God Said

Chapter 16

Rick had Alexis and was in his room at the Four Seasons while Kate was at her parents' house today. He was scheduled to go see his mother in a few hours so while Alexis slept he was busy typing on his brand new laptop. It was a Gateway Solo 9100 S5-233XL. It had cost him a whopping $4,228 plus TAX. However, it had 223 MHz MMX Pentium processor, 48Mb Ram, 5Gb hard drive, CD-Rom drive, color screen, fax modem, Windows 95 operating system.

It was just it felt different and he was finding he just couldn't type nearly as fast. The words were in his head but he couldn't type fast enough to transfer them to the laptop. So he kept making mistakes and while he was fixing those he lost words in his head.

"AND WHERE IS THE DAMN CARRIAGE RETURN!" Rick chose to give up for now and go check on Alexis who was still sleeping soundly. Frustrated, he went back to his new laptop computer that he had forgotten to turn off. Thankfully it was plugged in so he wasn't draining the battery. That was one more thing he had to get used to. This damn thing had a battery and what was he supposed to do when it broke down?

Still it also had him looking around. The room was really nice but it felt empty and that was when it finally hit him. He missed Kate! "All right, yes, I love her! Is everyone happy now?" Rick demanded of the nearly empty room.

He also made a decision. So he checked the contents of his diaper bag, since Kate had the other one, gently picked up Alexis and put her sleeping form in her stroller. He made sure he had his wallet and room card and went down to the lobby to ask for a taxi.

He had something to purchase and prayed to the Universe that she would say yes.

oO{}O{}Oo

"We're going out to eat tonight," Johanna told everyone. She actually had a few reasons but one was because she didn't feel like cooking and another was she wanted to butter these two up for what she had to tell them. She was sure to get yelled at, hence the need for good food.

"Where are we going, Mom?" Kate was all set to call Rick and invite him and bring Alexis with him. She was enjoying her stay with her parents but she realized she was missing those two. She felt naked somehow. Like a part of her was missing.

Johanna didn't actually answer her question. "I'm going to have to meet you there since I have an errand to do."

"Meet us there?" Kate was standing and turned to look at her dad. But she also saw something really weird. Just behind him, off to one side, she saw a woman wearing a pink dress. She had very big, curly blond hair, a wand in one hand, and these green wings on her back. Suddenly it looked like she was flying right for her. Her legs were kicking wildly and she was waving her arms all over the place. She even had this smile on her face and yet her green wings weren't even moving.

She was getting closer and closer and Kate suddenly saw a round house strike headed right for her jaw. Kate just knew this was going to hurt and hurt bad as she fell backwards and landed on her back.

"KATIE!" Johanna and Jim were on her in an instant. From their perspective she had suddenly fallen backwards on her back.

Kate was still in shock. She looked like a life-size fairy like Kate saw in cartoons or movies except for the size. Kate ignored her parents and looked around for her. She had to be here somewhere.

"KATIE!" Johanna tried again and finally saw Kate look right at her.

"NO!" Kate knew it. She just knew it! "No restaurant. You're not coming." She and her dad were going to be left sitting there waiting for her. "NO!"

"Katie?" Johanna didn't get it. Katie was still flat on her back mostly and talking about the restaurant. What she wanted to know was if she was all right and why she had up and fallen straight onto her back?

"NO, MOM!" Kate struggled to get up and got help from her mother and her dad. "No restaurant! What have you done, Mom?" Kate glared at her. "And where is she?" Kate went back to looking around. She didn't know how she had gotten in and she didn't see her now so where had she gone?

"Jo?" Jim saw a look on his wife's face. He had known her for a long time and knew a lot of looks on her face yet this one said she had done something and it was a secret.

"Jo, I know that look. What have you done?" Jim asked her.

Johanna looked at Katie who was glaring at her while rubbing her aching back and her husband who knew her too damn well. Johanna sat down and tried to think this through.

Jim sat next to her while Kate took a chair. All eyes were now on her instead of Katie.

Jim tried to pull it out of her. "Talk to me, Jo. You're hiding something."

"I didn't know. I didn't know." Johanna knew a lot and she had it all worked out. These two and now Rick were going to be really angry with her but she was trying to save her family.

"Didn't know what, Jo?" Jim now knew he was right. His wife was holding out on them.

"I accepted a case and started looking into it. There's a mobster who's in prison and he sent me a letter begging me to look into why he was arrested. He was claiming that he was innocent. Now I know what you're thinking. He's a mobster so he's guilty. But things just didn't add up.

"I had help so I didn't do this alone. There's a precinct captain here in the city. With his help I have something." Johanna just knew her husband was going to hate her for this and she looked at those two waiting for her to explain.

Johanna closed her eyes and prayed her husband wouldn't just up and decide to divorce her.

"I recorded a Senator who is behind this all, ordering to have me killed." Johanna didn't have long to wait.

"MOM!"Her mother was going to be murdered by some Senator and she knew!?

