Buried Emotions
Disclaimer - Look! Hubby got me the Thunderbirds for Valentine's Day...Oh. No it was roses. Still very nice.
Chapter Six
Jeff Tracy watched the clip Kate had downloaded by Ana Nevada with a sigh.
"Well, that indicates deep thoughts and probably more work than I want to deal with," Anne Marie said with a laugh as she came up behind him, setting files on his desk for his signature.
Jeff cocked an eyebrow at the paper files, grabbing a pen and with quick glances – and the occasional long pause – began to rapidly scrawl his signature. "Whatever happened to the paperless society we were supposed to have by now?"
"What?" Anne Marie gasped. "And put poor little paper pushers like me out of work?"
"I know exactly how much I pay you, Anne Marie Thompson," Jeff laughed. "Don't try pleading poverty with me."
"I earn every cent you pay me, Jefferson Tracy," Anne Marie laughed back. "You'd be lost without me."
Jeff said nothing.
She was right.
"Seriously," Anne Marie asked, picking up the files once more. "What was that sigh about?"
"Ana Nevada," Jeff sighed. "Did you see her blurb basically giving out the details on Alan's wedding? Bailey will probably be overrun with media."
"Nope." At Jeff's raised eyebrow, Anne Marie continued.
"I contacted most of the respectable media outlets. Basically, I told them they had a choice – media blackout, or pictures released by us, as well as an approved journalist being on site."
"Lisa Lowe?" Jeff asked, thinking of the journalist who had always favorably reported on both the Thunderbirds and the Tracy Family.
"Her maternity leave started last week and yes, we sent her lovely flowers and yes, I will send a gift basket when she has her baby," Anne Marie said, looking a bit nervous. "Her replacement is a new-comer, someone I actually introduced to Lisa when the reporter was still in college. Lisa took her on as an intern during her senior year at NYU and has been grooming her to be her protégé since she graduated last year. This will be a bit of a feather in her cap."
"Can we trust her?" Jeff asked warily.
"Her name is Rebecca Blake," Anne Marie quickly said.
"Rebecca…" Jeff murmured before his eyes went wide. "Little Becky Anne? Your niece? She can't be old enough…"
"She turns twenty four next week," Anne Marie laughed.
Sitting back in his chair, Jeff sighed. He could recall Becky Anne and her brother, Tyler, running around the office when Anne Marie was watching them for her sister. "We're getting old, Anne Marie."
"Speak for yourself," Anne Marie huffed. "Now, what is so bad about that Ana Nevada piece? Most of it would have gotten out anyhow?"
"Besides the fact that she never even gets Alan's age right?" Jeff grumbled. "No, I guess it is ok. But…Alan called me last night. He's come to a decision on a few things but has reporters bugging him at home, at school…they are even bothering his coach and friends. Not Tin-Tin so far, but the fact that she goes to school in Boston has been kept a lot quieter than where Alan is."
"So be proactive," Anne Marie suggested. "Have Alan give an interview. Dispel some of the mystique and let Allie speak for himself."
Jeff cocked an eyebrow. "Think Lisa's producers would let Rebecca get some extra coverage by conducting the interview? She'll go by a set outline, right?"
"To get the elusive Alan Tracy on television?" Anne Marie asked. "They would probably let us submit questions AND answers ahead of time."
Jeff chuckled and picked up the phone to call Alan, knowing Anne-Marie would be doing the same with her niece. Alan didn't want to do this, but it would be for the best.
Kate massaged a kink in her neck. She hated it when Scott was up on Five and would be so relieved when he came back down today.
Keeping an eye on the "classroom" – as they called the former lab area that had been turned into a remote site class for the Tracy grandchildren – Kate continued to work even as she smiled when Jason answered a complete question in perfect Hebrew. Elizabeth was doing extra work on the computer while Michael was dozing on a mat in the corner. Just past him, DJ and Tommy were both sleeping in a portable crib.
"They still sleeping?" Emily whispered as she entered the classroom.
"They are," Kate said, her smile turning to a frown when she realized Emily was standing next to her.
"Em! You are supposed to be on bed rest. You remember what bed rest is, don't you?" Kate hissed, jumping up and getting the other woman to sit down.
Emily sat reluctantly before looking back up. "I'm fine. I had to go to the bathroom. I am allowed up to do that, you know."
Kate glared. "Your house is across the way."
