AUTHOR'S NOTE: There's more! (: Consider this mass update a thanksgiving gift.
DISCLAIMER: Insert my usual speech here.
Wilbur took Kolbie's wrist as she walked pass him and into the kitchen to fix something for his father. Startled, by the roughness of his touch, she stopped and looked at him. He was glaring at his father as he walked slowly into the door. However, his glare softened as he saw how thin the man was and how dull his eyes were. He held on to the wall as he stood in front of his son. Wilbur released Kolbie's wrist and she continued to go into the kitchen. She pulled out the leftovers of their dinner and quickly reheated it with the press of a button. She then platted it and placed it on the table.
"Wilbur, stop glaring at the man. Please, Mr. Robinson, sit and eat," Kolbie told the man.
"Please, Kolbie, you're part of this family, now," the blond said as she walked past her and sat in the seat in front of the food. "You can drop the formalities, it's Cornelius, until your wedding day, and then it's Dad."
"How do you know?" Wilbur growled. Kolbie swatted his arm and pulled him to the futon. She sat first and Wilbur sat in front of her, in a semi-protective manner. Kolbie placed her chin on his shoulder and kissed his check, her apology for swatting his arm. He grabbed her hands and squeezed them gently, him accepting her apology.
"It's okay," the man said. "It's understandable." The man turned to face the couple on the futon and exhaled slowly. "Henry Parker worked for me for about seven years. He was great when he started, he had amazing ideas. He moved up the chain quickly. He was one of my advisers, you should remember him Wilbur, he came to dinner a lot right before you meet Kolbie actually." Wilbur nodded. "He'd been one of my personal advisers that I told everything to for about two years. He tried to bring back Doris, as Mike called her. You following me, Wilbur? Doris was a hat that I invented to help with daily life and all to help humans. She worked well for a while, and then she turned against us. We had to scrap her," he clarified for Kolbie. "So he found the blueprints and created another Doris. I demanded that he scrap her, and he didn't, so I fired him last year. From what he told me he wanted to get back at me. When I fired him, his family left him. He wanted me to have nothing. He came to my office one night, and released a sleeping chemical, and kidnapped me. He then replaced me with a clone; I suppose would be the easiest way to explain it."
"That doesn't explain how you knew that we were engaged," Wilbur said.
"I was getting there, son," the inventor said. "The clone has a chip, so it's like a robot, I guess, and on the chip are the events that that clone experienced."
"So you didn't hit me, a clone did?" Wilbur asked.
"Correct, I apologize for that. It's been months that you and you mother and sister has had to deal with those. I should have gotten out sooner."
"He's gone," the brunette girl said in the receiver. "What do you mean?"
She rolled out of her bed in her dorm room and slipped her slippers on. The voice on the other end of the line was angry. The sounds of shouting and glass breaking greeted her ears. She brushed her hair out of her eyes and searched for her other shoe. She sighed and switched ears with her phone. She stumbled over the slipper in the middle of the floor and slid it on.
"FIND HIM! HE'S RUINING EVERYTHING!"
"Henry, calm down," she hissed as she walked to her craft. "He probably went to Wilbur's and then they'll probably be at the Robinson place."
"I'll kill them. I'll kill them all," the man said. "I'll kill them all."
"Wait, what about Wilbur? You said that he'd be safe in this plot. You said-" The line went dead. "Henry!"
This was bad, this was really bad.
"Hello?" Wilbur answered quietly as he stroked his sleeping fiancée's hair. They were still on the futon and his father still in at the table. They'd been talking when Kolbie had nodded off against his chest leaving Wilbur and his father to talk alone. Cornelius said that despite what the 'other Cornelius' said he greatly approved of his relationship with Kolbie that he felt terrible about how his son had been treated while he was 'incarcerated' as Wilbur so lovingly put it.
"Wilbur, you need to get to your mom, now."
