy to pull from as Katie sat hunched over in pain and was as stuck as she was. "I'm so sorry, Katie."
"It's okay," she whispered, trying to save her energy.
The girl shook her head. "You were right. This place is dangerous and I'm sorry. I shouldn't have made you come down here after you said no."
Her mother had to be coming to find her by now, right?
"It's okay, Millie," she told her again. "You were confused and you needed my help so that's why I came. So... you gonna talk more now to make up for it all?"
Millie chuckled and sighed, appearing next to her like she was sitting there with her instead of looming over her. "I guess. What more could you possibly want to know?"
"All of it," she said, trying to take in a breath but only feeling pain shoot through her.
"Well, where to start..." Millie said and as Katie moved her head from side to side to see if she saw anyone else, she sighed when she didn't.
She didn't know how much longer she could keep her eyes open. Millie's voice was drowning out and she was getting tired, probably from the lack of oxygen from being underground too long, but fought it as she focused on not giving her mother a heart attack when and if Melinda came and found her passed out.
She couldn't do that to her mother. She'd done enough to her lately already.
"Katie?" Melinda called out as she ran down another section of the tunnels. "Baby, can you hear me?"
Rick closely followed behind her at a slower pace, looking around more closely as she called out again and again for her daughter. It had been a little over an hour now, she guessed and she hadn't checked her watch when they came down here but it was almost two in the afternoon now.
Melinda was getting winded from all the running but she didn't care. She pressured on. She didn't care how badly she was sweating or panting.
She had to find her daughter. "Katherine? Can you hear me?" She called out again. "Katie?" She stopped to catch her breath as she came up towards a turn at the end of this tunnel.
Left or right. Left or right.
"Katie, baby, can you hear me?" She cried out as she took in another deep breath, trying to decide where she needed to go.
She waited, closing her eyes as she heard something, and as she listened in and heard it again it made her cry. It was her daughter's voice.
"Mom?" It was soft, almost sleepy, but loud enough that Melinda ran toward it on her right. "Is that you?"
"Katherine? Where are you?" She called out again and took off, hoping Rick was still following close enough to see her dart in that direction and toward where she could see her daughter was slumped down on the ground. "Oh, my sweet Katiegirl, are you okay? Why are you on the ground?"
The girl smiled slightly as she fought to keep her eyes open. "For the most part," Katie said as she tried to sit up when she saw her mother. "It's my ankle... I can't walk on it, mom, and I'm so happy to see you."
"Me too, baby. I am so happy you are in one piece and in my arms right now," Melinda said as she took a second to look at her daughter's ankle and winced at the sight of the swollen joint. "Though your ankle does not look too good."
"I know. I tripped," Katie winced and glanced around. "Where's Millie? She was just here. She told me what was keeping her here."
"I didn't look around to see her when I saw you. I just came running," she said, cupping her cheek. "I was so worried about you. Why did you come down here?"
"It was the only way to get Millie to talk to me," Katie said, shaking her head as tears. "I'm sorry. I promise I wouldn't have done it if I didn't need to."
"No, I know. I'm not that mad. I get it. You did what you thought would help her," she hugged her tightly, pressing a kiss to her daughter's cheek, and to her forehead, nose, and chin. She'd made her and was never going to stop loving her. "Just never do it again without telling me first. God, Katie, never again."
"Mm, mom, stop." Katie laughed, groaning a little as she turned her face away. "You're smothering me, mom."
"You just should've come to me first, Katie," Melinda reminded her, grabbing hold of the chin and holding her gaze now seriously. "Promise me you will next time?"
"Yes," Katie nodded, not breaking eye contact. "I promise."
"Okay, let's try and get you up." She said, trying her best to lift her up when she saw there was no sign of Rick yet over her shoulder.
However, the Professor wasn't too far behind and came around the corner.
Rick sped over toward her when he saw her struggling to help Katie up on her good foot. "I've got her," he said, peeling off his suit jacket to move more freely and pick her daughter up in his arms. "What'd you do to your ankle, kiddo?"
"There was uneven ground and I tripped," Katie scoffed, sighing. "Can we forget about it already? I feel dumb enough already."
Jim stopped pacing back and forth when he heard voices in the basement. Three of them. That had to mean good things, right? He ran down the stairs as quickly as possible to find out. His worries had overcome his anger as he dashed toward his wife and daughter, only wishing to know they were alright before letting anything else out.
He watched as Rick Payne set his daughter down in a car and their eyes met for a cold, beating second before he looked back at Melinda.
"Jim?" His wife stood up from where she was crouched down talking to Katie and was taken back as he embraced her, but hugged him back all the same. "What are you doing here? I thought you were busy with meetings."
"Rick texted me and told me about Katie and where you two were going. I had to come and see for myself if you both were okay," he said and pulled back, eyes fidgeting to their daughter. "And you… you're grounded. For the entire summer." Katie went to open her mouth, possibly to defend herself, but he waved it closed with a single hand motion and she fell silent. He didn't want to hear it right now. "I don't even want to hear a word out of you about it either."
