Chapter XIX: Single Parents Need Not Apply

Therese had learned with the Eric Bischoff/Colin Jenkins incident that, until one of them confessed, they wouldn't know who the third party was. The Nashville police were aware by proxy of every word said during the confrontation. Between the four of them, the conversation, if it could be called that, was pieced together completely. Kevin and Shawn had overheard snippets of conversations, which explained how Dylan and Colin had gotten into the site with two other men wearing only undershirts and boxers. Gia LaGuardia was Dylan's ex-girlfriend and he had somehow ingratiated himself back into her life. Later, Therese would recognize her as the woman whose address she had found as one of his references and had wanted to call before they left for Turkey. It took a long talk from Stephanie to keep the agent from beating herself up for not making that call. Gia worked at the Parthenon in security—she and Dylan had met through the security service in Chattanooga. While she was on vacation and visiting her family, Dylan had stolen her keys and gained entry into the park. Nash would have busted through the door if physically capable when he heard them laughing about how Therese would never know the security system was turned off.

Neither Jenkins nor Bergeron were talking whatsoever, lawyer present or not. The FBI had been called in and the Atlanta police department informed as well. All guns had been found, confiscated, and would be returned to the rightful owners that were not criminals when the investigation was complete.

The four of them had been questioned at the hospital. The cuts on Shawn's wrists from where he had tried to pull the ties loose were infected but would heal soon enough, bandaged to look like he had committed suicide. None of the blows to his head showed any significant damage. He wanted to laugh at how they were worried about a punch to the face when he had taken chairshots to the head more times than he could count. Kevin had a cracked rib, a nasty bump from the pistol, and several bruises to the face from the last fight. Stephanie's body was more jarred than anything from the two falls. The doctors began running tests on her immediately but there was nothing to indicate the baby was in danger, especially since she was only a few weeks pregnant. They all exhaled a sigh of relief from that report. Therese refused to be checked—her injuries were only superficial, bruises to her arms from Dylan pinning her down, a banged elbow from when she had acted as Stephanie's pillow when the idiot had pushed the brunette into her, and a bruised and slightly swollen throat—however, Kevin practically had to hold her down for a once-over and a satisfactory report from a medical assistant.

The moment Therese got her hands on a pen and piece of paper, she jotted down the numbers she could remember and the PIN to Dylan's account. When all the excitement died down, she began trying to get the money transferred back into the temporary account she and Stephanie had set up. After three attempts, the money was back in the right account. She would have taken more as retribution but that was all that was in there. "Take that FBI," she triumphantly said as she ended the call. "Single parents need not apply—ha!"

Closing her phone, her mood changed and she wondered if maybe she should have just let Jenkins and Bergeron go. Kevin and Shawn would still be home with them and she would still have been able to access the account like she just did. Now, the two men would be going away to prison but not for life. That meant that Bergeron could make good on his threats towards her children. What harm would have come in just letting them go. Giving them paradise, albeit they might have to find work when they get down there, didn't seem fair but neither did having her girls threatened nor the child that Stephanie carried, not counting anymore that could be born between now and the end of the culprits' prison terms. There was nothing she could do about it now.

All that was left was to determine how the Nashville police knew about the transaction, who was involved, and who to arrest. Therese couldn't get anyone to talk to her but, late that night, more nearer to dawn than anything, a rookie cop handed her a note that said to call Sharon Johnson. Somehow, Therese knew she had her answer as she dialed her cellphone.

"Aunt Sharon?"

"Is everybody okay?" the older woman breathed.

"Yes, we're all fine," she rasped in response.

"Oh, thank god," she exhaled and Therese thought she heard the woman suppress a sob. Sharon was a rock and no one could remember the last time they had publicly seen her cry. "You sound terrible."

"You know something that I don't," Therese continued, ignoring the comment. There was no point in freaking her out over the details. "I don't suppose it's too early in the morning for you to explain."

"Child, I've been up all night waiting to hear something. Wouldn't be the first time I've spent a sleepless night worrying about my family," she replied and began to explain.

Sharon had mulled over the things Therese had said before she dropped off the girls and the morning she had rushed through on her way to Nashville. The only person she knew would know more was Jamie Levenson. The man had a crush on her, fiancée or not, and Sharon knew he'd spill his guts if Therese's life was at stake. She marched herself straight into Levenson's office that afternoon and gave it to him grandmother-style. It took awhile to break him down but he finally gave her the full story, along with the warning about police interference. Sharon knew that she alone could not convince the police to do anything but Jamie had access to the notes left for the women, the reports on the security systems being re-installed, and the trace. Therese had kept him informed of their moves for fear that, if they were killed or left to die, no one would know where to look for them. He knew what would be happening at midnight that night in Nashville's Parthenon. Sharon whittled away at him even more and he agreed to take all that he knew to the city's police. He should have taken Sharon with him because it took much longer to convince them than it took for her to break him down. With minutes to spare, the police chief relented and sent officers out after Jamie threatened them with a lawsuit if anything did happen.

As Therese listened, Kevin slipped up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. When Sharon finished, her niece-in-law humbly thanked her and asked if she wanted to talk to Kevin, to which she definitely did.

Therese slipped off to talk to the detective in control of the investigation. Poor guy had yet to leave the hospital. He had tried to get Therese to go down to the station to give her statement but she refused to leave her husband and her friends. He was wrapping everything up at the hospital and Therese wanted to talk to him one last time.

"So, you're gonna set up everything with the Atlanta and Stamford PDs for surveillance?" Therese asked. Without knowing who the third party involved was, the police departments agreed to put an unmarked car on each house in case anyone tried anything again for a while.

