I had an unexpected snow day from work, so it allowed me to plow through this chapter.
I must warn you, it's not an easy one!
-x
Bricks clattered against concrete, through a chain-link fence.
Ice-picks drilled at the fence.
Wooden figurines holding the ice-picks step-danced on blacktop.
Blacktop.
There was something about blacktop, something she was supposed to know.
Wake up!
Fog surrounded the blacktop. A shadowy figure stepped out, hovering above her lips.
His tone was brazen, impertinent.
Wake up! he repeated.
I can't, she told the figure. My head; a thousand symphonies are playing in it all at once, and they're clashing in the most dreadful music.
Ignoring her protest, he looked straight through her.
Dammit, Val, wake up! he yelled, louder this time.
You don't have to shout, she said.
Then wake the fuck up!
Well, if you're gonna be so rude about it. Didn't your mother ever teach you some manners?
"She did." His voice became clearer, less muddled by the fog. "But she would say manners lose their importance when your girlfriend, your pregnant girlfriend no less, has been knocked out all night."
"All night?" Valerie opened each eye one at a time. "Fuck," she groaned, attempting to clutch at her head.
She couldn't lift her hands.
That was when she remembered.
"Abby!" she shouted, abruptly sitting upright.
"Hey," said David. "Easy." He used his knees to lower Valerie's head back down to his lap. "You took quite the fall," he told her. "Twice."
That would explain her disorientation.
"Twice?" she asked.
"When they," David swallowed, blinking back tears that indicated he was clearly reliving a horrific memory, "when they drug - drugged you, you, you hit your head. Against the blacktop. I thought my heart had ceased to beat enough then, until they brought us here and threw you on the floor."
Valerie slowly scooted herself up.
"Where?" she asked, taking in a blurred picture of their surroundings.
"There," David nodded to the spot. "You landed against the threshold."
"On my back," said Valerie. "Please tell me it was on my back."
"I could tell you that," said David.
"But it would be a lie," said Valerie. "I see it, in your eyes. It would be a lie, wouldn't it?"
"On your stomach," David choked out. "You landed on your stomach. The - the threshold dug into - into your stomach."
"Oh God," Valerie squeaked.
"Don't panic," he told her. "If we're gonna get through this, neither of us can panic."
"If?" asked Val.
"We will," said David. "We will get out of here, and I will get you to a hospital to get the both of you checked out."
"You need to be checked out," said Val.
"They've done worse to you than they have to me," said David.
He advised Valerie that she may have suffered a concussion.
"I have to ask you things," he said. "Things you're gonna think are stupid, but I've had to watch two people I love suffer from amnesia and three people I love suffer in trying to help them through it, so what is your name?"
"Valerie," said Val.
"Valerie what?" asked David.
"Just Valerie," said Val. "Or Val, if you like. I renounce Malone."
"Valerie," said David. "How old are you?"
Valerie told him.
He asked where they lived. She answered. He asked the name of her high school. She answered that. The town where she had grown up. Her best friend. The name of the club they had co-owned in Los Angeles. The name of the venue they had spent their time in Belfast rebuilding.
Partially satisfied with Valerie's answers, David asked her to detail the first time they had shared a kiss.
"I'll do you one better," said Valerie. "Our first Valentine's together, our only Valentine's together, I gave you a friendship bracelet and you told me that I was taking your heart."
"You scared the shit out of me, Val," said David, scooting to where their foreheads and bodies could press together.
"I'm sorry," she said against his skin.
"Sorry for what?" he asked.
"Sorry that you fell for the girl who got you bound and gagged," she said.
"Hey." David pulled back and aimed his laser focus into Valerie's eyes. "We aren't doing that. After everything, I'm not letting you do that."
"But if you hadn't met me, you wouldn't be -"
"If I hadn't met you, I wouldn't be in love with the girl all the guys want," said David, "and she wouldn't be equally in love with me. It isn't your fault that your mom is certifiable."
"Didn't you hear her?" asked Val. "She's not my mom. Victor's not my dad. My entire life has been one big, gigantic lie."
"This isn't a lie," said David. "This, us; we aren't a lie. Our baby isn't a lie."
"We were lying to ourselves if we thought we had finally achieved some level of happiness. David, she'll never let us be happy."
"I have a plan, Val. Just give me a chance to enact it."
"You should've been with Donna. At least Felice isn't evil."
"That's debatable," said David. "Now, if you want to waste time failing to persuade me that Donna and I belong together, that's up to you, but I'd rather figure out how to get the woman I love just a little more each day and our son out of this place."
