Chapter 6 - 8
The Highland Games were finally over. It was a well-established tradition that Pat and Rosalie took everyone out to dinner that had helped in the booth during the weekend. It gave them all a chance to share their experiences and to generally wind down after the event. Sales had been good. Actually sales had been very good. More of the antiques had sold then Pat had even dreamed of selling. People on the east coast seemed to have more of an appreciation of historical items than those on the west coast. This had been his hope in taking on the expense of coming so far just to work at another Highland Games when he could have done one closer to home.
"Does this mean that you'll come back next year?" Emma asked.
Rosalie didn't want to make promises she couldn't keep. "We'll seriously think about it."
"What about Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina?" This was another Highland Games that was close enough that Emma figured she could get someone to take her to. "They're in July also and you could always stay with us in between times and we could do stuff together."
Rosalie looked over at where Pat and Jimmy were deep into a discussion on 'football'. Jimmy loved the game but he called it 'soccer'. "We would have to talk about it but it would make sense. Coming this far to do two Games would be more economical than doing just one."
Emma liked the way the conversation was going. Rachel had been listening but wanted to change the subject. "Grandma, you said you would ask them tonight."
"All right, all right, I will. Melvin?" Frohike was talking to Bruce farther down the table and hadn't been following what was going on at the other end.
"Yes?"
"Megan and Rachel were wondering if Emma could come spend some time with us, maybe over the holidays or Spring Break? You are more than welcome to come also."
Frohike smiled. "Let me guess. They've been plotting behind our backs."
A wide-eyed Emma shook her head. "No, I didn't know about this."
"But I'm sure you wouldn't mind."
"It would be great! Can I? Please, Dad?"
"I don't see why not. We'll have to take a look at dates later. But I'd rather go with you than send you on a plane by yourself."
The girls started talking excitedly to each other. Rachel telling Emma everything she wanted to do when they got there and everyone she wanted her to meet.
Later that night, the lights once again awakened Emma. She tried to ignore them. She put her pillow over her face but she couldn't breath that way. Tucking the pillow back under her head, she noticed that this time she could see them with her eyes open. There were more of them but not as many as she had seen around the paintings. She closed her eyes and willed herself to go back to sleep. It didn't work. In the darkened room, she could see the lights through her eyelids. Trying not to wake the other girls, she sat up and whispered, "What do you want?"
The lights stopped moving and hung suspended in the air in front of her but she got no response. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and let it out relaxing all her muscles as she did so. "Tell me."
She waited.
Finally, she got an answer. "Help us." Once again, the simple statement sounded so desperate.
"How can I help you?"
"You must help us," came the tenuous reply.
"Please, what do you want me to do?"
"Look."
She lifted her head and opened her eyes. Right in front of her face, about a foot away, was one of the lights. It grew brighter and more distinct. It took on a form within the glow. She watched in awe as a face became distinguishable then a body and arms, legs and finally, shimmering wings.
At this point Emma had seen more than her young mind could comprehend in such a short time. There was only one thing she wanted: her dad. She scrambled out of bed, not even thinking of how it would disturb the others and ran to her father's room. She stood in his doorway, once again not wanting to wake him but needing his comfort.
Frohike woke up and his first thought was that she was having another asthma attack. "Emma, what is it?" He got up, putting on his glasses.
"The lights, the lights in my room."
He brought her the rest of the way into the room and shut the door. With his arms around her he asked her to be more specific. "What about the lights?"
"I saw the lights in my room again."
Frohike was momentarily confused but then remembered their conversation from the previous morning. "Like last night?"
"Yes, only I could see them with my eyes open and there were more of them and they were brighter."
"Let me go take a look."
"But, Dad, wait!" she begged as he let her go.
"What?" But then she couldn't tell him. It was too much. She shook her head. "Go ahead. But I don't think you'll be able to see them."
He left her standing there. He didn't turn on the lights in her room but Emma's quick departure had woken up the other girls. "What's going on?" Megan asked when he came in the door.
"Emma said she keeps seeing lights. Did either of you see them?"
"No," they both replied but then Megan added, "She did say she saw lights when we were looking at the painting the other day.
"Yeah, but she said she was kidding," Rachel insisted.
"I don't know, Rachel, she was serious but then you said she was joking and she gave up." Megan hadn't been convinced at the time and this made her wonder all the more.
"But neither of you saw anything in here just now or last night?" Frohike double-checked.