"Brandi," Wilbur said irritated. His fingers hit a knot in her black hair and he pulled through it roughly. Kolbie's grey eyes jerked open and she glared and the boy. He mouthed and apology and turned his attention to the phone. "You're bothering me."
"You need to get out of your apartment and get your mom out of her house. Wilbur, please."
Everyone seemed to be begging tonight. His father called begging and his ex-lover called begging to get him out of his apartment. "Is this about Henry Parker, Brandi?" Wilbur asked. "Are you working with him?"
The static on the line crackled. "Yes, I am. I mean was. Look just get out and get somewhere he doesn't know about. He's out to get you."
Wilbur hung up the phone and grabbed Kolbie quickly. "We gotta go. I was right," he told her. "Brandi's just called to warn me about Henry. We gotta get mom." Wilbur brushed her hair from her eyes and kissed her. "Just in case," he muttered against her lips. He grabbed her jacket and she put it on quickly. "Come on, Dad," Wilbur said as he took the key and tossed it to his fiancée, "Start the craft." Kolbie ran down the stairs and to the craft. Wilbur helped his father down the stairs and into the craft. Once sure his passengers were settled and buckled up, he sped off towards his childhood home. "Call mom," he said as he handed a phone to Kolbie.
She dialed the number and placed it on speaker. Thunder crashed and lighting flashed over head.
"You're running late, Wilbur," a man's voice said. "I've been here for at least five minutes. You're mother is in good hands as well as your sister. She's very cute, looks just like Cornelius."
"If you lay a finger on her head, I swear," Cornelius growled as Wilbur pressed the pedal down harder. The speedometer was pushing 80.
"Which one? You're lovely wife or your adorable daughter?"
"Henry," Cornelius warned as Wilbur's craft speed pushed 90. Even Kolbie's soft touch couldn't calm him. He wasn't going fast enough to get to his family in time. If he allowed her to calm him, they could be dead by the time he got there. The speedometer read 101. "Henry, don't touch them. Henry, let me hear her. Let me hear them both." Henry obliged and he held the phone out in front of Mary Jane and told her to speak to her daddy. "M.J., honey, listen, daddy's on the way, okay?" The sounds of his daughter crying were covered by the calming tones of his wife. "Franny."
"Cornelius," she responded. "Cornelius, hurry," she said. His wife's voice sounded strong and in control to the untrained ear, but all people in the craft knew that she was desperate.
"I will, we're coming," he assured, trying to keep his voice calm despite the rising panic. The speedometer read 110 as Wilbur turned on to the street that ran parallel to his home.
"You may get here too late," Henry responded. Something cocked in the background, and M.J. sobbed louder. "Shh, you'll give the surprise away to daddy," Henry said placing a finger on the blond female Robinson's lips.
"Don't touch her," Franny shouted. There was a loud pop and she was silenced.
Kolbie whimpered and briefly Wilbur looked at her, not wanting to take his eyes off the road for too long. "What?" he asked his voice tense.
"That was a gun," Kolbie whispered. The dark clouds that had been forming for hours broke, bringing sheets of rain down on the craft. Wilbur angrily switched on the windshield wipers and sped up more. The speedometer now read 130.
"Good, young one," Henry said. "You've cause my niece a lot of pain over the past year. You'll know what it's like to feel the loose of someone you love soon enough. She's fine, by the way. I just fired a warning shot into the floor. However, the next time she speaks without being spoken to she won't be so lucky."
Wilbur slammed on his breaks as he pulled into the driveway and jumped out of the craft, his father following. Wilbur took the keys and tossed them to Kolbie through the open door. "Stay here," he demanded. Of course, Kolbie wasn't listening. She'd already gotten out of the craft. "Stay," he urged her. She shook her head, her soaking wet hair stuck to her forehead. "Kolbie, I can't do this with you right now," he told her. He knew that she wasn't going to stay, not when he'd risked his life for her so many times. He kissed her, like it would be the last time his lips would ever touch hers. "Stay safe," he muttered as he started off towards the front door of the house.