Emily shrugged. "John made sure I came over when the Thunderbirds were called out. Sarah is on Command and Control so I was supposed to be lying down in Dad's suite. If I have to, I prefer Alan's but they are working on the remodeling so it is a bit dusty. Plus Onaha stripped down all the linens, even the drapes."
"Last time I checked," Kate sighed, "Dad's room is upstairs."
"OK, I confess," Emily sighed. "I was bored. Sarah took over all the charitable trust paperwork and with Edward and Ellen out here helping with the clinic, there isn't anything for me to do."
Kate slipped an upside down trashcan under Emily's feet to keep them elevated. "Honey, I know this has been rough. But as much as we are looking forward to Keith, we want Mommy to be as healthy as baby."
"I know," Emily groaned. "Please – can we talk about something else?"
"Like what?"
"How about what the munchkins are doing?" Emily asked.
"Jason has his Hebrew School and Elizabeth her language lessons. I believe it is French today," Kate said even as she reached into the small fridge they kept for the children's snacks and pulled out a bottle of water for Emily before grabbing a bottle of ice tea for herself.
Emily smiled. "Thanks for giving her Julie's e-mail address. They have started corresponding and it is really helping her comprehension."
"OK, so what else before I call Sarah to forcibly remove you?"
Now it was Emily's turn to glare. "She's busy."
"The boys are on their way back, Scott sent me a message from Five," Kate said firmly. "Sarah will be looking for you shortly. Now – what else?"
Sighing again, Emily leaned back and took a sip of water before asking, "OK, what was John talking to Alan about last night? John would only say Dad had to review a news clip or something, then he was going to ask him about being proactive. What news clip?"
"Did you see Ana Banana -"
"Ana Mon...I mean, Nevada," Emily corrected.
"Banana Montana's story?" Kate continued. "The one about Alan's wedding?"
"You know the doctors want my blood pressure kept under control," Emily calmly responded. "Watching that woman is one way not to do that."
Kate sighed. "She basically gave details, some of which we were trying to keep under wraps. So we contacted the legitimate news outlets -"
"Which leaves Utah...Montana...Nevada out of it."
"And Alan is even going to give his first real interview. The press can't wait. It will be on Wolf News before it goes anywhere else."
"Lisa Lowe's network?" Emily asked.
"Yes, but she is on maternity leave. Anne Marie's niece is her replacement and will be doing the interview."
"How did Dad get the clip, anyhow?" Emily asked after mulling over the situation for a moment.
"You know John's program?" Kate asked. "The one designed to monitor information on International Rescue or the Tracy Family? He and I have refined it so anything we might consider higher priority is sent to a file downloaded to our computers daily. John gets IR and I get the family. We forward anything we think needs to be dealt with to the appropriate party or parties."
"And Dad is dealing with this?" Emily asked. "Why not sic you on Banana Brains?"
"Dad wouldn't let me," Kate grumbled. "Something about bodies being too much of a bother for Legal to deal with."
"Remind him that is what Waste Management is for," Emily calmly said.
Kate grinned and was about to say something when a new voice popped in.
"All right, what the heck do you think you are doing?" Sarah snapped from the doorway.
"She's been sitting down the whole time, feet up," Kate assured her. "Surely it was better for Emily to be with me and the kids than by herself, right?"
Sarah shook her head, pulling Emily to her feet. "Next time, you are resting on the couch in Dad's office."
"But the color hurts my eyes," Emily whined.
"Join the club," Sarah grumbled. "Dad may be brilliant at business but he'd flunk miserably at interior design."
The two women left and a chuckling Kate looked around to see five sets of eyes watching her.
"Naps over?" she sighed as she helped DJ out of the crib before setting him down in a stroller. Kate smiled at Jason who had brought the two seater over and was buckling in his brother even as his mother pulled Tommy out to join his cousin in the stroller.
Michael smiled up at his aunt before he leaned into Elizabeth. The little girl beamed at her cousin before she spoke up.
"And our lessons are all done as well. Onaha said she was making jello with grapes in them. Can we have that for snack?"
Kate smiled and nodded, leading the children from the classroom. Someday, the children would, one by one, go off to boarding schools, much as Alan had. But for now, she would enjoy the best part of her day. No reports, no conference calls, no high pressure business games…Just enjoy being Mom/Aunt Kate was the best thing. She could worry about everything else later.
