Thank you to Agnes, LauraHardy, KCS, Red Hardy Whitetigers and Cherylann Rivers for your great reviews! I'm so glad you all liked the last chapter, and reviews keep me going. Internet problems kept me from posting this before…
Disclaimer: Don't own anyone you recognize.
"Vanessa!" Joe caught Vanessa in his arms and gave her a long hug which she eagerly returned. "How'd you get here? Did you really rob a bank? Where's mom? Dad's been acting odd… "
Callie shook her head. Captivity hadn't changed Joe much. He looked tired and the strain showed around his eyes, but he was still Joe. She put her arm around Frank and smiled at him as he held her. Right now, being alive and being held was enough.
"Odd…," said Frank. "Scared the crap out of us is more like it." Feeling Frank's arms tighten around her, she knew he was thinking the same thing she was. Glancing up, Callie noticed that his mouth was pressed together in a thin line. Something was clearly bugging him, and it wasn't her.
"Your mother went after Thomas, and it looks like your Dad's gone after both of them. She figured out you were here and Callie and I confirmed it. As for the bank, um, we- borrowed something but we plan to return it," Vanessa finished.
"Yeah, she figured it out," said Frank bitterly. "Trying to avoid a jail sentence, no doubt."
"WHAT?" Callie stepped away from Frank and looked at him, vaguely aware of the two stunned expressions behind her. "She's been worried sick about you. Locked in that small room this entire time because her ex-boyfriend carries a serious grudge."
"We were moved here a little while ago," said Joe from behind her. "Good thing, because Dad said the other place was soundproof and we never would have heard you."
"Whatever," said Callie. "Look, just give your mother a chance.."
"Give her a chance," Frank repeated. "Why should I give her a chance when the first thing she does when this happens is robs a bank instead of calling the police?" The entire time Fenton had spoken earlier, he had remained silent, but now all of his frustration was spilling out at his nearest target.
"I watched my father get beaten up and I could do absolutely nothing about it. I failed and was helpless. And then for the next couple of days, he acts like a complete stranger. It was like he had gone away and there was an empty shell where he used to be. Joe was ready to put his fist through the wall, and I seriously considered doing the same. We would have been out of there before if someone had called the police instead of acting like a James Bond wannabe. So why didn't you?"
"Because then you would have been dead," Callie snapped. "Not because we thought Joe's life or your father's was worthless. Look, every time I've ever been kidnapped, I trusted that it was you who would find me and make things right. You and Joe. Not the police. This time I trusted your mother. Not because of what she's done but because of who she is."
"So you're trying to ignore everything she's done?" Frank asked. "Who knows what stuff she's been involved in? And even if she wasn't involved in it, she knew about it."
"She made a –"
"Don't tell me she made a mistake!"
"She made a choice to stop being who she was. And you were a big part of that! And when her old life came back, she faced who she was instead of running away from it. What more could you ask for?
"The truth!" said Frank. "All my life I've been raised to be a detective, to catch criminals and help people. I've always looked up to both of my parents, knowing that they've always done the right thing. But now I find out that they're hypocrites who lied to me my entire life."
And this was the issue. Frank valued honesty and loyalty above all else. Even thinking that his parents could lie to him about something this important was inconceivable. That they actually did was betrayal.
"You know your mother loves you," said Callie laying her hand on his arm and taking it as a good sign that he didn't shake it off. "I don't know why they didn't tell you, but you need to ask her before making a judgment."
"That doesn't excuse her actions," Frank countered.
"I knocked Sam Radley out with a lamp and left him on your kitchen floor. If he presses charges, I couldn't blame him. Are you going to judge me now?"
"Excuse me?"
"We had come back from the bank. We got the call from Thomas and it was pretty obvious that your death warrant had been signed. I couldn't think of anything but getting here in time. And then Sam came over. He had figured out that your Dad wasn't where he was supposed to be and stopped by to make sure everything was all right. And when he saw the safe deposit box on the kitchen table, he tried to convince her to go to Collig. She agreed, but I hit him on the head because I thought that would take too much time and you'd be dead."
"She was going to turn herself in?" asked Frank slowly.
"Yes," said Callie. "And I stopped her."