"Already made the calls. When you get back, they'll be waiting."

"The Michaelses are staying with us for a few days."

"Then, they'll need to call this number before they return home," the detective replied and pulled out a card, writing a name and number down before handing it to her.

"I guess they're still not talking?"

"Not even after we tried to cut them a deal," the man sighed.

"Hmm…well, you know where to find all of us if you need us," she replied and then moved on to her next task—find the guys some clothes, other than hospital gowns, to wear home after the hospital let them take a shower there. "Twenty-four hour Wal-mart, here I come," she muttered to herself, making her second trip there—the first to locate her and Stephanie some black clothing—within the past eighteen hours.

"Everybody ready?" Therese asked, buckling up her seatbelt and reaching for the ignition. "It's gonna be a long trip."

"Maybe we should eat first," Kevin lazily said, lolling his head that was resting on the headrest towards her.

"What do you say, guys?" When nobody answered from the backseat, Therese twisted around to see Shawn and Stephanie making out. "Guys!" she yelled and their faces snapped away from each other. "You've already made the baby. You think we can discuss feeding it?"

"Um, yeah," Shawn vaguely replied, shifting uncomfortably to hide exactly how he was feeling about making babies. "What did you ask?"

"Kevin's hungry and I could do with something myself. What do you two think?"

"You know, I am getting kinda hungry…ravenous actually," Stephanie replied, peeling herself away from Shawn and leaning forward between the two front seats. Kevin didn't miss the hurt and disappointed look on his best friend's face. "I would love something greasy."

"Just something hot," Kevin mumbled. "I'm sick of cold food."

"Something breakfasty," Stephanie piped in again.

"You're not far enough along to blame cravings on your pregnancy," Therese replied, fixing Stephanie with a stare.

"Well, fine. I won't blame it on the baby but I would still love some Waffle House."

Therese was still playing 'mom' and glanced around at everybody to get their approval. When the guys nodded, she put the vehicle in gear and backed out of the parking spot. "First exit I see with Waffle House, I'm stopping."

Shawn and Stephanie didn't hear her as they returned to their favorite pastime. Therese wasn't even sure Kevin heard her as he seemed to have drifted off to sleep. No doubt this was her family as they should be when they would rather have food over getting home and into bed as soon as possible.

Half an hour later, Therese pulled into the parking lot of the greasiest place she had ever seen. Kevin snapped awake when he smelled the grease and Stephanie managed to extract herself from her husband. They all had one thing on their minds—food. Therese had just wanted her girls and her bed but suddenly she had her appetite back, having eaten little over the past week from adrenaline and worry.

The time was still early enough to put the two couples as the only customers with the exception of a lone man at the counter. At first, no one spoke—the women afraid of asking questions their husbands didn't want to answer and the men afraid of upsetting their wives with details. Milking the abductions for sympathy and pity would come later—they had a full three months to do it. Finally, Stephanie asked a question about the conversation she had overheard between Therese and the Nashville detective.

"Um, so did Detective Elliot say anything else about those, um, charges?" Steph tentatively asked, knowing she was about to open up a can of worms in front of Kevin and Shawn.

"Actually, no. We're not in the clear yet." The guys had assumed Stephanie was only speaking of Bergeron and Jenkins but Therese's response made their heads turn. "Elliot is supposed to be calling me later today and to let me know."

"You wanna tell us what you're talking about?" Kevin asked, trying to keep the concern out of his voice.

"Well, you see," Therese began, rolling her head to stretch her neck and then scratch the back of her head. They couldn't exactly hide something like this from their spouses. "We, me and Steph, could possibly have a criminal record." When Shawn started stammering, Therese began to explain. "We sort of broke into the Parthenon, so there's one count of B & E there. And then there's the chance of failure to report a crime. There's a few other things in connection to those two but this detective seems to think that the charges'll be dropped because of the circumstances."

"Like hell they better be dropped," Kevin exclaimed and Shawn seconded that.

"I just can't believe that they would arrest y'all when Jenkins and Bergeron kidnapped us. I still don't believe it was those guys," Shawn ranted, picking up his front and banging. "If only I had had two of these…"

"Yeah, I hear you wield a mean fork," Therese laughed, trying to ease the tension.

"I thought we had seen the last of Jenkins the day he was sentenced," Kevin said, fingering his fork as well now. "I told Shawn that I knew him but I just couldn't place him," he added in a frustrated tone.

"Try staring down the barrel of his gun—you'll never forget his face," Stephanie muttered and Shawn wrapped his arm around her to pull her close.

"The two of you have got to stop pissing off people, Therese," Shawn said with a crooked gin.

"Ha, ha, ha," she replied sarcastically.

"From the way Bergeron talks, somebody gets shot every time you're around. I think that's grounds for pissing people off, don't you, Kevin?"

Nash opened his mouth to reply but Therese began wagging her finger at him. "Uh, uh, uh, you have to go home with me, just remember that."

"I think I'll just stay out of this," he replied, holding his hands up but then wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close. "Hey, how's Evan, by the way?"

"Still with the wool pulled over his eyes," Therese answered into her husband's neck, unwilling for him to let her go—with the exception of the sight of the server on her way with their food.

"Think we can keep it that way with everybody?" Shawn asked, rearranging his glass and utensils to make room for his plate.

"That's our intention," Stephanie answered for everybody before they all forgot what they were talking about when the aroma of food hit them full force.

TBC…

Author's Notes: The epilogue coming up in the next chapter!