Battle the Dark: Chapter 24

The boys arrived shortly after, coming in with Addie and Shaun in tow.  Sam ran to Blair, "Mommy!"

"Hi, little guy!  Oops, I'm wrong, your the big brother now."  Blair said.  Jack, standing back, noticed how sad and tired she looked.  He could see her worn expression and swollen features.  Shaun took Ray from his carrier and put the baby in her arms.  She held him close and rocked him, cradling his head and cooing to him.  Then, she handed him off to Sister Rebecca Katherine, and went for Jack.  Without warning her eldest boy, she put her arms around him and hugged him, saying, "My oldest baby boy, I missed you."

Jack, taking a moment to realize what was happening, slowly lifted his arms to hug her back.  He's so like Todd.

"Hi, Mom.  Are you okay?"  Jack asked, as their embrace ended.

"I'm doing better.  I'm not going to give up now, and none of us are."

He nodded, but she could see the redness around his eyes.  He missed his father, terribly, and he had not even been gone very long.  The difference with Jack was his ability to read reality.  He knew what Todd was probably facing, and this, not his absence, was more of the problem.

Shaun said, "So, how do we put the bags away?  Who goes where?"

Sam yelled, "I wanna camp out with Shaun, I wanna camp out with Shaun!"

Blair turned and smiled weakly.  Starr could see she was faking it.  "That's a great idea!!!  Shaun, are you okay with that?"

Shaun said, "What?  Camping out with my best little buddy?"

"I'm not little.  My Dad says now I'm bigger."

Everyone got silent and still for a moment, and Sister Rebecca Katherine chimed in, "Why of course he did, and he was right!  Look how much taller you've gotten since I metcha!"

"Jack, what about you?"  Blair asked.

"Wherever you need me to go, Mom.  Would you feel better if I was here to help protect you and Ray?"

She touched her son's face, similar to how she had touched Todd's scar for years.  "You're not responsible for protecting us."

"I have to be.  Dad made me promise to take care of you if anything ever happened to...."  He stopped himself.

"Now, that's plenty of that.  We all protect each other, Jack, let's just decide which place ya want to be, and we'll all work as a team.  Yes, you'll be stuck with me for the duration, and I've been told I have a mean, right hook."  The nun said.

This broke up the sadness a bit, and Jack looked at Sam, "You want me to camp out with you?"

"YEAH!  JACK and SHAUN and ME!  Please?"

"All right,"  he looked back to Blair, "if you're sure."

"Positive," she thought, knowing she, Addie, Starr, and Sister Rebecca George Foreman would die before anything would happen to the baby.  Her boys would be safe with Shaun, and he was a button push away, next door.

Everyone settled in to their new and temporary quarters, and Blair could not let go of Little Ray. "My goodness, my beautiful girl, you're going to spoil that baby yet!"  Addie said.

"Oh, yes, and I believe it will be worse with all of us here, fighting over holding him."  The nun said.  She extended a hand, "I'm Sister Rebecca Katherine.  From St. Anne's.  A friend of Todd and your daughter."

They shook hands, and Addie said, "Well it's lovely to meet you, I've heard a great deal about you before."

The two of them went off to talk, and Blair knew that they were sharing whatever information the other needed about her present condition.  With just Starr left in the room, and Little Ray, Blair's pasted on smile faded, and her eyes clouded.

"Mom, can I hold him a minute?"

"Sure," she handed him off.  "Starr, it's so strange how the mind works.  I keep thinking of him in that chair, but I know they don't have him at that compound since it was raided by The Feds.  And then I think, 'What if he's hungry?  What if he's bleeding?  What if he dies?'"  She started to shake with grief.

Starr said, "He won't die."  She put Ray into his carrier.  

It was not a moment before Blair had him back in her arms.   "I need him near me, Starr.  He's the last little piece of your father, if..."

"No, Mom, you can't think like that."

"I'll say,"  The nun chimed in, entering the room again with Addie at her side.  "What would Todd think if he knew you gave up on him so soon?" 

"I'm not giving up on him." Blair responded.

"Then no more talk of 'last' and 'final' and 'what if,'" Addie said.  She embraced her daughter, and put her hand on Little Ray's head as she pulled away.  Then she said, "I think that I would like to have Jack's room, Blair, if that's okay."