"JOHANNA MCKENZIE BECKETT!"Jim was angry, really, really angry instantly. This wasn't something he thought his wife would ever keep from him.

"I have a plan." Johanna just needed time to explain it but watched her husband whom she loved dearly get up, leave her, and start pacing.

"You don't withhold information like this from me! I thought we were married and we shared things!?" He wasn't just angry, he was furious. "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING!?" Jim screamed at her.

Johanna recoiled a bit from this. She had never seen her husband this angry before. They had both been upset and angry for various reasons in their history but never like this. His face was even a little red.

"Murdered MOM!?" Now Kate was yelling at her.

Johanna began crying. She knew they would be angry but not like this. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry! I have a plan and I'm not doing this alone." She did indeed have help. She had thought it would be enough to get them through dinner at the restaurant. After that was when everyone was going to be angry. But she wouldn't be alone when that time came.

"PLAN!? YOU HAVE A PLAN FOR GETTING YOURSELF MURDERED!?"Jim was still completely furious at her.

"To not get murdered, yes. If you'll let me explain." Maybe if they listened it would help. Her help wasn't going to arrive for hours yet so she was alone for now.

"TALK FAST! BEFORE I FORGET YOU'RE MY WIFE!" Jim yelled at her, still furious with her. A secret he could almost understand but one where she knew someone had placed a hit on her to have her killed. That was not a secret you kept to yourself.

Johanna looked at Kate who appeared to be almost as angry but was thankfully not yelling at her.

"I know the mobster didn't kill the man he was convicted of killing. That was someone else. But the man behind everything is a United States Senator. He's power mad, a killer, and a blackmailer.

"Right after tonight's dinner we're supposed to meet up with a United States Marshall, part of the Justice Department. He's going to put all of us into Witness Protection while they investigate the Senator and use my recording of him ordering to have me killed. Once it was safe we would leave Witness Protection and go back to our lives.

"I have it all planned out. …I'm sorry, Jim, really sorry. We thought it was best if as few people knew about what I was doing the better. I don't even know how he found out so fast. We were being really careful. I swear. Please, Jim you need to believe me. …Please!" Johanna didn't even try to wipe away her tears.

"Witness Protection? You want us to go into hiding? What about my classes? My dream to be a lawyer? Really, Mom!? Your idea is to ruin all our lives because of some mobster?" Kate wasn't as angry as her dad but she was still really angry.

"Some man who makes his living killing people?" Kate got up and left the house to sit outside and stew.

"DAMN IT!"Kate hit something and started cursing since that had hurt. Her back hurt, her hand hurt, and she was angry with her mother.

Kate could hear her mother and father inside talking but couldn't make out what they were saying and right now she didn't care. Instead she found a place to sit down and wondered why her mother had lost her mind. To place the life of some mobster over her own family.

oO{}O{}Oo

Kate was finally back inside and she saw her mother sitting there and way over there was her dad and neither were talking.

Johanna tried to reach her. "Katie?"

"Save it, Mom! You chose the life of a convicted mobster over me and dad. Force us into witness protection for some killer, so I don't want to hear it." Kate left, entered the kitchen, and picked up the phone. Except she hadn't memorized the phone number so that she retreated to the living room where she ignored her mother and grabbed her purse.

"Rick!" He had answered the phone and it was now that Kate couldn't contain it all. She broke down and started crying. She managed to tell Rick where she was before he hung up. Kate slid down the wall with her back against it while still holding the phone and began sobbing.

Johanna felt bad before even now. Her husband was furious with her and her daughter was sobbing in the kitchen. She was now sitting there with her arms wrapped around herself and tried not to cry as hard as her daughter was.

oO{}O{}Oo

Rick knocked and was shocked when a man opened the door and immediately noticed that he was clearly armed. Right behind him was another one. He didn't even see how they could be here. There was no car sitting out front.

"RICK!" Kate slammed past the US Marshal and wrapped herself around him. She desperately needed someone on her side. Her mother had lost her mind and her dad had shut down.

oO{}O{}Oo

Rick tried to break this situation down."Marshal Benson, let me get this straight. Johanna and someone you can't mention have called for Witness Protection and she has a recording of someone that you can't or won't tell me their identity, who has ordered that she be killed but you don't know why?"

"Basically correct. If we're to stay on schedule these three need to be packing so we can get them to an airport for a short flight. Our office will handle everything else," Benson told him.

"NO!" Kate got up with Alexis since she was holding her and refused to let go of her. "They're going with us or I'm not going anywhere at all," Kate informed the Marshal.

"Katie?" Johanna tried to stop her and explain yet again.

"STUFF IT, MOM! You got us into this mess so STUFF IT!" Kate yelled and looked down at Alexis who thankfully was still asleep.

"You can't make me go and if you do I'll just leave and either come back here or go to San Francisco. So either they go or I stay," Kate insisted.