But the matter of Alan and the joys of the media? Somehow that thought could never be pushed completely from her mind.
Jeannie Landman entered the small diner that had been her home (if you want to get technical, the small apartment above was where she had slept) since she was six. Millie Bates gave her daughter an absent wave as the younger woman strolled to the back of the diner to the table the locals always called "Jean's Table". How many pictures had been drawn, homework completed or meals eaten at that spot Jean wasn't sure. But she couldn't help but smile at the sight of her own son, Charlie – named for her late father – seated in the same highchair her grandmother had used for her.
"Hey Charlie-boy," Jean murmured as she pressed a kiss into his curls.
"Should I be jealous?" Billy Landman – father, husband, doctor and all around decent guy – laughed.
"OK," Jean grinned, kissing the top of his head – at six one she was three inches taller than her spouse, not as noticeable since he was seated. "Hey Billy Boy."
"Smart ass," Billy muttered as he took a sip of his coffee.
"Language, William Landman!" Millie called out from the kitchen.
Jean snickered but only for a moment.
"And you behave yourself, Bertha Jean!"
"Oh…bother," Jean grumbled even as Millie burst from the back of the diner with the energy of a woman half her age.
Pouring her only child a cup of coffee – with Jean grateful her mother was "letting her" have the brew now that Charlie was being weaned from bottles – Millie smiled at her family.
"So…did Scott call you?" Millie asked her daughter, even as she poured a coffee for herself before beginning to cut up some finger food for Charlie. No store bought nonsense for her grandbaby, no sir-ree.
Jean put down her coffee abruptly. "How did you know, Mama?"
"Because Jeff called me," Millie explained. "He wanted me to check things over. It's not that he doesn't trust you, baby. You know he does. But this is one of his boys and he wants everything to be fine. I don't know why the family talked Allie out of doing what he wanted. It's that boy's wedding."
"Well, we probably couldn't have been there," Jean tried reasoning with her mother. "And it would have hurt some feelings if they had a little hole in the wall affair."
"Getting married at sunset on a tropical island isn't a hole in the wall, Bertha Jean," Millie corrected. "It's romantic. And those two grew up there, not here in Bailey. Yes, I know Alan spent ten years here. But he doesn't consider Bailey home. A nice place to visit, sure – but not really home."
"Listen, isn't our only part in this to show up?" Billy asked. "It's none of our affair."
Both Bates women turned to glare at Billy who wisely took over the feeding of his son.
It was safer for him.
"Well, the wedding is coming up soon. We'll be going shopping for new outfits Sunday," Millie said firmly.
"Oh, Mama – do I…"
"Yes, you do," Millie said as she stood up. "You could use with a nice dress. I haven't seen you in one since your wedding day. Why even Amos'…"
Jean clutched her mother's hand, knowing how fond Millie had been of Amos. "Mama, I was there representing the Department. I had to be in uniform."
"Well," Millie said, gathering her grit back up. "You will be in a dress come Allie's wedding day, you hear me? And William, that includes you."
"I have to wear a dress?" Billy snickered.
"Nope," Millie said. "You don't have the legs for it."
Jean snickered, making her son begin to emit childish giggles as well.
"That's it," Billy groaned. "Gang up on me."
The family's laughter drew the glare of Keifer Dutton as he came in to pick up his take-out order.
"Some day," Keifer thought in anger. "Some day, I will make you all pay."
Grabbing his take out and throwing down his money, Dutton stomped out, looking around the street. Down at the bus terminal, the once a week bus from Kansas City was dropping off its passengers. He recognized Mr. Taylor's college age son, the Widow Dubois, back from visiting her newest grandchild in Tennesee and…who were those two men?
Oh, well. He wasn't on duty right now and frankly Dutton couldn't care less.
Alan Tracy sat in a small coffee shop in Faneuil Hall, sipping on a latte and waiting for his girlfriend – no, wait, fiancée - to join him.
"Well, hello, Alan," another voice interrupted his thoughts.
Looking up, Alan stifled a sigh. "Hello, Monica," he politely responded. The woman – a five year employee of Tracy Industries – had made a few rather blatant passes at him since she had transferred to Boston a couple of years ago. Even before his internship in the fall, Alan had sometimes worked on projects at the Boston office, especially Tracy Industries work. Considering the woman was closer to Gordon's age than his, it was kinda embarrassing.
Finding out Monica and Gordon had had an affair made it even more so.
