Squealing tires signaled the White Queen's arrival, and Sean looked up with hope lighting his emerald eyes. It was no coincidence that he had found himself walking by her quarters, even if he still denied it to himself. He ambled along, his hands thrust inside his pockets, whistling a merry tune as he watched her move from underneath veiled eyes.
Emma was a beauty unlike any other, and not just because she possessed one of the most powerful telepathic brains across the globe. Her beauty was that that made a man stop, stare, and catch his breath without ever realizing he had done so, but Sean knew all too well that that same glorious beauty that he had ached to see again for so long while she'd been gone on her business trip hid a cunning mind, a fierce temper, and a heart he feared she would always deny was truthfully full of love . . . love for their students, and for herself, but never for him though he longed for it to be otherwise.
He watched her walk, the way she held herself as she moved gracefully but purposefully over the grounds exuding strength and power while simultaneously emulating sheer beauty. She glanced at him as she passed but did not speak a word, and Sean barely held back the sigh that rose in his throat. She was mad. He could see her anger clearly in the flash of her blue eyes and was only glad that it could not possibly be directed at him for she'd not seen him in days and, therefore, he couldn't possibly have done anything to make her mad . . . could he?
He looked up as a flying form caught his attention, and he shook his head while calling out to his student. "I would nae advise approachin' her now 'bout tha' grade, Monet."
Monet landed lightly upon her feet next to her headmaster and looked at him with apprehension in her brown eyes. "She has arrived angered, sir?"
"Aye," Sean replied with a deep sigh. He turned his gaze to the distance and walked away, leaving Monet to stand alone, wondering about her headmasters.
The White Queen kept her posture rigid and her head held high until she slipped inside the confines of her own bedroom. She leaned against her door the moment she closed it and sighed. It had been a long, frustrating trip to Boston, and she was weary. One face was all she wanted to see, though she had taken a quick glance at the handsome vision that was her co-headmaster. She had felt the catch of her breath in her throat that had become so familiar whenever Sean was around but had hurried on, eager to get to her bedroom, pour her sorrows out, and relax.
Emma released her frustrations in one more sigh, then looked to the bed where she expected her sole confidante to be. No meow had greeted her, but Emma had felt assured that her Precious was only sleeping and had not yet awakened despite their door opening. The bed was empty, but she pushed her worries aside with the knowledge that Bumpkin was under very strict orders to not allow her beloved even one second more than necessary with any door or window open.
She crossed to the bed, calling out softly, "Precious, darling, Mommy's home." She touched the covers gently, shook them slightly, and then pushed them over across the bed as the icy fingers of fear began to coil around her heart. The bed was not only empty but was cold! She whirled, her fear building, and then screamed . . .
Emma's scream split the previously still air that had settled across the campus. Sean had been quickening his step as dark clouds had began to gather in the sky, but as Emma's scream caught at his heart, he turned and flew. He reached her door just as Monet lifted a hand to knock but did not slow. Instead, he kicked it open and hovered in the air. "Em, what's wrong?!"
The color had drained from her face, he noted as he set upon the floor, and her hands covered her mouth. Her eyes shimmered with an unnamed emotion he knew she'd never admit to. "Em?"
"Miss Frost, what is it?"
"Yo, Frostie!" Jubilee's voice came through the open door as she came skating. "What's up?"
"She -- She -- She's gone!" Emma cried, and despite herself, a tear fell.
The three around her stared at Emma, Monet's and Jubilee's jaws hanging slightly open. The students had never seen her cry, and Sean had only had the honor of holding her while she cried once before when their students had been taken. He recovered the fastest and quickly closed the distance that separated them. Taking her shoulders lightly in his hands, he looked into her eyes and asked softly, "Who's gone, Em? Tell us, luv, so we can help."
Desperation and fear clutched at Emma, and she missed his slip of the tongue. "She's gone! Precious is gone!"
"Precious?" the two girls repeated, their surprise growing.
"Who," Sean queried, fighting to keep his voice calm and steady but barely managing thus far, "is Precious?" A man could not be named Precious, he reasoned, nor could he really see a lass being named so.
"My . . . My baby -- "
Sean's mouth fell open; his eyes shot wide. His body turned limp, his hands dropping from her shoulders to swing back to his side. "Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Yer . . . " He could not say the word. How could Emma have a child?! How could she ever have been pregnant around them without their noticing?! How could his love know another man so well!?!
An anger greater than any he'd ever felt at any villain bubbled within him, churning, toiling, and fighting with a sorrow that left his insides feeling even more hollow than when he had lost Maeve. He recoiled from Emma, realizing that, though death had not claimed her, he had just as surely lost her. His head hung, but his heart hung far lower.
Their students had gone completely unnoticed by Sean as they had echoed Emma's words. "Your baby?!" He did not even see the startled wad of gum that had splattered across Jubilee's face.
"Yes, my baby!" Emma exclaimed, and then she realized what she had said, the admission that would cost her all their respect. In her next breath, Emma took stock of the situation. What did it matter if she lost their respect if her Precious, her only real friend and confidante ever, who had never asked anything from her but to be loved and cared for was gone?! She knew the answer as soon as the question hit her, and she blurted out, "My cat. I know it sounds ridiculous to you all," she continued at the shocked expressions of the other students who were just entering her quarters, "but she is my baby."
"That ain't ridiculous at all, ma'am," Paige blurted, though she did not know the story in its entirety. "Pets are members o' the family. Ya can love 'em just like a child. Ah know Ah did when Ah had mah Snookums."
"Snookums?" Jonothon repeated, casting a look at her, but before Paige could answer him, Angelo spoke up.
"But I thought you hated animals!"
"Yeah," Jubilee put in, "you forbid any of us from having one!"
As her students' voices buzzed all around her and fearsome images of what might have happened to her beloved Precious in her absence filled Emma's mind, she felt the world spinning around her. She was dropping through it all, and she knew not what to expect next when the absolute last thing she would have expected caught her ears and made her burn. As laughter erupted into the air, Emma whirled and slapped Sean.
To Be Concluded . . .