Partners Now and Forever
By Lorna M. Boilard
Part 1
Partners Now and Forever
By Lorna M. Boilard
Ronny yelling good-by and happy honeymoon snapped Karen out of her dream. Kermit was helping push the young man's boat back into the water and their last touch of civilization started to grow smaller in the distance. Kermit and her were alone on an island off the coast of Maine.
The screaming of seagulls, the smell of the ocean, waves lapping on the shore, and the feeling of sand under her bare feet lured her back into her memories. She looked down at her hand for the thousandth time still not believing that this time the ring was real, not a front to keep away unwanted advances. Was it only a few hours ago that she was standing before Peter with the percent gang, family and friends getting married? It happened so fast! Only a week ago he answered her to marry him and informed her that he was taking care of all the arrangements. How he got all the paperwork through headquarters, the wedding arranged, got her son back from France, and still had time to help Peter get in and out of trouble with some street punks she didn't know nor was she going to ask. All she had had to do was find a dress and answer some questions. He had done it all and it had been wonderful.
A sunrise wedding in Peter Caine's roof top garden, a private jet to Maine, and here she was alone with her new husband on this tiny island for the next week. Kermit had promised no phones, on beepers, no people, and most or all no computers. So far he had keep all his promises and added a few surprises. The private plane wasn't something she had expected. She never fantasized about joining the mile high club but in the clouds was where they had consummated their marriage.
"Karen, are you just going to sit there all day, or are you going to come see the cabin?" Answered Kermit as he strolled up behind her.
He reaches out his hand to help her get to her feet. Once she was standing beside him he pulled her into his arms. Her response was to close her eyes and sigh. She felt herself totally surrender to his arms wanting nothing more then to stay in them forever. Before she could speak he picked her up and started to carry her to a small cabin just past a line of ocean pines.
"Kermit what do you think your doing? I can walk." she protested but she was actually enjoying what he was doing.
" Carrying my bride across the threshold. Isn't that what I'm suppose to do?" He said with a laugh.
He placed her gently on the floor of the cabin and then kissed her with more passion when most people though him capable of. To most people he was Kermit Griffin ex-mercenary, ex-CIA killer, and computer geek with a gun and an attitude. Even she had seen him as such. Until an earthquake had trapped them together in an elevator and she began to see the man beneath the facade. She too had put up a facade for the world to see, but some where in that crisis it cracked. Her mask of a dispassionate police officer that only cared for her career slipped and the caring human being came out. Both had liked what they saw in the other but it had taken a long time for them to go from colleagues to lovers.
After the kiss he let her go so she could take her first look at her new home for the next week. It was small but comfortable. A small kitchen was on one side and a fireplace on the other with dining table and a couch in between. A few tables and chairs here and there completed the furnishings. She also noticed three other doors leaving she guessed to the bedrooms and bath. Windows make up most of the outside walls with one exception. Next to the front door was a bookcase what reached to the ceiling filled with books.
"Kermit is beautiful! Perfect! Can I asked who you rented it from or is that a state secret?" she teased.
With a small laugh and a large smile he answered "No it not a state secret, but it has been mine for a long time. I own it this is where I come to be with my children. This once was the only place we could be together with no danger." He informed her.
She heard the pain in his voice as he finished talking. She knew that pain. The pains of have a child and not being able to be with it. In her case it was her ex-husband that keep her son from her by insisting that he had to go to private schools in Europe. Why Kermit had to hide his children for so long he had not explained, but when he was ready she knew he would. The fact that he had even told her of his son and daughter showed her just how much he trusted he. Only the few people involved with their hiding and Kwai Chang Caine had known about them until he told her. Kermit had not even told his own brother and sister of their existence.
" I know it's summer but how about a fire in the fireplace?"
"Stop reading my mind." he teased " Our bedroom is on the right of the fireplace. There a surprise on the bed for you."
"A surprise! Let me guess the suitcases to unpack." she said as she walked to the bedroom door.
His only reply was a laugh that she heard as she walked into the room. What greeted her when she entered was a definitely masculine bedroom except
for the bed. It was obviously new; it had four posts and soft lace curtains draped from them. On it was a wedding ring quilt with its white background and interlocking circles in shades of green. It's been what was on the bed that truly caught her eye. For lying out on the bed were eight items of lingerie, one for every night of their stay. This was a side of Kermit Griffin she going to enjoy.
Fifteen minutes later the fire was going and Karen was walking out the bedroom wearing a black silk bathrobe that hinted at what little was being worn beneath. He stood up as soon as she entered the room and out of habit reached for the green glasses that he always wore. Then he remembered that he hadn't worn them since the wedding.
How beautiful she looked as her son walked her down the aisle. After Todd had given him her hand she careful took off his glasses and folded them before placing them in his pocket. That got a laugh from everyone in the crowd.
"Your beautiful." he whispered softly as he drew her into his arms for a long kiss.
"Thank-you. " she said after the kiss. " But aren't you afraid you're going to blow your image of the dispassionate mercenary with what you're been up to in the last week or so."
"No, mercenary are suppose to fall prey to beautiful women. I will admit that I was lucky to find a woman that I would hand my gun to and then turn my back on."
"Is that your way of saying that you trust me?"
"Oh, Yeah."
He slipped out of her arms and walked over to the stereo and started it.
Then he sat down on the couch and pulled her down onto his lap. With one arm holding her close, his free hand began to explore what she felt like in silk nylons. Then everything come to a complete stop!
"Hello Dad, Karen I hope you like this CD. I probably when overboard, but we had fun." Said a laugh voice of a young woman from the stereo.
" My twin sister is a romantic female. Please forgive. She was right about one thing though. We did have fun making this CD. It has some of the mushiness stuff going." Said an equally laughing voice of a young man that had replaced the first voice.
"Don't listen to him. This is our way of helping out our dad, and when it comes to romances he needs all the help he can get." Said the female voice.
" She got you their Dad." Agreed the male voice. " Oh, Karen if you ever get struck in a mercenary prison camp he's a good man to have with you."
" I want you both to listen to the first song. Sex can wait 3 minutes and 14 second. It's by Cashman & West and it's called 'Only A Woman Like You". It reminds me of the two of you. Love Angel and Jim." ended the female voice.
Karen had noticed the remote control for the stereo sitting on the end table beside the couch. She used it to put the CD on pause.
"Your kids have been living in the city for the past month and you haven't said anything to me. We've been seeing them socially. Worst when Angelique first came to town the gossip in the precinct was that you were dating both of us. The only thing that stopped that rumor was the fact she began dating both Chin and Broderick. Isn't it about time I got the whole story?" She said more than a little angry.
"I was going to tell you before we went back. Honest." he replied. " My kids showed up at my apartment out of the blue. Angel said she was working on a case of a missing teenager that was last seen in China Town. Jim was going to start a private pilot business in the city and Angel was moving her private detective firm to the city as well. Because of the fact Jim and I were in Striker's
Prison camp together no one questioned our friendship. For the first time I'd
Be able to spend time with them out in the open, but only as a friend, not their father. Karen I'm sorry I couldn't tell you the truth. We had to wait until Angel was ready to protect herself."
"Wait the enemy their hiding from is hers not yours?"
"Yes. Angel is a very gifted person. The CIA got wind of her talents and killed her mother to get her. She was only three went it happened. Jim was living with his Mother's brother and his wife since his birth, because he was just a normal kid. Nether the CIA or his mother wanted him. The Company made it look like she was killed my serial killer that was lose at the time. His MO was raping and killing mothers with their young daughters."
"Where were you at the time? Why did she give Jim to you?"
"When my twins were born I was sixteen and their mother was my thirty year old English professor at college. When she got pregnant she told everyone that she went to a sperm bank. That was exactly what I was to her."
"Kermit I'm so sorry. It must have been devastating to be betrayed like that by your first love."
"Karen, it was all male ego. There was no love on ether side. I tried to lay to myself that I was in love with her during the affair but it didn't work. Belladonna wasn't the kind of woman you loved. She wanted men to Desiree her not love her. She wanted me because I was a college senior at sixteen. She hoped that I would give her a genius and she got her wish with Angel. Jim was a disappointment and she handed him over to her brother and forgot him. Angel was born during the time The Company was into ESP experiments and she is very talented that way. They experimented on her for two years before she was able to escape."
"How does a five year old escape a CIA lab?"
"Because of the constant fear she lived in her talents developed earlier than they should have. She can control people's ability to see her or remember her. She made her guard think she was there when she wasn't and just walked out. She could have escaped before but she needed help to get to me. Finally help came and he meets her outside the compound. She would never tell me who the man was that brought her to me. I found out from him about two years ago after he helps drive the demons from my sister's place. She had always said that the two of us would meet in fate's good time."
"Let me guess Kwai Chang Caine."
"Close, The Ancient. There still friends. She just showed up on my doorstep. Luckily my brother and sister were away at the time. After my Dad got the story out of the two of us he knew we had to find a place to hid her. So he called a friend of his to help us move her to safety. Blaisdell. It was Angel who knew were to go. We took her to Maine to the Allagash. My father knew the people she wanted to go to, for he had worked for them before. You see Karen I come from a long line of mercenary, it's the family business."
"That for some reason doesn't surprise me. But the Allagash, there nothing there but wildness."
"There's something hidden there. It's been there for centuries. A monastery that belongs to a religious order that calls it's self the Brethren. Angel is the one to ask about her religion not me. All I know is they kept my child from becoming a CIA monster and protected her when I couldn't. The next time I hear form her she was ten. She contented me and told me what to do so we could see each other."
"That's were you go at Christmas. How did you get to see Jim?"
"Angel went to see her Uncle just about the same time she contacted me. She told him the whole truth and that she wanted to see her brother again. Jim was raised knowing the true about him and he would never believe his sister was dead. Also the CIA scientist who was in charge of Angel has never stopped looking for her."
"That's why you never told me who they were. You're still hiding her."
"Yes, but when we get back things are going to change. Angel is tired of hiding. She has a business she starting and she wants to run it as Angelique Griffin."
"What is her business?"
"Haven't we talked enough about my kids? Lets listen to this song Angel has picked out and get back to what we're suppose to be doing on a honeymoon." reminded Kermit as he once again began enjoying the feel of her body.