"We don't know it's a he," said Val.
"We don't know it isn't," said David.
"What is this place?" she asked, looking around.
"We'll Google it later," said David. "Can you untie your wrists?"
"I went out with a Navy SEAL once," said Val. "He taught me something that might help."
"I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that."
Valerie made her wrists as small as she could, trying to slip them out of the bind.
"It's not working," she said. "It's supposed to work on rope."
"Honey, they didn't tie your hands with rope."
"But - but it was rope. I know it was rope."
"It was before they knocked you out. Abby told them rope would be too easy for you to squirm out of, so while you were out, they rebound you with cable ties."
"Cable ties?" Valerie panicked. "How the fuck am I supposed to free myself from cable ties?"
"Find something to lift the locking bar," said David. "I saw it in a kidnapping documentary once."
"Why am I not surprised you watched a kidnapping documentary?"
"It was for film class. It was supposed to make us better screenwriters."
Valerie would have asked David if he could free his own hands that were bound in rope, but she realized precisely what he was bound to.
"Is that a beacon lamp?" she asked. "Fuck, are we in a lighthouse?"
She had visited the interior of lighthouses before, during school field trips.
Never would she have imagined her boyfriend would one day be bound to a lighthouse's beacon lamp.
"Focus, baby," said David. "Get your hands free, and then you can work on mine."
"We're getting out of here," Valerie tried to reassure herself.
"Hell yeah, we are," said David.
She first kissed him for encouragement, from his lips down to his chest, before trying to scoot her ass around the room to search for anything that could lift the locking bar.
It occurred to her that she would have no way of knowing if her child had also suffered, either from the drugs or from the fall. No quickening. No kick counts. No movement at all, for it was too early in her pregnancy for there to be any of that.
She wouldn't know anything until she could get checked out. That thought gave her further incentive to keep scooting, despite the electric bolts that shot through her legs.
Repetitive scooting was all the more difficult when one continued to be as woozy as Valerie, but she was determined.
"I found something!" she called out, spotting a rusty hook placed just above the floorboard.
"You've got this, baby," said David. "I love you, and you've got this."
"I love you," said Val.
She lay on her side, trying to get the cable tie lined up with the hook.
It didn't escape her that she could cause damage to her blood circulation if she caused the ties to tighten more.
"It hurts, David," she said.
"What hurts?" he asked.
"Everything," she said. "Everything hurts."
She could see how hard David tried to conceal his alarm.
"It would," he said. "I'd be surprised if it didn't."
"Can you sing to me? That might help."
"What do you want me to sing?"
"My song. Sing my song."
"Your song doesn't have lyrics, unless you want me to sing the jingle."
"Yes it does. My poem. Put my poem," Valerie squeezed her eyes, "as the lyrics."
"Val?"
"My poem," she repeated.
David did as commanded, setting the poem he had written for her to the tune of the instrumental piece he had written for her.
"I'm gonna have to write you another one," he said.
"You can start on it as soon as we get home," said Val.
It took her several tries before she successfully broke open the lifting bar.
"It worked!" she said, raising her aching hands.
"That's my girl," said David.
Valerie scrambled over to work on untying him.
She kissed his raw wrists, blowing hot air on the ropes in the event that they would loosen.
Her fingers continuously slipped.
"I can't get this knot undone!" she expressed her frustration.
"You have to find something to cut it with," said David.
"But I - I - I could cut you."
"I have faith in you, Val. You won't cut me."
She asked if he had his pocket knife, and was disappointed to learn that it had been taken from him.
Nothing. She couldn't find anything of use.
Nothing but her teeth.
Valerie tried to loosen the knot with her teeth.
It was unpleasant, but she kept at it, until the rope fell away and David released a whoop.
"I knew you could do it," he said, pinning his lips to hers.
They next worked on untying the others' feet.
Free of their trappings, David snatched at Valerie's hand.
"Let's get out of here," he said.
The floor hatch opened.
"Leaving so soon?" asked Ox. "And here I was looking forward to having some company."
David swung the rope around Ox, making quick movements to tie it around him.
"Val, get out of here!" said David.
"Come with me!" said Val.
"I'll follow," said David. "Promise. Go! I can't keep him tied much longer."
Valerie kept her eyes locked on David's as she headed for the hatch.
"My, we've got ourselves a couple of escape artists, have we?"
Valerie tried to kick at the goon climbing up the rungs of the hatch ladder.