"No, I was asleep until she ran out of here," Megan insisted.
"So was I," Rachel agreed.
"Okay, girls, thank you. Try to go back to sleep now."
Frohike went back to his room. Emma was sitting in the big overstuffed chair waiting for him. She was wrapped in one of her mother's quilts: her legs tucked up under her body. Frohike sat down on the corner of the bed with his elbows on his knees and his hands clasped together in front of him. "Tell me what's going on. Megan said you saw lights near the painting, too."
Emma took a deep breath and let it out. "I didn't know what it was and Megan and Rachel said they couldn't see them."
"Hang on." He held up one hand. "Start at the beginning."
She told him the whole story about the lights around the painting and how they were not there at first but then they were. She mentioned the lights from the night before. She had to admit to going back to see the fake and how they were still there even though the painting was gone. Frohike chose to let that slide. Other things were more important at this point.
"And what about just now? The other times didn't scare you all that much but you were terrified by what happened tonight."
"There's something else I haven't told you yet." Emma admitted.
"What?" She hesitated. "Honey, you can tell me anything. I always want you to remember that. No matter what it is, you can tell me."
"But you'll think I'm making it up or that I'm crazy or something."
"I know you're not crazy and obviously, you're upset by what's been going on so I doubt you're making it up."
She believed him but he didn't know just how nuts it sounded. Monica had listened without judging her. Hopefully her dad could, too.
"When I went back yesterday, they talked to me. They did it again just now."
"What do you mean?"
"They asked for my help."
"The lights talked to you? You could hear them?"
"Well, kind of. I just knew what they said."
"So, you talked back to them."
She nodded. "I asked them what they wanted."
"What did they say?"
"They didn't. They told me to look. So, I did. And one of them got bigger and turned into a faery."
Frohike's eyebrows shot up. "Did you say 'a faery'?"
Emma's distressed grew with his reaction. "I knew you'd think I was crazy."
He tried to reassure her. "No, no, baby, I don't think you're crazy but are you sure you weren't dreaming?"
Emma looked down at her lap shaking her head. "No, I was wide awake."
"You're positive?"
Her head snapped up, her eyes flashing. "Dad, I know the difference between asleep and awake." She calmed down and added. "And besides, it happened yesterday in the middle of the day also."
"You saw faeries when you went to look at the fake?"
"No, not that. I heard them talking to me."
"Was that when they asked for your help?"
"That was the first time. They did it again just now."
"What do they want help with?"
"I don't know. They didn't say."
"What else happened?"
"Nothing. That's it."
Frohike took a deep breath letting it out slowly. "What do you want me to do?"
Emma sighed. "I want you to make it stop."
Frohike took her hand. "I don't know that I can." It was difficult to admit that he couldn't help her when she really needed it.
"I guess I already knew that. I was just scared and wanted to talk to you." She squeezed his hand.
"Then I'm glad you woke me up. We can talk more about this in the morning but you really should get back to sleep. Do you want me to go check if your room is safe?"
Emma sat back, wrapping the quilt more tightly around herself. "Can I just sleep right here? Please?"
"In the chair?"
"Please?"
"Okay, but you're going to wake up with a stiff neck."
"I don't care."
"You will in the morning. And get your feet out from underneath yourself or you won't be able to walk either."
She did as she was told and Frohike tucked the quilt around her legs. He kissed her, shut off the lights and returned to his own bed.
Frohike got up early the next morning, showered, dressed and went down to make coffee. He was surprised to find Pat and Rosalie already up. After the usual morning inquiries of how everyone slept, Pat asked, "How's Emma?"
Frohike was puzzled. "She's still asleep."
"It sounded like she had a rough night." Rosalie said.
"I'm sorry she woke you. She had a bad dream or something." Frohike lied. He wasn't sure how they would take it if he told them the truth.
Pat wasn't fooled. "I thought she might have seen the faeries again."
"She told you about this?" Frohike asked.
"No, your friend Monica did. She wanted us to make sure that Emma talked to you," Rosalie explained. "She said that Emma seemed pretty upset about it."
Frohike ran his hand up over his head. These people were experienced parents. Maybe they could offer him some advice. "It took a lot of convincing to get the whole story out of her. She was worried that I would think she was crazy."
Rosalie looked closely at him. "Do you?"
"No, but I think she has an over-active imagination."