Her only answer was to turn the stereo back on and snuggle close to him. When the song ended there was no discussion of whether or not they agreed with Angel. As the stereo continued to play they became so involved with each other they were totally oblivious to it.
"Sorry, I'm trying, but you're right they taught me to stop the enemy at any cost and not worry about the body count." Explained Todd Simms.
Just as Peter started to show his teenage pupil another kung fu stance an elder Chinese gentleman entered the room. The Ancient as he was called in Chinatown was in state of nervous excitement as he approached the two young men
" Lo Si something is wrong." Questioned Peter.
"Yes," he said, "We must go the hospital now."
"Why, is someone hurt, my mother? Asked Todd.
"No son your mother is fine." he said. " The child is in danger."
"Abby?" said Peter and Todd.
"I promise next week he'll back. " replied Angelique Hellstrom. "But Doctor it's not about my weekly magic show that I asked you to meet me here this late."
"I know that. The Ancient came to me earlier. Told me to trust you and do what ever you ask. What are you going to ask of me?"
"There are men on their way here to kidnap Abby."
"What!" explained the Doctor. "How do you know? Have you called the police?"
"The police will be told in good time. These men are mercenaries. I work for a special branch of government that was created to handle just this kind of thing."
"I thought you were a private detective? And why is a group of mercenaries after Abby?"
"To answer your second question, to use her against Kermit. These men are enemies of both the Caines and Detective Griffin. The answer to the first is that a cover story to hid what I'm truly up too. Peter and The Ancient will be here to help, soon and this is what I want you to do."
"We must wait for the mice to come to us." was the old man answer.
"Are we going to stop them before they go in.?" Inquired Todd, who was visibly nervous about being in this kind of situation.
"No, when they come out." said a voice from behind them.
Peter and Todd turned toward the voice, but The Ancient acted as if he had expected the young man that had just walked out of the shadows to join them.
"Jim! Then its Striker we're up against isn't it? Exclaimed Peter, "Angel is
Waiting inside to face them alone. Takes after your father doesn't she?"
"Angel will bring the mice to us and we will wait here in the shadows for them." said The Ancient leaving no room for debate. "Angel can handle her part best alone. Peter, I can not understand why you have no faith in her abilities."
"She is to over confidant for her own good or anyone else's. Why Kermit doesn't control her better I can't figure out." was Peter answer.
"They lock horns, I can sure you. It about even on whom comes out on top. Stated Jim. "Pretty Boy, your trouble is that you can't stand the idea of a woman who doesn't fall into your arms needing your protection. "
"No that's not my trouble!" stated Peter.
"We no longer have time for this." interrupted The Ancient. "The mice are coming."
"Karen it's all right," he softly whispered in her ear. "I'm right here."
"Abby, she was in danger," she said as she tried to control her emotions of fear and helpless. " I couldn't help, I couldn't reach her.
"Karen, Abby is fine. The couple that is adopting her are good people and will take good care of her. I will make sure of that."
"I know you checked out the Craters and that you will keep an eye her as she grows up. It still hurts. I know that I didn't give birth to her but I still feel like a woman that's been forced to give up her child against her will. Her birth mother left her in a pile of trash. I was the one that found her, and protected her from a group of mercenaries when we were held hostages. It was you and I who were with her everyday while she battled the crack addiction that she inherited from her mother. But that doesn't count."
"Karen you have to let it go. I understand what you're feeling. I love her too, but we decided to do what was best for Abby. "
"Is that what you believe we did?"
"Yes. Do you want me to restart the fire?" changing the subject to avoid his own pain,
"No. Your right I have to go on with my life, and from now on you are the most important part of my life," she said as she brushed his check and run her hand down his chest. "I think I want to start a different kindled fire."
Before he had time to say anything she had pushed his naked body back on to the rug and started to kiss his lips. While pushing his arms over his head she slipped her body on top of his. He playfully struggled to free himself but she could tell he was enjoying himself. She wished for a moment that she had her handcuffs, but that was only a passing thought. No matter how much they trusted each other nether could stand the ideal of being helpless. She would leave that kind of fun to Madonna. She released his arms and began to kiss his neck and then to kiss her way down his body. As she did could feel how she was arousing him. He tried to slip her off him and on to her back. She stopped him, and with her actions told him who was in charge this time.
If you're waiting for the erotic scene it's in part 3. I hope you enjoy my small attempt at fiction. Please take it for what it is, mindless fun.
Partners Now and Forever
Part 2
"If your looking for drugs your on the wrong floor, pharmacy is first floor west, this is the maternity." stated Angel as she turned to face the armed men.
"We not interested in drugs, nurse." replied the man in ski mask and ambulance driver uniform. " Which baby is Abby Doe?"
"Let's get two things straight. One, I'm a doctor not a nurse, and two you keep you gorillas quiet so that they don't wake the babies. That would bring everyone running when they start screaming and we don't need the extra company." she told the gunman in no uncertain term. "And I will cooperate."
"OK, if you're going to cooperate? Where is the kid? Now!" was his retort.
"I'll get her." she replied.
Angel headed into the nursery as the chief gunman followed her and the rest spread out to make sure they were unopposed. Heading straight to Abby's crib she gently picked up the small sleeping form making sure the child did not awaken. Placing the child against her shoulder she wrapped her in a blanket and turned to the masked man behind her.
"I go with her." Said Angel with an edge of defiance. She knew his type. The type of man who liked controlling people by using fear. That was a game she knew how to play and he would lose.
"Well aren't you the brave little doctor, and pretty too. But what makes you think I' m taking this baby anywhere, maybe I'm here just to kill it." He questioned.
"I'm not stupid. It doesn't take five men with machine-guns to kill one baby, but it does if you want to kidnap her from under the nose of an ex-mercenary. If you kill her you would only get Kermit Griffin's rage not his cooperation." she analyzed.
"What makes you think Kermit has anything to do with this?"
" Why else would you want this baby. No one knows who she is and her new adopted parent's are just average people. Kermit tried to adopt this baby but the state wouldn't let him. Kermit's an ex-mercenary who probably as lots of enemies. Or are you interested in what he might know to make a profit on it or maybe there's someone you want him to kill. From what I heard that was his forte." She speculated.
"Your good! But the reason we want this baby isn't important to you. If you want to stay alive and keep that baby alive you do exactly what I say. " He commanded. " You got your wish I'm taking you both. You keep the kid quiet and take care of it and you might get out of this with a whole skin. Maybe both of you. Try to run or get help and the will kid get a new sitter. Maybe one not so gentle."
"Fine."
"What a gutsy lady. I could get to like you." He stated as he ran his hand down her face and brushed her breast. Her reaction was to step back against the bassinet and to show a small tremble of fear just enough to keep his interest. As long as she had his attention this would work.
"The duty nurse is due back any minute. Don't you think it's time to get out of here now you have what you came for." Reminded Angel.
"True, and maybe I got a little extra. Move toward the stairs my dear." he said as he pointed with his gun toward the door. As she walked past him he grabbed her ass and sneered.
What he had done made her even move faster to get passed him. "This guy is gone pay," she thought to herself.
Two men checked out the stairs and headed down. While another kept the door open for Angel and Braden and then he and last man followed behind. They had been well trained and the operation had gone off without a hitch, so they thought. But at the ambulance there would be a surprise that they had not prepared for.
Silence filled the alley. The only sources of light were from a street light at one end and the light outside the door. Shadows were everywhere and in those shadows hid four men. They waited unmoving for the gunmen to return to their vehicle. The door opened and the first man looked out. He slowly moved outside making sure that no one was in sight. Each man knew what to do and took their places at the rear of the van. One opened the door to let the young doctor in. Braden was behind her still pointing his gun at her. He points it at the open van's doors to tell her to get in. Then the shadows moved.
Like a well-choreographed dance the mercenaries went down. The Ancient and Peter with one kick knocked the automatics from their opponent hands and with another to the head sent them to the ground unconscious. Jim and Todd took a more western approach. They grabbed the guns from the kidnapper's hands and with one right cross-sent them to dream land. Braden was so surprised that for a moment he did not know what to do to. That was the entire opening Angel needed. While hugging the baby close she kicked the gun out of his hand. The next kick hit him square between his legs, which sent him to the ground with a groin of pain. Then with a karate chop to the side of his neck she sent him to painless unconsciousness.
When he arrived at the maternity ward the place was in turmoil. Luckily someone had had the good sense to put the baby back in the nursery and shut the door. Eda Donovan was already there. That was all he needed to have to deal with Abby's over bearing caseworker while he was trying to do a police investigation. Miss Donovan was in the middle of the group of people having what looked like an argument with Private Detective Hellstrom, and there was another troublemaker. That woman ran her detective agency like she was on TV. She's been in town only a month, and the Captain has already had her hauled in three times for bending the law to shove a case. Maybe Skalany is right; she does work like Kermit.
"Chief Strenlich!" exclaimed Miss Donovan as soon as she spotted him. "Will you please inform this woman who is in charge here."
"Since the Captain on her honeymoon, I Am." stated The Chief in his usually gruff matter.
"That's not quite correct, Chief Strenlich." corrected a dark suited man that just stepped out of the crowd around the nurse station. The Chief had never seen this man before, but he knew his type. He had all the markings of CIA or FBI right down to dark glasses in his front pocket. Close, his ID read Secret Service. "My name is Albert Smith. I'm The President's liaison to a special anti-terrorists team that is being set up in your fair city. Their first assignment is to bring in the group that orchestrated this kidnap attempt."
"One minute!" Interpreted the Chief. "What anti-terrorists team?"
"Chief, let me explain," said Peter.
"Great, someone who going to give me some answers instead of more questions." said The Chief trying to keep his temper in line.
"Chief, let me introduce the head of the anti-terrorist team. Angelique Hellstrom." started Peter. The Chief open his mouth to say something but Peter cut him off. "Before you say anything, I think you should know that her father is Kermit."
"OK, Blake." said Mary Margaret Skalany very pleased with herself that she was the only one to figure out that Jim and Angelique were Kermit's kids not just his friends." Where's my twenty."
"Skalany, save it for Delancey's!" reprimand The Chief. "All right Angelique you explain what happened here."
"OK, the Reader's Digest version. The five men downstairs work for a mercenary named Striker. I believe you heard of him." started the young woman as she leaned on the cane that was her constant companion.