He effortlessly picked her up by the waist and threw her back inside the lantern room.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," he told David, withdrawing a knife from his sleeve that he tucked directly against Valerie's waist. "Knife wounds can be a real bitch."
"Let her go," said David. "Your boss wants the person who opened the investigation back up? She can have me. Val asked me to drop everything, and I didn't. It's all me."
"David!" Valerie shouted.
"Boss wants both of you," said Ox.
"Let's go, Madame Houdini," said the other man, yanking Valerie down the ladder with his knife still aimed at her waist.
"We found these two trying to escape," he announced when they entered the watch room.
"My, my," said Abby, "impressive." She glanced Valerie over. "With how long you were unconscious, I had rather thought you may have died. How disappointing."
"Why are we here?" asked Valerie. "Where have you taken us?"
"You wanted to know everything," said Abby. "I brought you to where, twenty-four years ago, the most tetchy twit in existence was born to destroy a perfectly fine woman's pleasant life."
"She's talking about you," said Ox.
"Shut up," said David.
He received Ox's fist into David's jaw for the insolence.
"I gathered that." Valerie tried to show zero reaction. "I was born here? In here?"
"Not right in here," said Abby. "Out there, on the shores between the US and Canada. Victor; he stood waiting, right there." Abby lifted her head in the direction of the lantern room, which made Valerie ill. "Now, if you will kindly join me on the gallery deck, I will tell you everything you wish to know, as promised."
As if they had a choice, Valerie thought when she and David were forced out onto the deck.
"My name, as you know, is Albina Gotti," Abby said with great flair as her other men blocked any possible exits. "I was born to a family with great prosperity, but when my father went to prison for corruption, larceny, tax evasion - what have you - my uncle became the head of the family business. He, of course, mysteriously died as Gottis are known to do, and then it was my elder brother Christoph who was put in charge."
Abby gazed out at the water.
"Kip was a terrible choice to be in charge of a business with such importance and he knew it, too. He always had a weak stomach, my brother; unlike me, who could get a job done without issue. There's not much to it. You simply turn off your emotion, and focus on the task at hand.
Kip, however; he allowed his emotions to control him, and it was that emotion that allowed Alberta to play him like the fool he was."
"Alberta?" asked Val.
"Your harlot of a mother," said Abby. "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree."
David attempted to charge at her, but was stopped in his tracks.
"Kip could have had any woman he wanted, but, for reasons none of us could fathom, he had wanted Alberta for most of their school career. Regardless of how many times she had hurt him, he kept going back for more. It was because of Alberta that Kip slipped during a transfer and ended up on the FBI's radar. One agent's radar, in particular."
Abby turned back to Valerie.
"I couldn't have that," said Abby. "If Kip were to be imprisoned, I would lose my only ally in that family. I reached out to a dear family friend, Immo Rawlins. Immo, at that time, was on the inside. He informed me that the agent had a niece attending Macalester College, a niece by the name of Paula Henderson."
"Oh my God," said Val, recognizing the name.
"Yes, that would be Cindy's Paula," said Abby. "The plan was that I would share a dorm with Paula, but at the last minute, she accepted a place at another school and I got Cindy Beevis, instead."
When she had learnt of the close connection between Cindy and Paula, Abby had been quite pleased.
"I would work on gaining Cindy's trust, and then perhaps she would introduce me to her best friend," said Abby. "These things, Valerie, are never as simple as you plan, and I found myself growing quite attached to Cindy. An attachment that, as you know, may have lasted a lifetime."
With the blade still pressed against her, Valerie attempted to only take tiny breaths.
It was a feat, to combat the strong urge to hyperventilate, and the pain that had returned to her arms.
Elsewhere, too, but she would only allow herself to tune in to the pain in her arms.
"She's absolutely parched," said Abby. "Look at her. Provide her with water, at once, unless you would like for her to pass out in the middle of my story."
The water may have been laced with arsenic, for all Valerie knew.
She tried to refuse it, but water was poured down her throat anyway.
She sputtered; coughing, gagging.
David beat at the arms that held him, which only served to anger his captors.
"That's better," said Abby. "Now, where was I? Oh yes. Cindy. Fast forward a few years and the plan had fallen apart. I liked my new life. I no longer cared about helping Kip, or restoring my family's name to its former glory. That is; until Immo informed me of a certain individual's plans to attend a certain music festival. The same music festival my close friend Cindy had been dying to attend."
"Strawberry Fields," said David.
