Epilogue
Hannah happened to mention that she overheard the argument Steve and I had right before he left to 'negotiate' with the Knights. That seemed to scare her almost as much as the gunmen had. We resisted the urge to scold her for being up so long after her bedtime, and told her – as gently and neutrally as we could – that we'd disagreed about the right way to handle what was going on, and that we were both so sorry for frightening her. Steve and I have never had a loud disagreement like that before, and after we put Hannah to bed, we agreed that we will make every effort to never have one again. We've always been able to work out differences of opinion by talking them through (emotions were just exceptionally high that day), so we have no doubt we can keep that promise – for ourselves as well as for our children.
I can't believe that Hannah thought Steve and I were bank robbers! On the other hand, she's got a brilliant mind and a vivid imagination, so...at least she didn't think we were hired assassins! We told her about the work we do with Oscar, but left out any mention of bionics. James and Lauren are twelve now, and they've never even heard the word, so since Hannah never brought it up, neither did we. Eventually, one day, that time will come, too, but for now I would like our children to be able to enjoy just being kids.
- - - - - -
December 5, 1988
Well, Diary, we sure had an adventure together, didn't we? It turned out that Mom and Dad are sort of secret agents, for our side, and the men who tried to hurt Mom were the bad guys. They've all been caught, and Mom said that I might have to go to court and be a witness, but since I'm so young (who says?), if I'll let the court see my diary, that might be ok, instead of me going to court in person. Mom and Dad think that would be a lot better, and even though I've never seen the inside of a real court, they are probably right. I've had enough excitement for this lifetime – or at least until I'm nine!
END