Callie had knocked out one of their friends because she was worried about him. Even though that wasn't the best decision, if the situation were reversed, he would have done the same thing.
"Callie, you shouldn't even be involved in this," he said. "I'm sorry."
"Frank," she sighed. "I feel terrible about Sam. But I don't know if I would have done anything differently. So, Laura will take responsibility for her actions, and I will take responsibility for mine."
Frank looked at Callie with respect in his eyes. This was a more self-confident woman than the one he had said goodbye to before he had headed off to the computer lab. And Callie and Vanessa had always called his mother "Mrs. Hardy". Sometime in the past few days, she had become Laura.
"I'll listen," he said finally. "I can't promise anything else."
"Fair enough," said Callie. That was the best she was going to get.
"Glad we got that straightened out," whispered Joe so only Vanessa could hear. "I was afraid we'd have World War Three when this was over."
"I don't think Frank's totally convinced," she whispered back. "But now it will be a civil war instead of World War Three. What about you?"
"I know you will always do the right thing," he whispered and kissed her on the cheek. "And I have a feeling there's more to Mom than we know."
"Touching moment," said a voice from the other end of the hallway. "However, you four are needed elsewhere, if you wouldn't mind coming with us.
Looking toward the direction of the voice, Frank winced and caught Joe's eye. He recognized the man who spoke as one of the two who had restrained him that first night, and the shadows behind him promised even more people. Although the sight of him filled Frank with anger, he didn't think he could do much better in a fight this time around, especially with Callie and Vanessa to protect. Judging from Joe's expression and the way he was eyeing Vanessa, Joe had reached the same conclusion.
"In there," he said gesturing toward the empty room they had just vacated.
"We'll try and hold them off to give you some room to run."
Before he could signal Joe, Vanessa moved past him.
She let the first person go by her and caught the arm of the second who had swung his fist toward her head. She twisted it and sent him flying past her into the first person and both of them tumbled to the ground.
Blocking a flying kick, she stepped forward and brought her knee up into the third attacker's groin. Hard. He didn't have time to say anything before he dropped, clutching a very tender spot.
Frank had heard that Aikido placed emphasis on motion and turning people's negative energy away from you, but had never seen it done.
Instead of lashing out at her attackers, Vanessa met them and turned their attacks away from her.
Her precise movements were not angry but perfectly controlled. Two or three people at once approached her and instead of panicking, she twisted aside and sent them toward the nearest hard surface. When one person ran at her to try to knock her down, she looked at him as he tried in vain and then knocked him down.
Frank stepped in front of an attacker who was stupid enough to target Callie while he was there. He put him down with a karate chop and looked at Vanessa out of the corner of his eye as he turned to deliver a kick to the next person who was trying to sneak up on him, and then followed up with a punch to the jaw.
Vanessa's movements were calm. Despite all she had gone through in the last few days, her motions were not filled with rage or anger. Instead, she met the attacks and turned them away from her.
Joe knew Vanessa was capable of this, but knowing and seeing were two different things. He was willing to bet that she could give Frank a run for his money, and that was saying something.
Seeing a flash of metal on the other side of the hallway, Joe slammed in to the guy before he could draw his gun completely. As both of them crashed against the wall, he managed to get an elbow in the guy's ribs and gasped as a punch grazed his jaw. His own fist caught the guy's cheekbone with a thud. He got to his feet in time to see Frank bow formally to Vanessa who gracefully returned it.
This was a side of Vanessa Frank had never seen before. And he was discovering things about his mother he had never realized. Instead of waiting to hear the whole story from her, he had reacted angrily to changes without getting her side of the story. Aikido doesn't react to an attack directly but uses the energy of the attacker to redirect it. Having seen the perfect harmony in her movements, Frank wondered if he could find that harmony in his own life again. He owed it to himself and his family to try.
"Mom and Dad are going to need help," said Joe "Let's go!" The man who was lying on the floor beneath him lifted his head.
"You're too late," he rasped. "Standing around here talking. He's got a room filled with gas for emergencies. You'll never get there in time."
Frank was the first one down the hallway.
Note to all the martial arts people out there: I do not practice Aikido, but know quite a few people who do. Comments and feedback and criticisms about that section are welcome.