"Forever," sang Abby, and clapped her hands. "Cindy had been telling me about it for weeks, all about how she was going to get autographs from Melanie and Jethro Tull. Immo said what's-his-name had not only Kip in his sights, but the entire family. It occurred to me that if I took care of the pesky agent, Kip may decide I was worthy of the business and hand it all over to me. It was about this time that Cindy invited me along, as Paula caught an unfortunate illness that prevented her from going. The plan was back on, of course, and in full swing. If Victor hadn't nearly thrown an axe in it."
She had met Victor Malone once whilst out at her family's Adirondacks cabin.
It was loathing at first sight, said Abby.
"So imagine my surprise when the awful boy from Queensbury shows up in Ontario," said Abby. "Imagine my surprise still when I learn that he is dreadful Alberta's half-brother, that she had grown up with her father, step-mother, and half-sister. Further surprise came at the absurd realization that I had become enamored with that boy. But I'm jumping ahead."
She had tried to shake off Victor to focus on her plan.
"He wouldn't be so easily shaken off," said Abby. "I asked that he cause a diversion, though didn't inform him of why. It made him feel useful."
Cindy had been the bigger problem.
"I had that agent right where I wanted him," said Abby. "The idiot was sleeping on the outskirts of the festival. It was easy to kill him."
"He has a name," said Valerie.
"Not one of any importance," said Abby.
"His family would think so."
"And that is your issue, Valerie. You are as weak as Kip."
It was not easy, Abby continued, to prevent Cindy from discovering Abby with the gun in her hand, or the dead body she was dragging along to bury.
"Cindy began to hyperventilate, crying and screaming, asking what I had done. I didn't relish the thought of killing her, too, and I had used my small stash of calming herbs on the agent. There was only one thing I could do. I told Cindy I had to do it, for Kip. That the man had threatened my brother. It was partially true, after all. That, however, didn't seem enough for Cindy, so I told her he had raped me. He hadn't, but lovely Cindy was gullible enough to believe he had, and the blood spatters on my jeans had certainly aided in the façade. Cindy helped me to bury the body."
It was all Valerie could do to not release the sick swelling up inside her.
"You would have thought Kip would have been grateful when I told him, but instead, he accused me of putting the business in jeopardy. Me! After everything I had done for him, of all the nerve! Kip set up a cover business, Bering & Associates, and informed me I would be of better use there. By that time, Victor and I were together, and I concocted the story of my blackmailer so as to explain why Kip and I were no longer in contact. The thought of killing Kip had become far too appealing, and I thought it best that we lose touch entirely. This worked exceptionally well when my fake blackmailer became a real one."
Victor, said Abby, had not lost touch with his sister, and when she fell pregnant with Kip's child, Victor was informed.
"Alberta had birthed a daughter two months prior to taking Kip to bed," said Abby. "Her sister had helped her through that pregnancy, but when Alberta became pregnant again so soon, her family had enough of her antics and kicked her out, as any sane family would when dealing with such a terrible woman. She showed up to Kip, begging him to help her, and of course the moron did. She attempted to needle him for money. He gave her every penny, right up to the birth. When Kip's financial downfall became unbearable for him and the family began to turn on him, he came crawling straight back to me. I told him I would not help him. Victor, however, could not bring himself to say any such thing."
Kip had called Victor in a panic, telling him that Alberta had threatened to drown both herself and her baby if Kip refused to kill the sister caring for Alberta's first child, who was attempting to take the baby away.
"Kip, as I said, had a weak stomach. An immensely weak stomach. He neither wanted to be a father, nor a murderer. How he ever lasted in the business as long as he did will always baffle me."
Victor had convinced Abby to come with him to the lighthouse, where he had been told Alberta would be.
"As I said, I would have done anything for your father, and as we were both upset over learning that I would struggle in giving him children, I thought it best to not upset him further."
Abby had met with Kip, and with Alberta, who in a fit of rage had jumped onto a boat.
"I do believe she would have indeed drowned herself, had her pains not become too great for her to function," said Abby. "That was when I myself had a moment of weakness that will forever haunt me."
She could not kill the infant she had delivered, said Abby, as much as she had considered the notion.
"I didn't want Victor to see me as a baby killer," said Abby. "Alberta offered to sell you. Kip wouldn't hear of it. I suggested dropping you off at an orphanage, for you to become the state's problem. It would have been a fine plan, had Victor never laid eyes on you."
Valerie needed to sit.
She desperately needed to sit.
She could not.
"So it's true then," she said in the tiniest voice she believed she had ever spoken in. "No one wanted me. No one but - but -"
"No one but Victor," said Abby. "Yes. The man whose downfall you caused with your feminine wiles is the only person who ever wanted you."