Jim was so utterly mad at Katie until he glanced over her dust-covered clothes and how shaken up she looked. The same scared and apologetic eyes that he remembered looking into when he'd saved Melinda from the tunnels the first time. Except this was his daughter. His little girl, and he'd just yelled at her instead of comforting her.
He took in a deep breath and moved down to embrace her. "Don't think for a second I don't love you, Katiebug, but how could you? You promise me you'd never go down there." He thought about all the punishments in the world he could place on her. The worst of the worst. Something his dad would've done to him or his brother.
"Go easy on the kid, Jim. She's had quite the morning and hurt herself," Rick suddenly broke the silence and his eyes shot to the Professor, stepping toward him.
His hand pressed into the man's chest as he pushed him back. "You stay out of this, Rick. I'm her father and Melinda is her mother. This has nothing to do with you, but thank you for being there today," he said, raising his voice to Rick before calming down and bending down toward Katie. "Now what happened to your foot?"
"Daddy," Katie spoke quietly, her head rising from where it had dropped when he'd yelled so she could meet his gaze again. "I'm really sorry."
He sighed, "You should be. You could've died down there, Katie," he said, glancing at her ankle. "It's only a bad sprain. Not broken. I'll clean the cut up and wrap it when we get home."
"Wait, Jim," Melinda said as she watched her husband go to pick their daughter up.
"What, Melinda?" He asked, glancing over at her as he stopped.
Their eyes met and she furrowed her brow when she was met with a cold, angry stare in her direction.
She definitely deserved that.
"Can we talk just the two of us before you go?" She asked, trying to plead for a moment of his sanity between just the two of them so she could at least explain herself and their daughter.
"What is there to say?" He yelled and shook his head. "You never keep me in the loop. I had to hear about this from him. About our daughter being down there." He scoffed. "You didn't even have the decency to call before going after Katie, Melinda. You never do."
"I had a lot on my mind when I went back into the tunnels, Jim." She said and walked toward him. Melinda kneeled down beside him and touched his face, but he turned his face away. "Jim, please. I know you're upset."
"I'm more than upset about this." He said with a shake of his head. "I'm hurt and I'm angry that you didn't even think before running in there. I am your husband, Melinda. What if you'd both died?"
"Do you have no trust in me, Jim Clancy?" She hissed at him, standing up abruptly. "Do you think I'm stupid?"
"No, but you're reckless. It's like you forget about our other children who need you whenever it comes to something Katie needs from you," he muttered and the moment he'd said it, he'd regretted it.
He saw the pain on her face as she shook her head. "I could never forget them, Jim. All three of them mean everything to me and you know that. They are always on my mind because this gift is something we all share together," she explained, her voice calmed even in her anger. "Yes, it might get dangerous sometimes, but we have to prepare them for that and I can't tell you how proud I am that Katie was able to face her own fears and go down there. Even if it scares me to death."
"I see where you stand, Melinda. You know where I do," he muttered as he moved to pick up Katie again and left the shop.
In her frustration, Melinda grabbed the nearest thing to her and threw it against the wall. She watched as the statue broke into big pieces and she fell to her knees on the floor. Everything bubbled over, her anger and sadness from fighting with Jim.
She hadn't even remembered Katie had still been there until the end. Their daughter had seen it all. And that was one thing she'd tried to hide from their children was to see their parents fighting. She'd overheard that too much as a child.
That was the one thing she'd never let them experience, until now.
How could she be so reckless? Jim had so many points. Why didn't she just call him beforehand? It would have saved them so much trouble. Then she turned to Rick, who still stood in the back room, quietly shuffling his feet as he watched her. Her anger was boiling up again as she looked at the man who'd told her husband about where they were.
"Why did you tell him like that? You know how he reacts to these things. I could've prevented this by talking to him at home later," she yelled at him as she stood, taking all of her anger out on him. "Why didn't you trust me?"
"I was scared, Melinda." Rick tried to explain himself but it was falling on deaf ears. Melinda was pissed at him. "I didn't want to risk anything happening to you and Katie, so I texted Jim. He deserved to know. He's her father and your husband."
"That was not your place," she muttered, taking in a breath to calm her but it didn't do much. She marched forward toward him and stopped in front of him. "You think you can come back into my life after all this time? You think nothing has changed?"
"Melinda, I-"
She cut him off and stormed out onto the floor. "I've heard enough from you." She hissed. "Get out."
Her store was empty and the lights were off, the sign flipped over. That had to be Jim's doing. Even when he was angry at her he was making sure everything was secure, as always.
"You're a damn fool, Rick Payne." She muttered as she collected her purse and keys. "I said get out."
"Melinda, please hear me out." Rick tried to protest, reaching out to touch her arm and she yanked it away from.
"Don't touch me," she walked past him and to the door, opening it. "I told you to get out of my store. NOW."
"Do you remember what happened the last time in the tunnels?" Rick asked as he walked through the open door.
Melinda didn't answer him, just pulled the door closed behind them and locked it. Then she got into her Jeep and drove off, leaving Rick on the sidewalk.