"He ran the mercenary prison that Peter, Kermit, and Caine broke out of last year." replied The Chief.
"Correct, as you know, Striker and his men got away. Just about every law enforcement agent in the world is looking for them. Last month Interpol had an informer contact them with the story that Striker had started in motion a plan to get even with the Caines and my Father. That information was passed on to me.
You see this is a test. Interpol, FBI, and The Secret Service are all watching
every move I make to see if I can handle him using my methods. To save you from asking, Dad knows nothing about this. Striker's plan is to kidnap the people that Dad cares most about, Abby and Karen, so that he can force dad to kill
Peter and his father."
"Kermit wouldn't do that, he would go after Striker instead." stated The Chief.
"I know that, but Striker isn't playing with a full deck anymore," She explained farther. "When Kwi Chang Caine wouldn't break under his torture and then with Peter and Dad's help got everyone out alive from his prison camp it destroyed his mind. All he can think about is killing the Caine's and destroying my dad. "
"Chief are you really believing this fairy tale?" stated Miss Donovan. "There is no one named Striker. Those men were hired by Griffin to steal that baby. And if it had succeed no one would ever see the Griffins and that baby again. I demand you arrest the Griffins on attempted kidnapping charges."
"Miss Donovan you have no rights to demand I arrest my Captain. And show me some proof that ether one of them had anything to do with this attempted kidnapping."
"Who the hell had the nerve not to invite me to the party tonight?' Yelled Captain Jack Lasher as he swatted into the crowd. "Lady, I may not get along with Kermit, but I know he'd never put a baby or a hospital at risk. Also Striker exist, I've worked with the guy and he would do anything to get what he wanted."
"Lasher, we have no hostages and the assailants are on their way to the 101st to be booked." said The Chief. "Also no one from the police force was invited to this party until it was over. This case belongs to a special agent of the President, Angelique Hellstrom or is it Griffin?"
"Griffin? Don't tell me you're an ex-wife of Kermit's. Robbed the cradle when he married you didn't he?" inquired Lasher as he took a very close look at the young woman that The Chief had pointed out.
"No, Captain Lasher, am not an ex-wife. I'm his daughter and this is his son, Jim." Informed Angel as she pointed to the young man beside her.
"There was a rumor that Kermit had a kid but that couldn't have been you. Ken Sandborn told me once Kermit knocked up the wife of a government attaché that he was investigating for the CIA. But that was maybe twenty years ago and your somewhere in your mid-twenties." Lasher began to reminisce.
"My Father's love life isn't up for discussion. Let's get back to discussing putting Striker and the rest of his men in jail." Interrupted Jim before Lasher had a chance to tell too much of Kermit's past.
"Sorry, kid. " apologized Lasher." But the fact your father has a love life outside of his computer, I find just amazing."
"Chief, don't you think that the two of us should talk alone?" questioned Angel. "Also The Ancient as a suggestion on how to protect the baby. If you're interested."
"So I'm in charge now." Strenlick said a little calmer now. "Kelly, Jody, and Skenley take Peter, Todd and Jim down to the 101st and get their statements.
TJ go see your Dad and inform him what's happening and about the new business that's moved into town. Lasher thanks for the help but if you want to find out what happened here go down to the 101st. Miss Donovan you can go home. I will make sure that the baby is well protected, but until Striker is captured Abby is going to be placed in a safe house."
"You have no right to do that. The Carters are going to take her home tomorrow." complained Abby's caseworker.
"It my job to protect that baby, The Carters I'm sure wouldn't want to take her home if there is a good chance that their home would be attacked by mercenaries after her." stated The Chief.
"You're on their side. You want to scare everyone into believing that it's dangerous to adopt that child so that no one will want her. It's not going to work. I'll stop that man at any cost."
"Miss Donovan, the only thing that I'm doing is trying to stop a mercenary who's out to kill some friends of mine." pointed out Stenlick. "Would this hatred of Kermit have anything to do with what I saw in the parking lot of this hostipal."
Eda Donovan just glared at him but said nothing. The Chief had reopened a recent wound. Eda hadn't known that anyone had seen her failed attempt at seducing Kermit Griffin. Someone knew about her moment of weakness. She didn't know what to do. All she could think about was getting out of there, so she turned and headed for the elevators.
"I've known Kermit for years, but I never though of him as a ladies man." stated Lasher as soon as Miss Donovan was in the elevator. "I'll never understand what women are starting to see in that computer geek. Chief I'm heading home, but I want your report on my desk by 9:00 A.M. with an explanation of why the swat team wasn't called in." ordered Lasher, and without a good-bye he headed for the elevator himself.
"That guy's obnoxious. Thanks for trying to pass him off on us." said Jody Powell not trying to hide her disgust.
"You could have considered it training for when you get to be a Chief of Detectives." teased The Chief. "Are you getting out of here or do I call for back up."
"We've going Chief." answered Mary Margaret Skenley and with that her, Jim, Peter, TJ, Jody, and Kelly headed for the elevators.
"Ancient, what is your idea to protect Abby?" inquired the man in charge.
"Cheryl Hines and I will take her to visit Kermit's sister at the Gables," said the elder Chinese gentleman.
"You think Marilyn and her family are in danger too. I think your right. Blake, you and Detective Chin drive them there and stay with them. I'll call the local police for a stake out of the place." and with that settled he would have just Angelique and the Secret Service man to handle.
The three watched as The Ancient bundled up the baby and with Blake and Chin in tow headed to Chinatown. To pickup Cheryl and some things he would need. The Ancient knew that Angel would handle telling Marilyn.
Until the party the night before the wedding Marilyn was as unaware as everyone else about Kermit's hidden children. But like Mary Margaret she figured it out. Jim's resemblance to Kermit got both women to start guessing. But to Marilyn it was Angelique's physical resemblance to Kermit and Marilyn's mother as well as her resemblance in personality that was the clincher. She was finally able to get Kermit alone just before the wedding. After getting him to admit she was right, he made her promise to keep it to herself until he returned from his honeymoon.
"Angel, I'm going back to my hotel and report to the President on your progress. I'll see you at the airport tomorrow morning." said Albert as he kissed her good-by.
"Come on Chief I'll buy you a cup of coffee in the doctor's lounge and tell you everything. After we make some phone calls" said Angel taking The Chief by the arm and leading him towards the desk.
Well I've finally finished part 3. Yes the sex scene is in it. I hope you find it to your liking. It's not X-rated. For you, Peter Caine fans, he plays more of an important part in this section and the last. Also I promise not to forget he's the hero of the show. Well enough said. Enjoy (I hope).
Partners Now and Forever
Part 3
Chief Stenlick led the way into the cellblock was the mercenaries had been locked up, with Angel following at a discreet distance. Ten minutes ago the 101st had called The Chief to inform him that four of the prisoners had somehow escaped with the fifth curled up on a bunk screaming about spiders. The man was Braden, and he was no longer screaming. He just sat with his arms around his legs rocking and mumbling to himself. His eyes were the hardest to take. They darted from one point in the room to another always moving looking for something that he was terrified he might find. Both Stenlick and Angel recognized the sight; it was the sight of a person who had been driven mad by fear.
"Chief we have no idea how the prisoners escaped" said Sergeant Broderick. He was standing at the cell's open door looking at the tortured man with both pity and confusion. "It was no more than two minutes after we locked them up when he started screaming. When Officer Gray got here a minute later they were gone and he was hysterical. All we could get out of him was that the other men had changed into spiders."
While the Chief and Broderick were talking, Angel had slipped into the cell. For a few moments she just studied the man, then she took his head in her hands and looked into his eyes. Once she had his gaze on her she began to reach into his mind using one of the gifts the CIA had help her develop. She relived the recent past of the man. First his being locked up in the cellblock with his companions. Then him watching them become spiders and crawls out of their cells leaving him behind, mad. She could gain no more knowledge from him. With an unwilling subject she could only relive the past few hours of that person's life. Compassion took over and she used her power of suggestion to put the man to sleep. She hoped that someone could help him, for an evil man could be redeemed but not a mad man.
"Sergeant, your not trying to tell me that four full grown men changed into spiders and crawled away?" yelled the Chief.
"Braden will sleep for a while and at the risk of sounding like Fox Mulder, Chief." interrupted Angel. "That's exactly what happened here. Striker is being backed by the Black Widows. Where is Peter, Jim, and Todd?"
"Great!" yelled the Chief. "What do I tell the Commissioner? That the city's being overrun by spidermen."
"What would you tell the Commissioner if Kwai Chang Caine had said the same thing?" teased Angel as she began to leave to find whom she had asked about. The Chief and Broderick just watched her leave unable to think up an answer to her question. Then she turned back to the two men. "Oh, I almost forgot. Are you really shaking in your boots over who my dad is, John?"
"Angel, what are you talking about?" asked the Sergeant.
"No one told you?" asked the Chief in amusement.
"I was coming in the door when he started screaming. No one had time to tell me anything." stated the Sergeant.
"Her dad is Kermit," said the Chief with a grin.
"I've been going out with Kermit's daughter and I'm still breathing. Does that mean he approves?" asked the Sergeant not quite believing what was just told him.
"The only man my dad ever told me I couldn't date was, Peter Caine." Said Angel as she kissed her some time date good-by. She turned and walked out of the room. She could hear the laughter of the two men as she passed the ambulance attendants coming for the prisoner.
"Angelique the plane is already to go," said Jo as she came into the main cabin from the pilot's cockpit. She had just finished checking out the plane for the trip to Maine and having it refueled.
"Thanks Jo, and tell that understanding husband of yours that I'll take your kids to the park next week. So he can have a day to himself." promised Angel.
"Thanks, he'll love that. He loves being home with the kids but with them being so young and me working so much he doesn't get much time to himself." Said Jim's aircraft mechanic as she headed for the door of the plane and home and family.
"Angel, Todd and I have had some sleep today but you haven't, have you?" asked Peter.
"I don't need much sleep." was Angel's reply, always ready to give Peter a hard time.
"Please Angel get some sleep. Peter and I can watch the plane." implored Todd.
"OK, kid. For you." she agreed and then headed to the other bedroom. She could live without sleep, but she had agreed for Todd's sake. Todd needed to talk to Peter, alone.