"That's not true," said David. "I want you."
Ox again clocked David, this time in the stomach.
"You do understand that now I have told you this, I must complete what was left unfinished that night?" asked Abby. "I simply cannot allow for you to pass along any of this information to the authorities, as I am far too sophisticated for a prison uniform."
Valerie was dragged forward, to stand right at the edge of the deck.
"Jump," Abby told her.
David shouted behind Valerie.
"Do it," said Abby. "End your miserable life, before my men end it for you."
Valerie thought of all the times she had considered jumping, counting them up one by one until she could almost reach out and touch the despondency that had greatly affected her mindset.
"Jump, and you will no longer hurt everyone you have loved," said Abby, as Valerie heard David cry out in response to what was likely another Ox-given blow.
She had hurt everyone, Valerie thought.
Everyone she had ever loved.
She could say her machinations were done with, but were they?
Would she hurt people again?
Was that all she was capable of?
"Jump, and the memories that haunt you no longer will," said Abby.
Fuck, that was tempting.
"Jump, and it will all be over."
How many times had Valerie wished for it to be over?
"What's the matter?" David's sputter cut into Abby's hypnosis. "Scared to die?"
"Or scared to live," said Valerie, closing her eyes.
"Scared to live in a world absent of you," David's voice rushed closer.
Valerie barely had a moment to think before she was knocked down to the deck.
She hurried up to her knees, scraping them along the floor.
David had evidently snagged his pocket knife back from Ox and had placed the glinting blade against Abby's neck.
One of the men made a move towards David; another, towards Valerie.
"Do it, and I slice your boss open," said David.
Valerie didn't know whether to be proud of David, or terrified for where his choice could lead.
Perhaps she could be both.
"David," Abby emitted a childlike giggle that added to Valerie's queasiness and reminded her of the animated villains she had grown up watching, "you don't have it in you to kill me."
"You'd be surprised what the band geek, dorky little Silver always trying to fit in, has in him when the life of the woman he loves is on the line," said David. "When a psycho bitch decides the most valuable person in the world lacks value. When that same psycho bitch has spent years torturing that woman, until that woman would tell herself the lies she had been told over and over by the psycho bitch. When you've done everything you can to try to drill those lies out, but they remain embedded in that woman's brain because of the continuous tauntings of the psycho bitch, long after that psycho bitch has ceased to factor into that woman's life."
"If you are suggesting that Valerie is the most valuable person," said Abby, "then your taste in women is at the least questionable, if not utterly atrocious."
"That would be your taste in men," said David.
Abby tried to grab for the knife. David tried to grab it back.
There was a struggle, the sound of metal rubbing against skin, a scuffle, the squeak of shoes, and then -
"David!" Valerie screamed.
She rushed back to the edge, observing the giant, life-altering splash that had formed in the water below.
No longer controlled by their boss, the men stood unsure of what action to take next.
Valerie seized their moment of uncertainty to bolt off of the deck, through the lighthouse until she stood, gasping at the edge of the obscured shore.
"David!" she screamed again, voice increasing in pitch with each scream as she tried to find him in the dark.
Focused only on getting to David, Valerie began to run through the water.
She called his name, over and over.
The crisp autumn air invaded her senses.
Her teeth chattered.
Her arms slackened.
David would tell her to get out of the water.
She had to, for their baby, but she couldn't.
She liked thrusting her head underwater, searching its depths for her most precious treasure that couldn't be found.
She liked the feeling of her body becoming as numb as her heart.
A passing fisher boat solved Valerie's dilemma, warning her that it was an absurd time of season for a predawn swim and insisting on throwing down a line for her to cling to to be pulled out of the water. The captain, Canadian by the sounds of it, offered to bring Valerie to an infirmary.
She instead asked to use their phone.
She dialed the first number that came to mind.
"David," she shivered. "David."
"Val?"
"Find - David. Find David," she said. Her voice increased in insistence with every word.
"Val, where are you? I was notified yours and David's cars have been at the prison, but Curtis said you haven't been there. McKay's been calling me all night. You've got the female McKay scared to death."
"David," she said. "Find him."
She handed the phone back to the captain, for him to inform Jonesy of Valerie's whereabouts.
She was furious with David, for abandoning her after all the times he had claimed he wouldn't.
They could have found another way.
They could have pushed Abby off of the deck, together.
Valerie tried to relish in the knowledge that Albina Gotti-Malone was likely dead, that the woman who had plagued her for a lifetime had met her downfall.