Lifting up her coffee, Monica gave what she thought was a winsome smile. "Mind if I sit with you?"
"Actually, I have company coming," Alan said as politely as she could.
"Annabeth Roberts?" Monica asked. At Alan's startled look, she shrugged. "I live close to her house. I've seen you go there. Gordon assured me you weren't seeing her – I mean, she's way too old for you."
Alan refrained from saying anything. Annabeth was only a couple of years older than Monica but Alan wasn't about to point that out. However, he was annoyed that his brother had been apparently gossiping about him with this woman.
"Well, I was sure it was personal and I got worried. Woman like that see a young, well-to-do man like yourself and can only see him as a meal ticket, right?" Monica cooed. "No Tracy boy could possibly be seeing her for any other reason, hmmm?"
Alan looked startled but a new voice broke in to defend him.
"Seeing as you are a Tracy Employee," Tin-Tin coolly said, "I am sure you were informed that confidentiality extends to not talking about the Tracy Family."
"And you are?" Monica Bates sneered.
Holding up her left hand and flashing her engagement ring, Tin-Tin grinned. "Someone with a lot stronger claim than you. By the way, Alan doesn't like leftovers. And yes, Kate has had you investigated. She was curious about who would spy on Alan and report it to Gordon. Now, Gordon might believe your claim that you were "worried about poor Alan" but I'm not buying it. I am going to be Alan's wife. And I do not share. Got it?"
Monica tossed her head back and stormed off, dumping her full cup of coffee in the nearest trash can.
Tin-Tin sat down, taking a sip of her iced mocha latte and smiling at Alan. "So…what's new?"
Alan shook his head with a grin. "Damn, but you can be one scary woman, Tin-Tin Kyrano."
Kissing him gently, the woman grinned, reminding Alan of the girl who had first captured his heart.
"And don't you ever forget it, Alan Shepard Tracy."
Leaning back again, Tin-Tin sighed. "Ready for the interview?"
Alan shrugged. "Not really. Even once my picture starting circulating, I still have enjoyed as much anonymity as a Tracy son gets. This will ruin it. But I want everything out in the open and this is the best way to do it." Running his thumb over the back of her hand, he sighed.
"Sure you have to go back with your folks after graduation?"
Tin nodded. "Yes. Mom is making my dress, remember? I want to look perfect for you."
Kissing her gently, Alan smiled. "You always look perfect to me."
The young couple kissed some more and spoke softly of the future they were planning together, oblivious to angry eyes glaring their way.
Monica Bates watched Alan Tracy with a sense of cold fury. Once her brief affair with Gordon had run its course – and carefully maintaining a friendship with the man to keep an in – Monica had practically drooled the first time a twenty year old Alan had walked past her desk. Young, athletic, a star in the making…he would be her ticket to the good life.
But she had not known about a fiancée. However, after some discreet inquiries, she did know what Annabeth Roberts did for a living. Pulling out her phone, Monica came to a hasty decision. Maybe it was time to take her old college pal up on her offer…
"Ana? It's Moni. Have I got a scoop for you…"
A/N - OK, sorry for yet another delay...
Alan - Umm, wasn't this supposed to be up yesterday?
CC - I fell asleep, ok?
Alan - Party hardy?
CC - Hardly a party. Worked both jobs, had trouble falling asleep only to be woke up before 4 by a phone call from my brother that mom was taken to the hospital by ambulance. With the cancer, I was scared it was something life-or-death, but it turned out the pain was from early stages of pneumonia. So I headed back to work by 11, worked up 4:30, came home and spent an hour clearing the driveway of the newest foot of snow that has been dumped on us, made dinner, ate said dinner and went to sleep by 9.
Alan - Ouch. I suppose the stress in my life is nothing to whine about.
CC - Not yet it isn't. Wait. It will be.
Alan - You're using me for stress relief again, aren't you.
CC -As I tell my daughter, insert evil grin here.
Alan - CC?
CC - Yeah?
Alan - You are about to be evil, aren't you?
CC - What do you mean "about to be?"
Alan - Go back to sleep CC.
CC - Sorry, can't. But thank you for your understanding. We who are about to inflict emotional pain and suffering - and maybe some physical...or a lot of physical pain and suffering (Alan's eyes go wide) - salute you. And to anyone who I didn't answer - including some nice anon reviews - thanks for the support. I needed it.