"Katie?" Johanna knew what her daughter was thinking.

"STOP!"Kate yelled and now Alexis was awake and crying."I LOVE THEM!" Kate began crying and added to Alexis crying. Kate almost fell down onto the sofa. "Because I love them." Now they had a crying daughter and a wailing baby on their hands. Alexis was wailing because one of the people who took care of her was crying and that made her unhappy.

Rick sat next to Kate and managed to take Alexis. He crooned to her, patted and rubbed her back and did everything he could to get her to stop wailing.

Johanna got them all into this and needed to find a way to get them out. "They need to both come with us. You need to make that happen or maybe none of us will go." She was willing to give her life for her husband, her daughter, and Rick and Alexis given that she now knew her daughter was in love.

That had Benson talking quietly with his partner. One of their problems was they didn't have new names for these two nor airline tickets for them. Where they were all going was large enough and they had even more problems to solve and not much time to solve them.

"You three must go tonight. These two will have to follow later. We aren't set up to handle them. I promise we'll send them after we come up with names and IDs for them. We need to figure out how to move all of their items from wherever they live. It's the best we can do," Benson told all of them.

Kate and Alexis had finally calmed down by now. "Katie, please?" They had a solution if she would just accept it.

"STUFF IT, MOM!" Kate was still angry with her and didn't want to talk to her. "You promise? Cross your heart and hope to die?" Kate replayed that in her head and thought it sounded childish. "Promise to let the man who wants Mom dead kill you?"

Benson and his partner both grinned. "Yes, we promise. It may take us a week but we promise they'll be there eventually. Two weeks tops," Benson assured her.

"Kate, I don't think we have a choice." Rick was still sitting next to her.

"Where are we going? And what about my classes in Stanford?" Kate questioned him.

"I can't tell you that until you get there. Security. As for your classes we do have a plan for that. It won't be Stanford but you can still take classes," Benson told her.

"So you love me?" Rick grinned at her. That had Kate starting to blush. She had planned to try to find a way to tell him. It was just she thought she would find a way to do it in private. Not like this in front of everyone.

"Well it's a good thing since I love you, too." Rick kissed her cheek.

oO{}O{}Oo

"You promise you'll be there?" Kate had her suitcase and Johanna and Jim had theirs plus a carry-on. "Promise they'll be there?" Kate looked at Benson again.

"Yes, Miss, I promise. Like I said it will take at least a week or maybe two. It takes a lot of work to create new identities and arrange everything. In his case we have to work with his publisher somehow and talk with his mother. But they will be there eventually," Benson promised.

Kate was crying yet again as she kissed Rick soundly and passionately followed by kissing a sleeping Alexis. She just knew she was going to miss them horribly.

"Please show up or I'll come find you," Kate told Rick.

"Just as fast as these two let me." Rick kissed her and was forced to watch them leave. They left with Benson while he was left behind with his partner.

"You can't tell me where they are going, can you?" Rick asked.

He shook his head. "Sorry." It was all part of the security.

They all walked to this big SUV that was parked two, almost three blocks away. They were allowed to see out and saw they weren't going to the airport but they did end up at an airport. It was just a small community airport.

Once they reached the airport Benson handed out hair dye for them each to use. Johanna became a bleached blonde that clearly said dyed. Jim became jet black while Kate had the reddest red hair she had ever seen

They found a twin turbo-prop waiting for them and Benson went with them.

The flight didn't last long but they did land at a real airport and ended up in a real concourse where they sat and waited for their flight. It was an Air Canada flight so that had them whispering just where they were. However, looking around didn't tell them where they were.

They ended up in economy class and Kate missed Rick and his first class seats. Her legs were too long for these seats.

The flight lasted hours and everyone really wanted up so they could stretch.

oO{}O{}Oo

Once they landed they had to change concourses since they were in the wrong one. They left Air Canada and found themselves in Alaska Airlines concourse now.

"You have two hours before the next flight. I suggest you eat something. This is something the tax payers aren't buying so you're on your own," Benson told them. He was on his own as well but he had an expense sheet to fill out and get reimbursed. He just had to keep his receipts.

It didn't take much to figure out they were at the Sea-Tac airport. "Seattle." Johanna told the other two. But neither of them were talking to her. Neither had said a word the entire trip.

Jim had sat next to her while Benson had sat next to Kate on a different aisle.

Johanna looked at her husband. "Are you ever going to talk to me again?"

"No," Jim said to her since he was still really angry. He didn't have a job any longer. They didn't have a home any longer. They didn't even have a car any longer. His name wasn't even Jim any longer. His wife had been keeping secrets and lying to him for he didn't know how long. Worse, someone wanted her dead and right now he was almost willing to let him kill her.

"Don't look at me. If Rick and Alexis don't show up in two weeks I'm leaving even if I have to hitchhike," Kate told her.

Johanna had suddenly lost her appetite and ended up nibbling at her food. She knew they would be angry but not this angry.