That knowledge brought with it one Valerie would not face.
She told herself on a loop that Abby was dead, David was not, and Jonesy would find him.
Until then, Valerie would continue to be furious, as fury was the only thing keeping Valerie from accepting David Silver's death.
Because he wasn't.
He wasn't.
xx
He had been on his way home when he had been commanded to take a detour.
They were all gathered at Brenda's, said Kelly, and Dylan had been on and off of the phone with Jonesy for hours.
With Jonesy? Brandon had asked. Why?
He soon found out why.
The temptation to crumble himself had been strong, but as Dylan was staying stoic for Brenda, so too did Brandon remain stoic for Kelly.
Clare had racked up an exorbitant phone bill for the length of time she had kept Steve on the line.
Chaos had arisen by the time Andrea arrived, before sunrise as she had been instructed.
"Morning, Chief," Brandon tossed out, helping Brenda fold the clothes for her suitcase.
Dylan began rolling them up and shoving them in.
"Morning?" asked Andrea. "I'm fairly sure this could still be classified as night. Are you going somewhere that you asked me here so early?"
"D's been talking to Jonesy," said Brandon. "He can explain. I'm helping Bren pack."
"Where's Kelly?" asked Andrea, scanning the room.
"She went home to pack up our stuff, and Clare went with her. Steve said he'll meet us all there."
"Meet you where?"
"Andrea," said Dylan. He lay a quick, chaste kiss on her cheek and then glanced at Iris. "Are you sure you can watch Aria?" he asked.
"I hardly advise you to bring a nearly five-month-old on a plane, even if it is a private plane," said Iris.
"I can help you watch her," said Andrea. "Will one of you tell me what's going on?"
"What's going on is Dylan honestly thought he could keep me here when my sister is missing," said Brenda, glaring at Dylan.
"I didn't say that," said Dylan. "I asked if you were sure you could handle a long flight, and then Brandon suggested it might be better for you to not fly commercial to help with the noise level."
"Are you sure we can't take Aria with us?" Brenda asked, gazing forlornly at her daughter.
"You do not know what kind of situation you will be stepping into over there, dear," said Iris. "Aria will be safer here."
"Back up just a second," said Andrea. "Did you say your sister is missing?"
Brandon told her about the incessant phone calls, about Jonesy's conversation with Curtis, about Jonesy's own frantic calls to Dylan.
"He's looked everywhere," said Brandon. "Curtis told Jonesy he hasn't seen Val or Silver for a few days, but their cars are at the prison. Jonesy said they aren't anywhere in Warren, or at home in Belfast. David had a meeting with a band that was irritated when he didn't show."
"It's Abby, I'm telling you," said Brenda. "Abby's done something to them."
"So of course we have to go find them ourselves," said Brandon. "Bren and Clare both secured a few days off for personal reasons, Dylan chartered a private plane, and Kelly and I will be going with them."
"Mom and Dad, too," said Brenda.
"I should go as well," said Andrea.
"If you don't mind, we could really use your guidance to help Iris and Erica watch Aria," said Dylan.
"It would be a tremendous help," said Brenda. "I've never been this far from her before, but Iris is right; we can't bring her."
"And I'm not letting Bren go without me," said Dylan, "or letting Silver and Val stay missing."
By the time Kelly had arrived with their own suitcases, Andrea had agreed to help with Aria.
Grabbing his suitcase out of Kelly's hand, Brandon poured all of his fears into their kiss.
"Any word?" she asked, withdrawing her head to rest it on Brandon's chest.
"No word," said Brandon, "but there will be."
"Maine's so far away," said Kelly timidly.
"This is Valerie we're talking about," said Brandon. "She helped bring down two con-artists with a gun, remember? She won't let any harm come to David."
"It's Val I'm more worried about, if you can believe that," said Kelly. "If anything happens to Val, David; he, he won't be able to cope. But, but if anything happens to David…"
"Val won't want to cope," Brandon finished, for the thought had entered his own mind.
They were stopped for a brief layover in Munich to switch pilots in order to fly straight through to Maine's Belfast when Dylan received Jonesy's update.
"Val called Jonesy," he said, to everyone's palpable relief. "She; hold on." Dylan held a finger to his ear, and listened intently. "Fuck," he said. "Tell her we're on our way."
"What?" asked Brenda. "What did he say?"
Dylan grasped her hand.
"Val was pulled out of the water near West Quoddy Head Light, in Lubec, Maine," he said.