"Did you figure out what Lasher was talking about when he mentioned that story about Kermit?" asked Todd when he and Peter were alone.
"Karen was the woman and you're his son." said Peter "How did you find out?"
"I was with my Dad, or the man I thought was my dad, in France when Mom called and told me about her getting married. I was honestly happy for her. I had met Kermit a couple of times when I visited Mom and he seems like a good guy. I can't remember when my Mom was this happy and most of it was because of him. My Dad wasn't so happy about her getting married again. It had been a very messy divorce and Mom had tried but I was still caught in the middle. Dad never forgave Mom for choosing her career over him; at least that was what I though. When I told him Kermit's name he jumped up and grabbed an old photo album and showed me a picture. It was a picture of Mom and Dad taken years ago but it was the man in the background Dad wanted me to see. The man was Kermit. When I told Dad that the story came out."
"You never mentioned Kermit before to your Dad?" asked Peter.
"No. I learned a long time ago not to talk about Mom to Dad. I found that was reason Dad hates Mom that day. Dad divorced her because he met a CIA agent named, Ken Sandborn, who had told him about her affair with Kermit and that I was Kermit's not his. How Sandborn knew, I have no idea. I do know this; the guy has it in for Kermit. Mom doesn't know he knows. She thinks they divorced over the fact that she wanted to stay a cop like her Dad and not follow him around the world being a attaché's wife."
"I can't see your Mom giving cocktail parties and luncheons and never running a police department. Kermit never mentioned a Ken Sandborn but Kermit only hints at his past. None of us, with the exception of The Ancient and maybe my Pop, knew that he and Karen had known each other before."
"I think Captain Blaisdell knew he was in the picture, too. Dad was furious. He called her a tramp and said that he would make sure that she got what she deserved. He wouldn't explain what he mean by that."
"It figures, that Dad knew it. Kermit and him are good friends. Todd, your dad's pride has been hurt I don't think he means anything by that." stated Peter to reassure his young friend.
"Your Pop said that the problem was for others to deal with."
"Pop! You saw my Pop?" he asked in shock. "Why haven't you said anything? How is he and where is he?"
"He and your grandfather are fine and I just remembered it." said a puzzled Todd. "After my Dad's story, I had to get out of there. I just started walking and thinking. I don't know how long I walked but the next thing I knew I was in front of this little French cottage and your Pop and his Father were sitting in front of it. I spend a long time talking to the two of them about a lot of things not just about my parents. I can't remember what they were. The next morning Jim was at the door to bring me here. I couldn't get out of him how he knew where I was, when I asked he just smiled."
"Don't worry you'll remember when you need, too." reassured Peter for he had had this experience a few times himself. "When are you going to tell Kermit and Karen you know about this?"
"When they get back. Mom was so broken hearted about losing the baby, I couldn't add to her grief, or to Kermit's worries. He was trying so hard to help her get on with her life even though he was hurting just as bad."
"How did you figure out that Kermit was hurting too? He is damn good at hiding his feelings."
"On the day I got here form France I saw him with a picture of Abby and Mom. He was just standing there looking at it. When I noticed he was crying. He doesn't know I saw the tears. Damn it why couldn't they have gotten that baby!"
"It not over yet." said Peter with a knowing simile. "You seem to get along with your brother, but how are you doing with your sister?"
"I'm still trying to understand her. She's a contradiction, she is the most open secretive person I've ever meet."
"Todd, I think you hit the nail on the head." said Peter as if he just figured out a mystery. "She's hiding something more than the fact she's Kermit daughter. No, she's hiding what she is."
"What she is? What the hell are you talking about?"
"Has anyone told you where Angelique grew up?"
"Come to think of it, no. Jim said his Uncle and Aunt brought him up. He also told me that he left the Air Force because of the time in Striker's prison. It made him realize that he truly wanted to be with his sister. The only thing I know about her is that they didn't grow up together. They would get together with each other and Kermit a few times a year if they were lucky.
"That's what I was told, too. By the powers that be. That's what her favorite saying is. No! She says it like a prayer. She a Brethren. A Brethren Warrior."
"Peter are you all right? What are you talking about?" asked Todd half-worried about his friend and half-worried about the sister he just found. "Does she belong to some crazy cult."
"No!" answered Peter becoming aware of Todd feelings. "Do you think that Kermit or her teacher, The Ancient, would let her belong to some cult. Either one of them are quite capable of rescuing her if she got involved with one. I can't tell you much except they one of the good guys. What I know of the Brethren are from my Shoalin training and it's confidential. "
"I'm beginning to understand one thing. This family that I biologically belong to would make a great gothic novel."
"My advice, Todd. Don't open any closets." teased Peter.
"I guess I'd better not say anything to that mystery writer, the one that wrote the book about Kermit and you, either or she'll be writing a sequel." said Todd joining in the teasing.
"Just what are you watching, my love?" asked Kermit already knowing the answer. He had finished dressing and was now standing behind her studying her in the mirror.
"My handsome husband." she said as putting down the bush and turning to wrap her arms around his neck. "I see no uniform today and no green glasses. It's going to be fun to see just how casual Kermit Griffin can be if given enough time. Kermit, are you happy?"
"Happier then I ever been. I've got you as my wife, and all three of my kids as part of my life for good. I can live with the fact Todd can never know that I'm his father. He seems to like me and accept me as your husband that's enough. The way he gets along with Jim pleases me, too. There are times that the two of them remind me of my brother and I. I just wish that you and Angel got along better."
"I do like Jim, but Angelique is another story."
"I know you and Angel have been at odds at times, but you don't like her, do you?' asked Kermit with a touch of saddest in his voice.
"I don't know exactly how I feel about her. There is time, like at the party, that I think she's wonderful. She is so full of life that no one can keep up with her. But, she is so damn head strong and reckless that I just want to shake some sense into her."
"That's my daughter. I love her but she has her own sense of justice. It's not the same as yours or mine. Yours comes from your training as a police officer, mine from my father's mercenary training, but hers comes from her faith."
"Faith. I though that she was trying to act like a TV detective. What does faith have to do with anything she does?"
"I don't want to spend this morning talking about Angel. So I'll tell you this much and sometime before we leave for home I'll tell you the rest. Promise! Not all conspiracies are invented by the bad guys, sometimes the good guys cook one up just to show they can, to quote my daughter."
Karen opened her mouth to ask a question but before she could say a word, Kermit was kissing her. She got the point. Back to the honeymoon. After the kiss he pulled away from her to look into her eyes, then his eyes when down to her beasts.
"You want me to be casual. OK, but I would like you to be little more provocative."
"Does that mean you want me to wear that lingerie you buy me all the time?"
"No. I like what you're wearing. There is just one thing I want to change. I'll show you," he said with a smile and a raised eyebrow. Then his hand began to slowly unbutton her blouse. He stopped at the button between her breast and then he pulled it open more to show some cleavage. Her reaction to what he had done showed through both her bra and blouse. "It looks like I turn you on."
"I think it's mutual or have you started to keep your gun in front, now?"
His only answer to her question was his laughter.
"Well we done everything else together this morning." he said after he had composed himself. "Let's make breakfast together, too."
'That sounds great, but I don't think it's going to be the same as the shower we had together this morning. I could get used to you washing my hair."
"My Lady, anytime you want to bathe me, again, I'm all yours."
"OK, people it's time to fly." said Jim as he headed to the cockpit from the back of the plane. "Todd, time for your next flying lesson. Peter do you make coffee?"
"Yes." said Peter a little surprised at the question.
"Great!" exclaimed Jim. "Would you please make some? You should have time before we get clearance from the tower to leave. What ever you do don't let Angel help. She burns water."
"You mean there's something she can't do?" said a very pleased Peter Caine. From the day he had first meet Angelique Hellistrom they began baiting each other like to two kids on rival teams. The Ancient said they acted more like two kids who didn't want to admit to liking each other. He kept telling himself he couldn't stand the way she always acted like she had all the answers. He knew that wasn't the reason but it was the best he could come up with.
"There is a lot of things I can't do, Peter Caine." stated Angel. "Your not baiting me today, Peter. We are going to get along until this little outing is over with and then things can return to normal."
"Agreed." said Peter shaking the hand she had extended. "Where is the galley?"
"Jim I promise not to touch a burner," said Angel with a look that said your going to pay later. "This way."
Fifteen minutes later the jet was taking off from the airport and heading for Maine and destiny. Not the destiny that any of group though. Fate was going to make one of its little moves that would set people moving in a new direction.
"Waiting for a friend with information. As I told you when we got here." answered Angel. "And here he comes."
A tall red haired young man came into view the moment Angel said it. Once he spotted them he headed over, grabbed a chair from another table, straddled it, and rested his arms on the back of it. He had placed himself as close to Angel as possible and then without a warning grabbed Angel by the back of the neck to pull her closer to him and kissed her full on the lips. Jim's reaction was to dump a glass of water into the guy lap, but it didn't seem to dampen his spirits.
"Still the over protective brother I see." said the young man after the kiss,
While grabbing a cloth napkin from the table to dry him off. "The marina got a call twenty minutes ago. Someone wants three boats ready to leave in three hours. No crews. No questions. The person on the phone said $50,000 to agree and forget. Sammy jumped at it, just like you told him too. Does he really get to keep it?"
"As long as he splits it better himself, his crew, and you. Thanks for the information, Ronny." said Angel as she grabbed her cane from the back of her chair and put it across her lap. "I see that your swim in the Atlantic didn't get my point across," said Angel.
"I'm a man who gets what he wants. You can't resist me or stay a virgin forever." stated the arrogant young man.
"Ronny if you ever touch me again my friend here will do the talking for me," she warned as she pointed to what was in her lap. A moment ago it was her cobra headed cane now it was a curdled cobra ready to strike. Ronny took one look at it and ran for his life.
"Guess I made my point, this time." said Angel with a grin as she returned her cane to the back of her chair.
"How did you did that?" asked her frightened younger brother.
"That!" said Angel as she took her brother's hand to comfort him. "Is a very old magic trick, nothing more. "
"Why do Dad and you still use that guy?" asked Jim. His hands were clenched with rage.
"He is very good at what he does." stated Angel. "Anyway after that incident on his boat, he usually works for us for free to placate, Dad."