Pat shook his head. "I wouldn't discount her story so easily. There are a lot of things in this world that we just don't understand. Just because you canna see it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist."
Frohike thought of Mulder and Scully. "Yeah, I know, I have two friends that spent years investigating such things. Monica and John Doggett have taken up the cause. That's probably why Emma told Monica first. She's heard stories about some of the less frightening cases that all four of these agents have worked on."
Rosalie asked her next question trying very hard not to sound judgmental. "Knowing what your friends have done, why do you find it so difficult to believe that Emma might have experienced something out of the ordinary?"
"I guess I don't want her to end up an X-File." He had to explain what that was.
Rosalie said she understood his reluctance to accept something that might cause his child pain. "But I think she needs to know that you believe her more than she needs to be protected from it."
"She asked me to make it stop."
Pat shook his head again. "You're not going to be able to. If she's right and they are faeries, they were there to protect the painting. She might be the only one that could communicate with them. Not many people can see them. My da used to tell stories about the wee folk he saw as a young man. He told several people but they all thought he was daft. He finally stopped telling the stories until he had grandchildren of his own. My da was a great story teller but he was no liar."
Frohike liked what he was hearing less and less. "What can I do?" he asked in desperation.
"Reassure her that they'll not hurt her," Pat said. "That should help. Then tell her to listen to them. Who knows, they may help you find that painting."
Rosalie saw the look on Frohike's face at her husband's comment. "It was obvious yesterday that you all were quite upset about something and that the painting had been stolen was the only thing that made sense."
"We're going to look more into it today. Byers figured he found something on one of the tapes that might help."
"Good luck with that and with Emma, too." Rosalie smiled as she said that. "You've got your hands full there but I'm sure Michelle would be pleased with the job you're doing."
"Thank you, that's good to hear."
The truck arrived at about 8:00 to pick up the unsold goods to be shipped back to Seattle. Bruce was flying back home to go to work. He didn't have enough vacation left to spend the time on the east coast with the rest of the family They planned on loading everyone else into one of the rented Suburbans and heading south to see the sights. They would meet up again in Florida and after a few days at Disneyworld, they would all fly out for the UK.
By 10:00 AM everything and everyone was packed up and ready to go. Good-byes were always hard but with the promise of meeting up again during the holidays, they were a little easier to take. Rosalie gave Frohike her cell phone number in case they had forgotten anything. Father and daughter stood at the curb and waved goodbye until they could no longer see the vehicles.
The house was very empty and very quiet. Frohike watched Emma putting away the dry breakfast dishes. He wondered if he should bring up what had happened during the night but Emma had other things on her mind.
"Are you going back to the warehouse today?" She asked when she was done.
"Yes, I need to. Do you want to go or would you rather stay here?"
"No, I want to go. I want to see how John's date went."
Frohike had forgotten all about that. He laughed and said, "Well, let's get out of here then."
When they got to the warehouse, Emma cornered Byers and demanded a full account of his date. Langly and Jimmy coaxed Frohike upstairs to talk away from the other two.
"All right, fill me in on all the gory details. What happened?"
Both men started talking at once. "Whoa, one at a time."
"I get to go first." Langly insisted. "Byers was out all night. He didn't get in until about an hour ago. He was worried that you would get here before he did."
"Why would that worry him?"
Jimmy jumped in. "He said he didn't want to have to explain to Emma what he'd been doing all night."
"And?" Frohike demanded.
Jimmy looked puzzled. "And what?"
Now Fro was getting pissed. "If one of you doesn't tell me what happened in the next minute, I'm going to knock your skulls together!"
Langly looked disgusted, "The bastard won't crack. He keeps saying 'a gentleman never tells'. I said if he actually was a gentleman, then he might have something to worry about."
Frohike started laughing. It was a deep hearty laugh. The other two men sat and watched wondering if he'd lost it. Tears were rolling down his cheeks. "What's so funny?" Jimmy asked.
"Don't you see? No, you really don't, do you?" Fro stopped to take off his glasses and wipe his eyes.
"What?" Langly shouted.
Frohike took his time making sure both men were watching him. "The narc got some last night."
"Got some of what?" Jimmy asked.
Langly made an exasperated noise and asked, "What would you want if you were out with a girl?"
"Probably dinner and a movie and if we got along really good then maybe, well, you know." Jimmy grinned his goofy grin. "Oh, I see, he got some." He repeated Frohike's line nodding. Then his grin faded. "But how do you know if you haven't talked to him yet?"