"Oh God," said Brenda, covering her other hand over her mouth.
"What was she doing in the water?" Clare demanded.
Dylan lifted Brenda's hand to rub his cheek against it as he glanced at Kelly.
"Jonesy said Val called him, in hysterics," said Dylan. "That she said - she said…"
"Said what?" asked Brandon.
"Kel," said Dylan, "Val ordered Jonesy to find David."
Brandon caught Kelly as she teetered forward.
"Oh my God," said Brenda. "Oh my God."
"He's alright," Kelly mumbled against Brandon, "he just has to be alright."
"Fuck!" Steve rumbled out through Clare's phone. "I'm stuck in Dallas, but I'll get to Lubec as soon as I can."
"He means both of us will!" Donna yelled into the phone.
"So will we," said Brandon. "Tell Jonesy the search party is headed out there."
"Oh my God," Brenda repeated as she sank into Dylan. "Oh my God, Val. Dylan, what is this going to do to Val?"
"We aren't gonna think about that, Bren," said Dylan as he kissed her. "We're gonna get to Lubec, and help Jonesy find David."
"Jackie," Kelly said shakily. "Mel, he - he needs to know. Brandon?"
Brandon got out his phone and began dialing before Kelly could form the words to ask.
Brenda sat closer to Brandon on the way to Lubec.
"She stopped crying," Brenda noted, looking tenderly at Kelly whose head was curled into Brandon's chest.
"Cried herself to sleep," said Brandon.
"I can't imagine what she's going through right now," said Brenda.
"I can," said Brandon. "It might be similar to what I went through when I got the call from Australia about you."
"Except I wasn't missing," said Brenda. "Not technically." She stroked Kelly's back. "You need to take care of her, Brandon."
"I will," said Brandon. "For the rest of my life, I will."
Dylan pulled Brenda into him.
"Val will get through this," he said. "She will."
"Would I get through it if I couldn't find you?" asked Brenda.
Dylan gave a half-hearted smile and dropped his lips into Brenda's back.
"Does she know we're coming?" asked Clare. "Does she know she doesn't have to be alone in this?"
"I would hope Jonesy would've told her," said Dylan. "She still wasn't picking up when I tried at the airport."
"Does she even have her phone?" Brenda's inquiry perhaps hadn't crossed any of their minds until that moment.
"I pray to God David has his," said Brandon, "and that he's able to use it."
The flight across the ocean seemed to drag on for an eternity.
Brandon held onto his girl, as Dylan held onto his.
At some point, Brandon must have fallen asleep, for the sun that had barely woken now beat ferociously against the window.
A grim-faced Jonesy met them at the tarmac.
"I've never seen the lady like this before," he said. "She just keeps telling me to find David Silver and believe me, I'm trying. Got the Coast Guard on it and everything. You can thank McKay's money for that."
"Whatever helps Silver," said Dylan.
The two couples and Clare filed into Jonesy's van, as Steve promised them that he and Donna were nearly out of Dallas.
"There's snow in the Midwest," said Steve. "It's keeping us from going out there. Don and I are trying to get a flight to somewhere else, but so far all they've offered us is Denver and Columbus, which has snow, too. Snow in fucking October. Go fucking figure."
"Tell Val I love her," said Donna. "I'm praying for David, and for her."
Jonesy took them to the hospital where Valerie had been admitted to be treated for her shock.
"And probably some hypothermia, too," said Jonesy. "It may be October, but you wouldn't catch me in that water at any time of the year."
They were all told to remain in the waiting room, with the exception of Kelly who had informed the staff that Valerie was her sister-in-law, and Brandon, who Kelly said was her fiancé.
"Fiancé?" asked Brandon.
"It worked, didn't it?" asked Kelly. "What room did they say Valerie's in?"
Brandon told her.
They entered the room, finding first a rumpled bed and then the back of a crying Valerie planted against the partially-open bathroom door.
"Val," said Kelly, widening the crack in the door. "Oh, Val, honey. We'll find him. We will find him."
"Kelly." Val spoke with an eerie voice that sounded to Brandon straight out of one of the horror films he had in his collection. "Is that you?"
"It's me," said Kelly. "Brandon's here, too."
Valerie slowly pivoted.
Brandon held in his scream.
There were splotches of crimson on her hands, and splotches of crimson on her hospital gown.
"Oh my God, Valerie," said Kelly.
"David," said Val, "he wanted to tell you. I - I made him wait. I thought - thought it would be better, if - if we waited."
"Val," said Brandon questioningly.