"Just what happened on his boat?" asked Peter not sure why he needed to know so badly, or why he was so uncomfortable around Angel when she was with one of her male friends.
"He took me out on his boat. When he wouldn't take no for an answer, I threw him overboard and left him hanging on a buoy for the coast guard to find." answered Angel.
"Can we leave for the island now?" asked Todd his worry for his mother showing on his face.
"Three hours, good." she said more to herself then her companions. "We leave in a hour and a half."
"Why not now?" Peter asked the question for both himself and Todd.
"I now it doesn't matter how soon we arrive for us, but for Dad and his wife it's another story. Peter trust me they need to be alone right now." Was Angel's
cryptic message.
"I know what you mean," he said as he remembered her first months at the 101st. "We acted as if we had never meet before. I wonder how long we would have gone on like that if it wasn't for the earthquake and the top of an elevator."
"We're together now that's what matters. What do you have planned for the rest of the day?" Karen asked.
He didn't answer her right away. He put down his coffee cup and smiled. His eyes wandered down to her blouse to enjoy the way he had arranged it. Then he took her hand and brought it to his lips and kissed it.
"When I was in Striker's prison, I would lay in bed and try to block out where I was. There was one thing that worked rather well. It was a fantasy." he still held her hand as he began his story. "It was a sexual fantasy and about you."
That statement made her choke on her coffee. The idea of Kermit having sexual fantasy in a prison instead of making plans for escape was a shock to say the least.
"Are you going to tell me just what this fantasy was?" asked Karen strangely excited by the idea of him having a fantasy about her. Maybe someday she would tell him some of hers that included him.
"Well I though it might be a better idea to show you after we do the breakfast dishes." he said after he finished his coffee.
"They can wait. I can't." she purred as she got up from the table and got behind him and started to massage his neck and shoulders. "Don't you agree?"
"Oh, Yeah!" He said as he got up from his chair and picked her up into his arms and started toward the bedroom.
"Kermit, you really brought down the house when you said that instead of I do." said Karen remembering the wedding.
"If I hadn't I think everyone would have been very disappointed."
"If you hadn't I don't think I would feel married to you."
"Hmmmm." was the only answer she got as he softly touched her hair with his finger tips, then the side of her face, her neck, and then between her breasts
stopping at her blouse. No matter how often he touched her, her reaction was always the same. The feelings of warmth that enfolded her body and mind, the sense of safety mixing with the sense of risk, but mostly her barely controllable need for him. She tilted her head to the side in response to his brushing her hair from her neck. The urges inside her body grew stronger as he kissed her neck and shoulder while pushing her blouse down on her arm so nothing was between his lips and her skin. She shut her eyes and pulled closer to him and then the need to touch him, not his clothes, but him overwhelmed her. She slipped her hands under his sweater. Her hands caressed his side and his back. She let her senses enjoy the warmth and feel of his skin and the way that he smelled. Then he stopped and gently but firmly pushed her away.
"I'm getting ahead of myself." He said while once again he brushed her hair with his fingers.
"Kermit, if you don't start this fantasy of yours soon, I won't be responsible for what is going to happen." she warns.
"Hmmm, I think I like it when you threaten me." He joked and then with no warning pushed her down on the bed and grabbed her feet to pull off her shoes.
Before she could responded to this attack he was on top of her with one arm under her neck and the other encircling her waist while he is kicking off his own shoes. His lips began to kiss hers and his tongue found it's way into her mouth searching for hers. With one of his legs he had pinned her legs to the bed. At first she started to fight him off. Then she realized that he was only playing and that she liked what he was doing. To show him that she wanted to play too, she encircled his chest with her arms and passionately returned his kiss. When the kiss ended he pulled his head back to look into her eyes. As she returned the gaze she could see a glint of impishness in his eyes. She knew that he was up to something, but what it was she had no idea. The one thing she could be sure of was that she was going to enjoy it.
"My fantasy is a game." he opened. "The game is that we spend sometime trying to find out which one of us has the most control over our sexual desires."
"Just how do we play this game, and how does one win?"
"It's very simple, we just continue foreplay until one of us begs for sex."
"This is what you'd think about on those long lonely nights in that prison. Trying to get me to beg you for sex?" she asked trying to hide her amusement with indignity, "Kermit you're a chauvinist."
"I didn't always win. As a matter of fact I could never make up my mind which scenario I liked better, you wining or me. To be honest either way we both won."
With that statement she began to laugh uncontrollably and it took a few minutes to get her composure back.
"Well if you want to have a contest between the sexes, I'm game." she said while gently touching his hair then brushing his freshly shaved check with the back of her hand. And the battle of wills began.
Their lips meet again, then their tongues as her hands once again slipped
under his sweater. His free hand began to finish the job of unbuttoning her blouse, which he had started earlier. He didn't attempt to pull it aside, but just let
it lay on her open teasing both of them. His hand then began to undo her pants and then he left them open and teasing, too. The next move was hers; she began to caress the inside of his legs and his butt the way he liked. That made him want to rip off his jeans so she would be touching just him and nothing else. He had to pay her back for that. So he began to caress her inner thighs the way she liked him to .
He was next to be surprised, for with more strength then he knew she had she pulled him across herself and on to his back on the other side of the
bed. Then threw herself on top of him and sat up before he had time to react. She gave him a smile then slowly took off her blouse and threw it on the floor. Then began to pull his sweater up to reveal his chest. She slipped off him so she could kiss his stomach just above his belt while her hands removed it.
His hands found they way to the nape of her neck so he could massage it the way he did when he wanted her. This was what she wanted to know, She began to kiss her way up his chest and then started to run her tongue over his nipples and then to suckle them to break down his will a little more. While she was enjoying his chest her hand undid the snap and zipper of his jeans and pulled them open. He wanted her to grab him there so much that he had to bite his tongue to stop himself from saying so. She knew what he wanted but only brushed the area gently once to tease him. Then she straddled him and began again to suckle his nipples.
He made the next move by pushing her off his chest and into a sitting position. Reaching behind her, he undid her bra and slowly pulled it off her. Once her breasts was revealed they openly showed the effect he was having on her. He smiled at her and winked then used the bra to tie her arms behind her back. This move shocked her but the next left her speechless. For he rolled her off him and on to her back, successfully pinning her arms under her. Then he pinned her beneath him by his kneeling over her so that his weight wouldn't be on her. He was still smiling, as if he was the one in charge now, as he brushed her hair from her face.
"Kermit Griffin what are you doing!?"
"Wait! I've just started." With that said he slipped off her and began to kiss her stomach just above her pants. Then he slipped her pants off her hips while he
kissed her all the way down her legs as he removed them. She couldn't help herself from laughing a little for she was winning. If he had to stop her from touching him, he must be near the breaking point. The way her arms were tried behind her back was just a token, for she could easy pull them free. He was just trying to gain come time, and as far as she was concerned he could take all the time he wanted. She was loving every minute of this.
"Once her pants had joined her blouse on the floor, he took off his sweater and added it to the growing pile. Then he looked down at the only thing between him and what he wanted her panties. She saw his hands grip at nothing and heard him slow his breathing to gain control.
"You know I'm yours when ever you want me." She said softly in her sexist voice.
He just looked at her and laughed and then lay down beside her to touch and suckle her breasts. While one hand explored one breast the other was being explored by his month. While he was doing that she pulled free of her bra and threw it on to the floor. Once that was done she began to push his pants and underwear over his hips so that she could really touch him. She couldn't quite get them off so he stopped what he was doing and did it for her. Then he returned to enjoying her breasts. She was barely able to control the desires that were taking over her body and were trying to take over her will. To control herself and she hoped make him lose control, she began to caress and message his body with all the passion she could. His hand moved from her breast down to her stomach and started to massage close to what they both wanted touched. To return the favor she start to rub close to the part of his body that they both wanted touched. Sometime she would let her hand brush it as if by accident. Every time it happened she could feel his body stiffen and his hand would grip her skin gently but firmly and his suckling became more urgent for a moment then he would relax. As he caressed her stomach almost touching her panties her body would move as if trying to bring what she desperately wanted him to touch to his hand but he wouldn't allow that. He had one more trick up his sleeve to get her to beg first. He knew he had to do something fast or what little of his control he still had would be gone. He moved his hand and with the tips of his fingers began to explore just under the panties first the top, then one around one leg, and then the other being careful not to explore to far just enough to tease. Her back ached and she let out a small moan and stopped touching him to grip the bed quilt. It backfired he could take no more he tore one side seam of the offending clothing and then the other, then pulled them off her. Then with one swift movement he was kissing her lips while they both begin to enjoy the ecstasy of being one.
Todd and Peter were grateful that they were on their way to the island at last, but to Peter's annoyance they were going in a helicopter not a boat. He sat in back with Angelique trying not to show his fear of heights. He noticed that Angelique wasn't being her annoying bubbly self. Instead she seemed drawn inward, and just sat there with hands resting on her cane and her chin on them. He had never seen her block out the world around her, even times she was listening to someone you could tell she was keenly observing what was going on around her. Then it dawned on him she was frightened. She was putting the people she loved the most in danger. If she had just told Kermit that Striker was out to kidnap Abby and Karen, Kermit would have gone after him alone. Kermit was used to taking care of his own problems and the problems of the ones he cares about without help. If Kermit had gone after Striker alone Angelique believed he wouldn't come back, so she took on stopping Striker herself.
"Angelique, we are going to stop him. " Peter said trying to wake her from her fears. "What chance does an army of mercenaries have against a Shoalin Priest, a Brethren warrior, The Griffin and his family?"
"Well that's out in the open," said Angel as she laughed at his very poor joke. "When did you figure out the Griffin family?"
"Knew about you last night and this morning I remember what I had been taught about the Brethren. It can't just be a coincidence that you're a Brethren and your father is an ex-mercenary with a sense of justice named Griffin." replied Peter.
"What are you two talking about?" asked Todd from the front. He had been half listening to them. "Do I have a family history I should know about."
"Yes." Stated Angel. "But it's one you should hear from your father, not from us."
"Heads up, people." interrupted Jim. "There is the island."
"Kermit," said Karen breaking the silence. "You didn't really think up that little sexual game in Striker's prison, did you?"
"No." agreed Kermit with pride at her ingenuity at figuring it out. "How did you figure it out?"