"Sure, Momma, whatever you like."

"Starr will take Sam's room, and Sister Rebecca Katherine here will continue to stay with you in your room.  I truly think it's best; she's strong and it's been working.  Let's not disturb it.  Besides, I don't have a right hook."

Blair smiled, appreciating her mother.  She loved Addie, dearly, more than life, but something about being around Sister Rebecca Katherine the last day or so had made Blair able to cope with what was happening.  She was happy with the arrangements, and Addie and Starr went to unpack, bringing Hope along to help.

Sister Rebecca Katherine said, "Time for Ray to nap.  You can't hold him all day and night dear, you know it's not going to help him be into his routine."

"I know.  It's just so hard to let go of him."

"He is an adorable tyke."

"Sister," Blair said, putting Ray into his carrier, "help me to be able do this, please?  For my children."

"I will dear.  You don't even have to ask me.  I will help ya.  That is why I am here, you know.  Todd would want me to support ya."

"Thank you.  I am worried about Jack.  Shaun caught him drinking.  He had a problem with this before."  She went on to describe the issues Jack faced when Todd first returned, regarding his captivity and especially, his relationship with Zeus.

"Ah, I see your concern.  I'll try my best to help.  He may just need things to play out, or perhaps you can look up your baby's namesake?"

"I may have to.  But let's go one step at a time.  First, we get everyone settled, and we have a nice dinner, then, we brainstorm more about Jack."

"Perhaps he won't continue, perhaps the drinking was a one-time relapse, when he was apart from you, he couldn't manage it?"

"Not sure, but I guess we will have to see."

***

"You will be moving him soon, so don't incapacitate him.  In other words, as much joy as it brings you, hold off on any more physical torment for the time being."  Carlo said.

Leona took Carlo's words in stride.  "I won't do anything that makes him unable to walk, if that is what you mean."

Carlo, who prided himself on respectability and refinement, found Leona's baseness disturbing at times.  "This is not about your fetishes.  We have a task ahead."

"Understood."

"He'll be moved to Ireland.  When here, there will be a convening of The Men of 21.  After his crimes against the organization are discussed, they will determine the mode of execution.  Our own personal judge and jury."

"Will I be considered for the honor of setting him free?"  The Slice and Dice asked.  "After all, he and I have had quite a friendship over the last eight or nine years."

"Friendship?  Perhaps in your mind, and in your way, this is actually some semblance of a relationship.  I will discuss it with them.  If you follow through and control your urges enough for him to make it there, it will be a distinct possibility."  Carlo had made it his task to concentrate on the results he garnered from Leona's persuasive techniques, not the details of what he chose to inflict.  It was better that way.  He then realized that Todd Manning was part of the only relationship the Michael Leona had experienced for the last nine years, and possibly longer.  With no family, and no friends, Leona was the perfect keeper.  

Hesser had heard about men that only treated victims as relationships, that were not capable of any other lasting connections.  For this man, Todd being in captivity must have been a dream come true; a long-standing interaction with the same victim.  Carlo flinched at the thought that he had somehow provided that for Michael Leona in his quest for information and revenge.  And at times, like that very moment, he wondered just how far 'The Slice and Dice' had gone where Todd Manning was concerned.  He questioned himself, "After spending more time with Mr. Leona, would death be the ultimate revenge against Todd Manning, or a welcome release?

***

When Jessica and Viki returned from the cafeteria, there was a slight commotion around Devon's room.  She rushed ahead, frightened by the attention his door was receiving.  When she got to it, and looked inside, she was stunned.  

There he was, sitting up in the bed, crunching on ice chips and looking at her with that smile that brought his dimples to completion.  "Hey, Jess."

She ran to his bedside and stood, awkwardly, not sure if she should grab him or not.  "Devon?"

"Aren't you going to hug me?  We haven't seen each other in about a week."

She gently leaned in to receive his embrace, and one of his arms, which could not move easily, moved slowly to her face, and he cradled her chin in his hand.  "I love you, you know that,"  he said.  

"I'm sorry," she said, crying.

"No more of that, I heard the whole thing earlier.  I'd rather hear something else."

She smiled, "I forgive you, and I love you, too.  Now, are you all right?"

"That's more like it.  And yes, I'm fine.  Now give me some more sugar," he said, as she leaned in to kiss him.

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