He told himself he couldn't allow his own knees to shake, no matter how tempting.
"I wanted to tell you, too, Bran," said Val. "You and Bren. Clare. Steve. Dylan, even. I would've told all of you, eventually. It didn't seem like the right time. Birthdays. Holidays. Donna's birthday. I said we had to wait until after Donna's birthday." She laughed sarcastically, in a way that concerned Brandon. "I know, me? Thinking of others? What a shock, right?"
"Valerie," said Kelly. She took careful steps forward.
"He'd want me to tell you, Kel," said Val. "He'd want me to tell you, since he can't."
"Tell me," said Kelly. "Whatever it is David would want you to tell me, tell me."
"David and I, we are - we're," Valerie gasped, "no, that's not right; we were," she tried again, "we were having a baby."
She collapsed into Kelly's arms.
Kelly threw her bafflement to Brandon, who shared in it.
And then did what he did best.
Shoving it all inside, he dropped down beside his girl and his sister, as they allowed Valerie to become enshrouded in her grief, and their love.
"He's going to hate me," said Val. "I didn't want our baby enough. I didn't love him enough, and David's going to hate me for it."
"It isn't possible for my brother to hate you," said Kelly. "He loves you."
Brandon noticed how Kelly had kept her assurance in the present tense.
"But I - I didn't love him enough," Val sobbed. "I didn't, and that's why he was taken from me."
Kelly looked directly at Brandon as she told Valerie, "If you didn't love your baby enough, then it wouldn't be this painful."
Brandon bowed his head, his own pain gripping at his heart.
Pain for Valerie. For David.
For Kelly.
Pain that he had kept buried, far below the surface, letting it out only once in a while.
Pain that now began to cloud around him, until it threatened to consume his every artery.
"I want to die," Val blubbered. "David should have let me die. I could have jumped. I should have jumped. It would have all been over." She trembled against Kelly. "I don't want to live with this pain."
"Then you'll have to forgive us," said Kelly, rubbing Valerie's back, "because we're all here, and none of us are willing to inflict David's wrath if we let you die."
"She was going to hurt you," Val said to Brandon. "She was going to hurt all of you, because of me."
Her comment answered Brandon's unasked question.
"We are responsible for our own actions," Kelly soothed. "You are only responsible for yours."
"She killed my baby," said Val, "and then she - then she - she took my life."
They stayed like that, Valerie balled into the fetal position in Kelly's arms, Brandon on the floor beside them, until Dylan and Brenda entered the room with a nurse.
Valerie was given a sedative and, telling Brenda they would explain to her later, Brandon said that for now, Valerie simply needed her rest.
Understanding, Brenda requested that additional chairs be brought to Valerie's room.
Brenda took her spot on Dylan's lap, Kelly on Brandon's, the four of them surrounding Valerie as Steve, Clare, and Donna slipped their way in.
"She's going to need us," said Brandon. "She's going to really need us."
"Then it's a good thing her family's here," said Steve.
"Almost all of her family," said Kelly.
"Mel and Jackie called Mom to say they're on their way," said Brenda. "Mel's trying to track down Sheila, and Dad's telling Nat."
"Jonesy finds things," said Dylan. "Important things. Things of value. He'll find Silver."
"He's got to," said Clare.
"He'll come back to our Valerie," said Brenda, leaving one of her hands in Dylan's as she brought the other hand to Valerie's. "Wherever he is, he'll come back."
Brandon looked out to the reflection of the sea, wondering if somewhere out there, David could feel Valerie's pain, too.
If it bulldozed through David's soul, the way Kelly's had Brandon's.
The way Brandon's had his own.
-x
David Silver the action hero? Who'da thunk it?
There were several different ways this chapter could go, but this was the one that came to me most, so I ran with it.
Heavily inspired by the Leo and Greenlee scene that still cuts through me. Iykyk.
There was some creative license taken with the lighthouse, as West Quoddy Head Light has been closed to the public for a seemingly indeterminate amount of time and therefore lacks Google Image pictures of the inside. I assumed it is likely similar to most lighthouses.
Sources: Google, Google Images, and the websites for Art of Manliness, Muskegon Lights, Ponce Inlet, West Quoddy Head Light.
(Shout-out to Guest and KJ to express my continued gratitude and appreciation, as well as those of you whose review I could respond to directly. Guest, thank you. I also love writing the relationships between the girls; and the lads, for that matter. I love that I made you dream about the characters, because I've done that several times myself, lmao. KJ, don't hurt me!)
Thanks a million! x