"Two things." She stated. "You're to much a professional to waste time think of games when you should be thinking of ways to escape, especially with your son's life at state. My second clue was the fact you didn't attack me when you came home. You have known since the night of my acquittal for murder that I was interested in a sexual relationship with you. It took you months after you got back to get around to making our relationship more than friendship. What took you so long?"
"A lot of reasons. Mostly I wanted to make sure if we got together again it would last. When I joined the 101st I was burned out. My brother's death was the last straw. I just wanted to find a place to hide and forget my past. It didn't work; instead I began to heal. I know that Caine had a lot to do with it, but it was your getting the Captaincy of the 101st that made me want to heal. At first I didn't want you to see the man I'd become. Did you ever guess that you were my Dulcinea?"
"Dulcinea! The one in Man of La Mancha!?"
"I think I'd better explain that before I get into trouble."
"Good idea."
"I didn't think I was good enough for you, but I couldn't help caring about you. So I filled my need for you by taking care of you at a distance."
"As Don Quixote did for Dulcinea. That was sweet and romantic, but I'm glad you figured out that you wanted more than loving me from a distance."
"It the fiasco with Emma and seeing you with Doctor Webster that woke me up to what I was missing."
"I only had one date with Dan and never mentioned it to you."
"I was on my way to the software convention and I had stopped to eat at the same restaurant the two of you were at. I spotted you and then I saw him take your hand. I turned and walked out and went straight to the convention and Emma's waiting arms."
"Kermit, I love you. I understand that you needed time to sort out your past, just promise me no more Emmas."
"If you promise me no more Dans," he said as he pulled her into his arms.
"Agreed." was all she said as she put her arms around his neck and then kissed him.
"Is it true that all your ex-wives are skinny, blue eyed, blondes?" she teased after they returned to walking the beach.
"Where did you hear that!?' he exclaimed as he stopped in his tracks to look at her. "No, let me guess, Lasher?"
"He mentioned that I was number four when he was dancing with me at the party. I told him that it didn't matter because I was going to be the last."
"What did he say to that?" trying desperately to change the subject.
"If it didn't work out he was available and he liked skinny, blue eyed, blondes, too. You haven't answered my question."
"That's two I owe Lasher. What do you want me to say that I spent most of my adult life looking for a replacement for you? OK, that's what I did!" He said with anger and then turned away from her.
"Kermit I'm sorry. I though Lasher was joking. Everyone was giving us a hard time. Lasher is the last person I believe when it comes to you. I know how well Lasher and you get along."
"Karen, that is one of the many parts of my life that I'm not proud of." he began to explain to her without turning around. "Things in my life would get bad and I would meet some woman that would reminded me of you. The next thing I knew I had married her. They never lasted long and I paid them well for their troubles."
"Kermit, I don't know what to say, except this." she said trying to keep the pain from making her break down into tears. "I never truly when back to my husband. I poured myself into my career and our child, and left nothing for him. I'm not proud off that but I couldn't stop wanting or loving you."
"We both made a lot of mistakes, but nothing that happened during or since has ever made me sorry for falling in love with you or having a child with you." he said as he turned toward her and brushed her hair with his fingers. "I wish that I had had enough courage to take you with me then. I just kept telling myself that both of you would be safer and happier with him than me and once I was gone you would work out your problems with him. There's something else I've got to tell you."
While they were talking the sound a helicopter became louder. Kermit finally took notice of it and looked to see were it was heading. To his surprise it was heading for the island and then he noticed the markings. With the realization whose helicopter it was he knew that his next confession would have to wait.
"Karen, that's Jim's helicopter something must be wrong." He didn't give her time to say anything before he began running down the beach where they left their shoes and then to where the helicopter was landing.
I though I could end my little fantasy with this part and in a way I did. I took care of the antagonists but I left a lot of unanswered questions. So there is going to be an epilogue to tie up the lose ends including what happens with Abby. I hope you enjoy it. Remember it's not Shakespeare.
Partners Now and Forever
Part 4
Kermit stopped at what appeared to be a small grotto and waited a moment for Karen to catch up to him and then entered. At the back wall he stopped again and gripped a small ledge of rock just over his head. Then the wall in front of him moved to reveal a tunnel into the cliff. She wondered why they were heading underground to meet a helicopter but after a short walk down the tunnel
she had her answer. The helicopter was dropping down through a double door in the roof of a large man made cavern that they just entered. When the helicopter landed on its pad the huge doors began to come down to close the hole in the roof. Both of them were having a hard time standing as the wind from the propellers whipped though the cavern. Kermit pulled her back into the tunnel. All she could do was look at him with questioning eyes because nothing she said would have been heard over the noise. Soon the noise and wind died down and four people jumped out of the machine to the landing pad and headed towards them.
"What's wrong?" Was the first thing out of Kermit's mouth when they got close enough to hear him. "And why did you bring Todd?"
"What makes you think there is anything wrong?" asked Angel. "Maybe we were just in the neighborhood?"
"Don't get cute, Sis." warned Jim. "Remember that your time tables aren't always perfect. Jakarta! If Dad hadn't been there we'd be in jail right now. Striker!"
"Coming here? How did he find out about this place? Angelique Griffin!" said Kermit barely able to control his anger at his daughter.
With that out burst Angel pulled Peter in front of her to place a barrier between herself and her very angry father. "One minute Dad I can explain.
If I live long enough," she said peeking out from behind Peter, smiling at him.
Kermit just stood there shaking his head and putting his hands in his pockets. She had better have one hell of an explanation about what was going
on. Angel had been running around the world doing jobs for the Brethren for over ten years now. Thankfully he only had to rescue her a few times in that period. Usually she had been working with someone older and more experienced that was there to teach her how to survive and get the job done at the same time. Jim had reminded Kermit about the first assignment that she was in charge of. A local member of the Brethren had contacted him saying that the job was going wrong and that Angel needed her father. He had been on the next plane out with Karen covering for him at the precinct with a story about being on vacation looking at ruins. He had gotten there just in time to save Angel and Jim from an ambush set up by a local crooked captain of police. With his help they were able to finish their assignment of rescuing two Brethren from the captain's jail and proving to honest local cops that the captain was crooked.
While Angel filled in Kermit on what had happen at home, Todd walked over to see his mother. "How's the honeymoon going?" He asked more than a little nervous for he knew that the time had come for him to tell his mother what he knew.
"Why are you here Todd?" she asked not truly wanting to know the answer but also knowing that she had too.
"I'm part of this family and whatever kind of trouble it's in I'm part of too."
He stated. "Mother, I know just how much a part of this family I am."
She could say nothing. It came as to much of a shock. All she could do was pull back against the wall and sink to the floor.
"Mom! It's all right! I'm OK with it. To tell you the truth I kind of like it this way. For the first time in a long time I feel like I'm part of a family. I wouldn't trade my brother and sister for anything. My biological father isn't half bad either from what I've seen of him." comforted Todd as he knelt down beside her.
She just looked at him. There was still to many mixed emotions going through her mind to answer him. All she could do was put her arms around him while tears filled her eyes.
"No!" was all he could say as he walked over to his wife and their son.
By the time Kermit reached them Todd had pulled his mother to her feet still holding her as she softly cried. At first he had no idea what to do but Karen obvious need drew him to her. He reached out his hand and gently stroked her hair to tell her he was there. She looked up and reached out her hand for him to take. It was her way of telling him that she needed his comfort and support. The three of them just stood like that for some time letting the truth sink in.
"How did you find out?' Kermit asked the first to break the silence.
"From Gregory Simms. We don't have time for the whole story. Striker and the Black Widows are going to be here soon." said Todd.
With that statement Karen stopped crying and forced herself to become the police captain. "Striker and the Black Widows coming here? Why? How? Kermit you said that no one could find this place?"
"For revenge against Caine, Peter, and myself." stated Kermit. "Angel led them here to trap them."
"What is Angelique doing running this? She's just a private detective. It should be in the hands of the FBI or Intpol."
"Mom, she's a lot more than just a private detective. She's something called a Brethren Warrior and she runs an anti-terrorist agency for the President." Todd informed her.
"Kermit what the hell is he talking about and no more it can wait for later!?" demanded Karen looking at Kermit with a look of you been keeping too much to yourself.
"It just as Todd said. Angel is in the process of starting a company that will specialize in handling terrorist. The President is all for the idea. Why, will have to wait, we don't have enough time. Angel and us have two hours to neutralize Striker and his friends once they get to the island. If by then the FBI hasn't received a signal from us they come in with the coast guard and stop them from leaving the island. This is a test case for her company."
"She uses her family in a test case?"
"Mom she had no choice if she let the FBI or Intpol handle it he would have found out. I think you know what would have happened then?" Said Todd defending his sister's judgment.
"Yes. He would have gone after Striker alone and she thinks he wouldn't have come back. I think she is right we do have a better chance together than him alone." Agreed Karen.
"Well I guess we all in this together. What do you want me to call you?" Todd asked Kermit with a need in his voice and eyes that took a moment for Kermit to recognize.
"It's your choice not mine, but if your asking what I would like? It's Dad." sensing Todd's need for him to accept him as his son but not knowing quite how he knew.
"Then I guess its Dad," said the young man while reaching his hand out to the father he desperately wanted to know. Kermit took his hand but it wasn't enough he needed to hold him. He reached out and for the first time held his youngest son.
Karen watched this and her tears started again but this time they were for joy not for shame. She watched, as the two must important people in her life began the journey to becoming father and son. Kermit released Todd and looked at Karen with a smile and handed her his handkerchief. He was feeling the same joy that he saw in her eyes. Then he remembered that he had to tell her about Abby.
"Karen there is one more thing you should know. Striker tried to kidnap Abby. He didn't succeed and she's safe at my sister's with The Ancient and the police protecting them all." said Kermit as he once again took her hand.
She didn't say anything at first just stood there trying to take it all in as she held his hand. When she did speak it was one statement. "Lets get that bastard!"
Angel and Jim sat down and began to boot up all the electronic gear. He watched as they ran thought systems check of the equipment and then began checking what all the surveillance cameras showed. He was sure that every square inch of the island and the cabin on it was covered. This island was a fortress and it protected more than Angel's meetings with her family.
"Angel this is quite a place. What are you hiding here?" asked Peter not sure if he would get an answer.
