Chapter: 3

Piper and Renee

That trust is why James still trusted Renee with the most important person in his life. He trusted her with his daughter to watch the girl when he went out on missions and away for training.

Piper and the dogs would just play all day. Echo loved having someone to play with since Renee had stopped being an MDPD canine officer and had returned to the Marines.

The canine would go with Renee and was used as a demo dog. She was now the head canine trainer at the local Marine Base. Echo had seen more action then a lot of the Marine canines had, but since she was not a Belgian Malinois, she would never be a USMC canine.

The dog did miss the action of being an active duty working canine. Renee was also the Marine Mounted Color Guard trainer. This allowed her to put both of her passions to good use. This also brought her back to the BLM horse auctions. That was where she would buy the new mounts for the Color Guard.

Considering they were United States Marines Mounted Color Guards, Renee figured what better breed to represent the USA in parades and shows than the original United States Mustang.

Renee had been back with the Marines for about a month. James asked her if she would be willing to watch Piper while he went on a training mission for a few days. That was a request that she could not deny. She simply adored Piper, and Piper loved both Renee and the dogs.

The mission went by without a hitch. James had got home early, so he rushed to Renee's house. Renee had told him that there was no need to knock and just to come in, so he did.

It was about 10 pm on a Friday night. Renee had just finished tucking Piper in her own bedroom at Renee's for the night. When out of nowhere, Echo let out a low warning growl.

Renee looked to her canine partner for security and for a lot of things, actually. Echo quickly ran downstairs and jumped up on James's legs in a very eager fashion.

Echo was all wiggles and tail wags. She wanted her ears scratched by her new friend. James obliged and scratched the police canine's ears.

Slowly coming down the stairs as quietly as she could since Renee didn't want to wake Piper. Whenever Piper stayed at Renee's Charlie, her retired Marine canine partner wanted to be with the girl at all times.

Renee didn't mind Charlie being with Piper since the girl couldn't get enough of the dog. The two of them had become inseparable by this time.

Renee walked over to the couch. Patting the seat next to her, "Come sit down, how was the mission?" she asked her fellow Marine.

James knew that Renee had the clearance to hear about the mission since Renee had gone back to the Marines after her attack. She was also still available for the Miami-Dade Police Department to use should the need arise.

"It was just a routine training mission where I was teaching the new sniper recruits good target identification."

James got up to go to the kitchen to grab a cold bottle of Long Board Ale. "Is it just me, or are the recruits getting younger and younger every year?"

Walking back into the living room, James looks up and realizes that his fellow Marine was already curled up on the couch. She had actually fallen asleep.

This fellow Marine knew more about Renee and her past than just about anyone, even her brother Horatio.

Knowing that Renee only slept two to four hours every night, and even then only sleeping for one hour at a time. James didn't want to wake her up, so he was just going to let her sleep and let his daughter sleep upstairs.

James just sat on the couch next to Renee and watched her sleep. Gently he pulled one of the throw blankets up and over her shoulders. James didn't think that anything was any different until he looked at his watch.

Renee had been asleep by that time for six hours with no night terrors or twitching at all.

Renee had never been able to sleep that long with no interruptions of terrors or twitching during the entire time that James had known Renee. By then, it would have been nineteen years.

Knowing that it was very early in the morning, only 4:00 A.M. James didn't want to call Horatio to come and help James with his sister.

He quietly turned on the TV and clicked ZNN on. Sitting down, he wanted to be near Renee. Keeping the volume down, he quietly watched the news. Needing to make sure that she was okay and be there if she needed any help.

Renee didn't move an inch or make any noise during that entire night. James was worried whether or not Renee was even alive. He would often lean close in order to watch her breathing just to be sure that she was alive.

By this time, it was 6:00 A.M, so James felt comfortable with calling Horatio to come over to check on Renee.

On the complete other side of town, Horatio's phone rang. Looking at his phone's caller ID, he noticed that it was James. Seeing James' name, his senses were going into overdrive.

"James, is Renee okay?" he asked their mutual friend.

"She's fine, at least I think that she is okay. I came home early and got to her house at ten last night. Well, we were talking, and I went into the kitchen to get a beer."

"Coming back into the living room only to find Renee asleep on the couch. I was going to let her sleep her normal amount of time, but she was still asleep eight hours later. In fact, she is still asleep on the couch right now."

"Renee had zero night terror's or twitching episodes last night and has just been quietly snoring away. To be perfectly honest, I am getting worried she is sick or something. Can you come to Renee's house and see if she is okay."

When Horatio heard what James was saying, he jumped up and got ready to drive over to his sister's house. By this time, Horatio had memorized the route to Renee's house to memory. It only took Horatio about ten minutes to drive to his sister's house.

Quickly getting to his sister's house, he rushed inside to check on his sister. Walking into the living room, Horatio stopped in his tracks. He could clearly hear his sister quietly snoring. He could see her breathing, but he had no idea why she would still be asleep after eight hours of sleep.

Before Horatio goes to wake his sister up, he pulls James over to the side and asks him a very important question.

"Did she take anything? Could she have taken a drug of any kind?"

James was confused but answered Horatio's question, "No, I left her alone for less than two minutes. She was only alone while I ran into the kitchen to grab a beer. I came right back in and popped the top in the living room. She was asleep when I got in the living room. We were just talking, and she looked and sounded fine."

Both her military personnel file and her MDPD personnel file would show that she never slept more than two to four hours a night and only sleeping one hour at a time, but she had clearly slept at the time eight hours in a row.

He only had one thought as to why, but he kept it to himself, not wanting to start anything if he was wrong. Analyzing the scene quickly, he approached the form of his sleeping sister and gently placed his hand on her arm.

"Nae... Nae... sweetheart… time to wake up. You slept for eight full hours. Are you feeling okay? You had us scared for a bit," whispering to her. He didn't want to scare her at all.

Renee looks at her brother, blinking then at James. "Wait, I slept all night. Are you both sure? I haven't done that since my second deployment with the Marines before my first kidnapping."

She had no idea why, but Renee just felt safe enough to relax whenever James was around.

Not long after she watched Piper, Renee asked James and Piper if they would watch Charlie while Renee and Horatio took Echo on a road trip to pick up the new puppy.

She knew that Charlie was too old to enjoy a road trip. Renee knew that Charlie would love to stay with Piper since the dog adored the girl.