"Yeah," Langly agreed. "You haven't talked to him. You don't know that."
"Think about it," Frohike said, "if nothing had happened, he would have said 'nothing happened'. But by saying 'a gentleman never tells', he's as good as admitting it."
Jimmy thought about it for a few more seconds. "You know, his kilt was really messed up."
Frohike started laughing again, "You mean he still had that thing on when he came home? Oh, gods, this is too funny!"
After a few more minutes of speculation and jokes at Byers's expense an unpleasant thought occurred to Frohike. "If he keeps this up, I'm either going to have to sit down and have a talk with Emma or she's going to need to spend more nights at home."
Langly nodded. "You'd probably be better off talking to her about it. She's not stupid. She'd figure out why she wasn't allowed to spend as much time here."
Jimmy was concerned, "Do you think Byers will want to bring his girl friend here for the night."
"No, that's not what I'm saying." Frohike said. "But if he's out all night on several occasions. Emma will notice and ask questions."
"Oh, you're right." Jimmy was glad that this job would not fall to him. "Say, does she know about you and her mom?"
Frohike rolled his eyes, "I would hope so. She knows how babies are made if that's what you're asking."
"Not exactly. Does she know that you and her mom weren't married and that she was just looking for the right guy to get her pregnant?"
"I don't really know," Frohike thought about it for a few moments. "She told me a while ago that her mom said she had only lied to her once. That was about how Michelle got pregnant. I never brought it up again."
"It looks like you're going to have to," Langly said.
Frohike was getting frustrated and the discussion was giving him a headache. "Oh, man, I'm at a loss here. I wish she had come with an instruction manual."
"You know you can buy them though," Jimmy suggested. "There's all kinds of stuff like that at the bookstore."
"Yeah, and he would know. He's read most of them trying to figure what he's doing wrong." Langly couldn't resist the opening Jimmy left him.
Jimmy ignored Langly. More and more he was finding that this was the best way to deal with him. "And maybe you can talk to Agent Scully. She's a doctor, isn't she, and a woman. I bet she'd be willing to help."
Frohike considered this option. "You know, Jimmy, for a dumb jock, sometimes you have good ideas."
Jimmy was pleased. "I do? Hey, thanks."
Byers told Emma quite a bit about his date. The 'G' rated parts of it, anyway. He didn't let on that he was aware of her efforts to at least find him a girl friend but now that he knew what she was up to, if was entertaining to watch how her mind worked.
She seemed pretty pleased with his answers to her questions until she asked if he and Erynn were going to be seeing each other more.
"We're planning on going out again tonight but after that it's up in the air."
"But I thought you liked her."
"I do but she doesn't live around here."
"Where does she live?"
"She lives in Vancouver. Her choir came here to perform for the Games and a couple other events. She has another performance today and then she leaves tomorrow."
Emma was crushed. Byers noticed her change in mood. "Hey, Doc, it's okay. I'd lost touch with Erynn but now that we've had a chance to talk again, we'll be able to see each other when ever she's in town or I head out her way."
"You got her email address and all that?"
Byers smiled and pulled a piece of paper out of his coat pocket. "Right here."
"Have you put it in your email address book yet?" Not that she really thought he would lose it but why take the chance.
"Yes, just before you got here."
"That's good."
After lunch Emma brought the subject up again. "Vancouver, like in Canada?"
Byers had to rewind through all the conversations he had that morning to find the one she had decided to pick up again. "Yes, like in Canada."
Emma had been looking at an atlas on the internet to see how far away from the Washington, DC area Vancouver really was. She found two cities named Vancouver that offered some possibilities.
"Did Dad tell you that we got invited to go to Seattle during Winter Break?"
"No, he hasn't mentioned it."
"Maybe you'd like to go out there with us. Vancouver is not that far from Seattle."
Obviously, she wasn't ready to give up yet. Byers just laughed and shook his head. "We'll have to see if I can afford it."
"I could buy you a…" Byers held up his hand to stop her mid-sentence. His face told Emma that it would not be a good idea to continue on that track.
"We had an agreement that you would not ask to buy us things," he reminded her.
"But this is different," Emma protested.
"No, it's not." Byers said. "And December is quite a ways off. I should be able save enough money by that time."
"You'll really think about it then?"
Byers smiled again. "I already am."