"Something your Grandfather would like to see." was the answer she gave him.
"Would you care to explain that statement?" was the reply.
"Matthew Caine used to search for lost religious treasures didn't he?" she answered him while she continued to check out the surveillance cameras.
"Yes." he said as he returned his attention to the statue and it's altar.
"Press the rose on the top of the altar and you will see what this place hides." she instructed.
He looked back at her then headed for the altar to find out the secret of the island. The Altar was made of carved white marble, as was the statue. On the top of it was a carved rose painted blood red with what looked like tear drops falling from it also painted the same blood red. He reached out and pressed down on the flower and the altar's top began to divide and move aside. It revealed a hollow space beneath with a folded red woolen cloth inside. Without thinking Peter reached for the cloth and a force hit his body that threw him across the room. He fell into a heap on the floor next to Angel.
"Didn't your Pop ever tell you to look, don't touch?" teased Angel as she helped him off the floor. She already knew that he wasn't hurt. What was in the altar would protect itself but it did it without harming.
"What is that thing?" asked Peter recovering from the shock.
"The Robe of Christ." said Jim returning to his monitors.
"You say that like it's the family china." stated Peter in amazement.
"The novelty wears off if it's been in your family for almost two thousand years. We are direct descendants of the Roman soldier who won it at the crucifixion. In realty he was a mercenary as all his first born male direct descendants have been." Said Jim still watching for Striker and his boats.
"Why do you look so amazed? Aren't you the man who started Kung Fu by going back in time four thousand years? To me that's more amazing than
a two thousand year old heirloom and a family business that gets passed down from father to son." Said Angel. As she watched the altar's top close.
"I told Todd not to look in any closets. I guess I should have taken my own advice." Said Peter as he dusted himself off. "Who closed that?"
"The same forces that watch over the Chalice." Said Angel.
"What hasn't The Ancient told you or was it Kermit?" asked Peter but he never received an answer for things started to happen.
"Jim, here they come!" said Angel with obvious excitement in her voice.
"I've got them too." agreed Jim. "Three lobster boats, they are separating and heading for the only three landing spots on the island. He's done his homework."
"Dad! Company is just about to arrive," said Angel in a microphone at her monitor. "We need the three of you in here now!"
"ETA of the first boat will be twenty minutes and then second five minutes after that and the last ten minutes later." read Jim from his computer monitor.
As Jim finished his statement Kermit, Todd and Karen hurried into the room. Both Karen and Todd were taken back with disbelieve, but knew there was no time for questions. That would have to wait for their guests to be taken care of. Kermit walked up behind his kids to check out the monitors for himself.
"The clock is running. We now have two hours to stop them or Griffin and Co. goes out the window and probably our lives with it. How much did you tell the FBI about this place?" Questioned Kermit. Looking at Angel.
"They think this is something you put together so you could see your kids without your enemies knowing that you had any and now it's for the company's use." Was her answer. "If they see the control room, my friend over there has already been explained. They think I'm Catholic and he's my favorite Saint."
"That's a good cover. As close as possible to the truth without telling too much." analyzed Kermit. "Good job. I like your plan for our visitors, too."
Angel heard the pride in her father voice as he agreed to her plan with a
squeeze of her shoulder. She got up from her seat and motioned for Todd to take her place at the controls. Once he was seated Jim began to show him how things worked.
"OK, gang it's time for the fun to begin." Though she tried to make it sound like a joke there was deadly seriousness in her tone. She opened a drawer in a cabinet next to the door and pulled out three headphone sets. She handed them to Peter and Jim and kept one for herself. There was no need to explain things to these people; they knew their jobs. Todd would monitor Jim, Peter, and Angel as they neutralized Striker's sentries and he would also keep them informed of what was going on in the cabin. Kermit and Karen were to be the bait to keep Striker's attention long enough to get him vulnerable. When the only enemy left was in the cabin they would attack.
"I have one question. How do we make sure that the sentries stay out of the way after we knock them out? We can't carry that much rope." Asked Peter "There's no way short of killing them."
"There's one way." Stated Angel while reaching into the drawer and throwing one of the items she had pulled out to Peter and another to Jim. "The handyman's secret weapon or in our case the mercenary's secret weapon."
"Duct tape!" was all Peter could say as Kermit laughed.
"It works, Peter. Trust me." assured Angel. "Todd if anything goes wrong you use this phone, pointing to the closest of two phones on Jim's monitor, and call the FBI. It's a direct line. Then you are to stay in this room until they get here. Just you alone can't help us. There are to many of them and we need to know that your safe."
Todd's expression showed he didn't like what his sister had said but his military school training had taught him to obey orders. Karen walked over to her son and hugged him and then waited for her husband to have a moment with his children. He squeezed Todd's shoulder and punched Jim in the arm but Angel would settle for nothing less than a hug.
"Captain we'll get out of this mess." said Peter to his ex-captain to reassure her. "We always do."
"I know." she said trying to act confident. "But why did it have to happen on my honeymoon?"
"If you didn't want things like this to happen you should have picked an accountant not an ex-mercenary to marry." teased Peter.
"And live my life in a rut. No way!" she rebutted him as she gave him a hug for luck.
"Get your hands off my wife, Peter Caine!" said Kermit pretending to be jealous. "Well it's time to be the bait, my love."
Kermit and Karen headed for a door next to the statue. It led to a set of stairs, which came out in the back of the closet in Angel's bedroom. Peter, Jim, and Angel headed back through the helicopter pad to the outside to start their campaign to neutralize the enemy. Todd sat alone in the control room and gave a
silent pray to the angel in the corner that he would look after his friend and family.
"I think so." He said as he came up behind her and pulled her into his arms to reassure her. "Jim and Angel know this island, our opponents don't. Jim is an ex-air force officer and Angel as the same kind of training as Peter. I think you already know how good Peter is. So a little thing like an ambush is a piece of cake to the three of them. You and I have the hard job. We have to keep Striker and whoever is with him occupied long enough for the trio to get their job done."
"I know. They have to think we've alone on this island and helpless. Well I have one suggestion. Let's have them break in on us doing the dishes not in a compromising position."
"That sounds like a great idea to me. Just one thing." he said then turned her around in his arms and kissed her as if it might be their last kiss. Then he buttoned her blouse the way she usually wore it. "The kiss was for luck and I don't want Striker to get any ideas. Who washing?"
Peter had the second landing spot. He waited crouched behind some boulders near the beach. His wait was not long for two of the six men that had gotten off the boat walked past him. Peter jumped up which got the men's attention. Before either of the men could react Peter had knocked them out with kicks to their heads. It took only moments to tie them up and hide them in a place between some boulders. Then he covered them up with a fallen pine tree. Now he had only four to take care off. He found his next victim leaning against a tree smoking a cigarette. A kick to the stomach and a chop to the neck took him out. Now only three to go.
Angel as always had to do things her own way. The beach that was the third landing place was in a cove that was hidden form the ocean. Which gave Angel the perfect location for her idea. When the boat landed she was waiting laying on a towel that she had grabbed from the copter. Her cane was buried just under the sand next to her. She could hear the men talking. One was saying that maybe this job was going to be fun after all. Then she felt a gun muzzle pushed into her left temple and someone told her to get up. Instant of getting up she grabbed the gun and through it and it's owner over her and into his companions. Then like a cobra she stuck with the cane that she had under buried. Three off the seven men where down from her first move. Two more soon joined them when she hit them on the side of their heads with the cane. Another got a kick between the legs and when he fell on his knees she hit the back of his head with her weapon. The fourth got a kick to the knee and then the head. By the time she had those four down the other three were up and one was still holding his gun but not for long. Angel knocked it out of his hands when she through one of his companions into him. With a few more well placed kicks with her feet and hits with her cane all the men were sleeping peacefully. Ten minutes later her victims were tied and put back in the boat. She then covered them with a tarp that she had found in it.
"Guys I'm heading back to the cabin." said Angel into the microphone she had just put back on.
"Wait a minute, are you trying to tell us that you took care of your boat load already?" Asked Peter torn between disbelief and embarrassment that she beat him.
"She should did!" Broke in Todd. "I watched the whole thing. They never knew that hit them. I got one question through. Why didn't you let one of them go back to the lobster boat? Their going to suspect something wrong when he doesn't show up."
"None of them were going back. Their job was to watch the back of the island for visitors or escapes. The bosses are on the other two boats. This cove is to far of a walk to the cabin."
"Angelique is your night job working for Physic Friends network? Asked Todd.
"Pure logic, Dr. Watson. Striker is a very good mercenary but he likes to act the part of a dictator. He won't walk any farther than he has too. I'll give odds that who ever is in charge of the Black Widows thinks just like him. Did any of the men you've dealt with have some form of communication device? None of mine did."
"Haven't seen anything yet and I've got only two to go." said Jim. "Angel one of these days someone is going to break that cane of yours."
"Then he or she is going wish they were never born. Todd from now on call me Angel. Angelique is the name I use for my private detective business, it sound more sophisticated. I guess that goes for you to Peter." Said Angel.
"I'm honored and no I haven't seen any. If anyone is interested?" Stated Peter feeling left out. "Angel, you controlled their minds didn't you?"
"OK Pretty Boy." teased Angel using Jim's nickname for Peter. "It's not mind control. I can keep people from thinking clearly. It's a lot of help when you're a woman alone fighting with seven men. And no I don't know how I do it, I just do. Peter, wouldn't the fact that their not it touch with their bosses lead you to believe that they're so confident that their using just a time table instead of communication to run this kidnapping."
"Oh Yeah!" replied Peter trying to sound like Kermit. "And I'd say that they are on their way to the island right now."
"Your right Peter." confirmed Todd checking the cameras covering the boats. "Angel is right, too. There is a boat leaving from both number one and two but nothing is happening on number three.
"Time for you two to finish up and join me outside the cabin. " ordered Angel. "Todd time to keep any eye on your parents. Keep your cool kid things might get rough. Your mother's a police captain and can handle herself. She doesn't need you getting yourself killed trying to protect her."
"I know my job!" was Todd angry reply.
"Say that when this is over with, kid," said Jim.
Kermit and Karen were just putting away the last of the dishes when the front door was kicked in. Two men walked in leveling semi-automatics at them and then they began to examine the cabin to make sure that their hostages were the only ones there. Once they were sure that all was safe one of the men headed back to the open door to tell who ever was waiting outside that all was well. Kermit held his tongue waiting to see what Striker first move would be. He had to keep in mind that they were not supposed to know of Striker's coming. Then Striker walked into the room with a woman Kermit knew he knew but just couldn't place.
"Kermit, I'm hurt that you didn't send me a invitation to the wedding." was Striker's opening line delivered with the sly grin he enjoyed wearing.
"Sorry, it was a small wedding." was his reply. Karen watched Kermit switch into mercenary mode as he walked toward the end table with his shades on them. One of the gunmen started to threaten him but his boss waved him off. Kermit grabbed the shades from the table and put them on. Now he was Kermit Griffin the mercenary! "If you had to break in on my honeymoon you could have at least brought a present."
"The same old Kermit. A smart comment for any occasion" sneaker Striker "I hear it was another of your quick weddings? Still going for blondes I see. You know your number four?" said Striker now turning his attention to Karen.
"Yes, Jack Lasher informed me. I'll tell you what I told him. I'm the last," said Karen with her arms crossed and a defiant look in her eye.
"Beautiful, brave, and I'll bet your intelligent too. Kermit what does a woman
like this see in a dispassionate computer geek like you?" inquired Striker.
"I have a thing for men who wear green glasses and treat their women like they do their guns." Karen said before Kermit had a chance to answer.
"And what is that last part supposed to mean?" asked Striker a little puzzled.
"With respect, well cared for, and kept close at all times." stated Karen with her sexiest voice.
With her last statement Kermit had all he could do to keep his jaw from hitting the floor. Then it he dawned on him maybe Karen could charm Striker a little too much and he might want her for himself. The picture of Striker forcing himself on her reopened an old wound. He had to get Striker's attention on him and off her now before their enemy became infatuated with her. But what happened next made him remember one of the reasons he was in love with her. Her ability to take care of herself.
"Really! I'm known for taking good care of my weapons and I can always buy a pair of green sunglasses." Said Striker trying to act seductive.
"Yes, but are you man enough to fulfill the rest of my needs?" said Karen doing her best to imply that his manhood was in question.
With that the mercenary slapped her face out of anger. Karen touched her cheek making sure she didn't telegraph her next move. Then to everyone's surprise she hit him with a right cross that sent him to the floor. That made Kermit move. He took a place between his wife and the mercenary now on the floor trying to shake the stars he was seeing.
"Striker get up off the floor! You should consider yourself lucky. The last
man she hit like that she broke his jaw." stated the mysterious woman that had
come in with the him. "Anyway I'm tired of your fun and games. Let's get down to business."
"How do you know that?" asked a very puzzled Karen.
"I find it's good practice to know the people I'm going to be doing business with." she began. "It makes it less likely that they can out maneuver me."
"And just what is your business and just who are you?" inquired Kermit a little
calmer now that for the moment Karen was safe from Striker.
"You don't recognize me, Kermit?" the woman said sounding hurt. "But we were so close, one could even use the word intimate. We also share two very important things and those things are part of the reason we're having this little meeting."
"No! Your dead!" Kermit exclaimed.
"You really think a couple of bumbling CIA agents could kill a Black Widow. Though I am forced to admit that they did get my little princess away and she had such potential. Then before I could get her back from them you with the help of your friends got to her first. Once again it took years to find her and then it was by accident. Some of my agents tried to kill a Brethren and was stopped by one of their warriors using a cane. They said she matched the computer-generated picture that they had been shown of my daughter. So I sent Latrodect to your fair city to bring her out into the open to save her father and her Shoalin teacher. Unfortunately Latrodect under estimated Kwai Chang Caine and you." was the tale spun by the leader of the Black Widows.
"Now things make more sense. I could never quite believe that I was an emotional conduit to Caine. You want to make Angel into what you are. With The Ancient and I out of the way she would have been both unprotected and emotionally vulnerable to you." Theorized Kermit.
"Close." said his ex-lover. "But you're wrong about one thing. I don't want her anymore. She has joined the enemy. I'm here to destroy her, the Griffin family and what this island has hidden for centuries."
"Destroy it!" Striker said in shock. "It's worth a fortune even if we can't prove what it is."
"My associates and I want it destroyed so that it can no longer be used to protect our enemies, the Brethren. As long as it and The Griffin exists we can never defeat them. Today the Black Widows with destroy that thing and all the direct descendants of the first Griffin. At this very moment, Kermit, my people are attacking the Gables and their orders are to leave no one alive."
"No!" screamed Karen as she tried to attack the woman but Kermit held her back. He knew that would only get Karen killed. They had to out think this enemy not attack and hope that who they left protecting Abby and his sister's family could stop the enemy at the Gables. His only option was to protect Todd and the Robe. He pulled Karen away from Belladonna and toward the mantle.
"Todd call the Gables!" Kermit yelled and then hit the rose caved on the mantle with the palm of his hand. The rose pushed in and things began to happen. The sounds of heavy metal doors sliding into place and then the clang of metal hitting metal as they sealed, came from beneath their feet.
"What have you done Kermit?' asked Belladonna in a very controlled manner.
"Stopping you the best way I can. Todd and the robe are sealed in a room and beyond your reach. Let me made it easy for you. When I hit that button the room their in was turned into a vault that is cut off from this island. It also warned the Brethren that the robe was endangered. Only they can open that vault and they'll be here soon. " Stated Kermit.
"You'll pay for that Kermit. I was going to kill you quickly and leave you here but not now. You are all going with Kermit and us your going to watch them all die very slowly and very painfully. Kermit your fate will be to live in a cell the rest of your life remembering how they died." She foretold. "I'll give you a small taste of what is going to happen once I get them to my home. Well my dear it seems no one is going to introduce us. My name is Belladonna Zenon. He was only a teenager when I knew him. I hope that he has gotten better with time, for your sake." She said as she pulled Karen free of her husband's arms. "Striker keep your gun on Kermit make use he doesn't move."
"Don't hurt her too much. I've got some ideas when it comes to her," he said with a leer while holding his gun to Kermit's head.
"Oh, I'm not going to hurt her. I just want some information from her." she informed him. Then she grabbed Karen's head with her hands and forced Karen to look right into her jet black eyes. Karen could feel her mind, her will being taken over my this evil woman. Karen knew what she wanted and she had no idea how to stop her. Her mind cried for help but it only got the maniacal laughter of her tormentor. Then Belladonna raped her mind of her memories of Kermit. She made her remember every moment of lovemaking that they had ever had. So the witch could satisfy her curiosity on what he was like as a lover now that he was a man. Then Belladonna let her go. Karen fell to the floor exhausted form the mental battle, wanting to cry because of pain and shame but refusing to give in. That would give to much satisfaction to her rapist.
Striker watched what happened between the two woman and forget to watch Kermit. This was what Kermit had been waiting for since the prison camp. His chance at Striker! He grabbed the gun but Striker fought him. They wrestled for control of the gun a moment then Kermit pulled the trigger. Striker fall to the floor shot in the stomach. Then Belladonna's two companions were on him before he had time to shoot her.
"Let him go!" she ordered. They released him and returned to their positions on either side of the door keeping the gun with them. No one cared that Striker was unconscious and bleeding on the floor.
Kermit knelt down beside Karen to make sure that she was physically unharmed but he could tell from her face that she didn't want his comfort. He knew instinctively that she had to fight this battle by herself to keep her dignity. All he could do was help her to her feet and make sure that he was there to back her up if she needed it.
"Belladonna what did you do to her!" asked Kermit with fury in his voice.
"I was curious about what kind of lover you've become, since you were so bad at sixteen." Was the answer she toyed with him with. "I must say Kermit you've improved with time, some of her memory are very erotic. This morning for example, ripping off her underwear. Kermit I didn't think you commanded that much passion. You never ripped anything off me."
"You never made me feel the way she does. She's more of a woman than you'll ever be." He said using the truth to take a stab at her. "The next time you want information like that rip it out of my mind and leave her along."
"Sir Kermit, knight in shining armor protecting his lady love from the wicked queen. How cute!" she taunted. "You get this straight I take what I want from who I want and you my tarnished knight can do nothing to stop me. I promise you this Sir Kermit she will be the last you watch die and she'll died hating you."
"That's the one thing you can't do, bitch! No matter what you do to me you'll never make me stop loving him. What ever happens to me will be your fault not his and nothing will make me forget that." said Karen with all the pride and determination she could muster.
"Kermit I must say you have taste. She's a spitfire. I never had someone who I mind raped before come back with such strength and courage. My dear I may not kill you after all. You could be fun to keep around for other pleasure," she thought out loud while smiling at Karen and inspecting her. "And making him watch would definitely add to the enjoyment."
Kermit at the moment could do nothing. It took all his training at dispassion to keep him from letting himself imagine what Belladonna had in mind for Karen and the others. One thing he had made up his mind about was that Belladonna or he would die on this island before he would let her harm anyone he cared about.
"Dad said call the Gables," said Todd to himself just to hear something other than the silence of the room. "That has to mean that the phones still work. Saint Michael with you standing over there and this damn silence it won't take long for me to think of this place as my tomb."
"Operator can I have information." said Todd into the phone overjoyed at hearing a dial tone and then a voice. He had remembered the number for information he just wanted to hear a voice that had nothing to do with what was going on in his life at this moment.
"For some reason Dad has hit the panic button." stated Angel to lost in her own thoughts to answer coherently.
"What she means is that Dad sealed the control room. It's now a vault and Todd can't communicate with us and we can't communicate with him. They must know about us! That must be why it been so easy!"
"Well boss what do we do now?" asked Peter to Angel. "My suggestion is for you and me to hit them at the cabin now and leave Jim to back us up."
"Great minds think a like." joked Angel. "Jim find yourself a gun and keep any eye on the cabin."
Peter and Angel headed for the cabin from their location and Jim when to get the gun from his last victim. They were moving with patience and stealth in case there was more of the enemy around. Then a shot rang out and patience and stealth were forgotten.
"Pop tell me what to do." said Peter knowing he had no time for unimportant questions.
"Peter, you must stop Angel from killing her own mother." The ghostly form said with a voice that sounded like it was a long way off. "If she does that she will lose everything she as worked for and set herself on a path to become her mother. Her mother is a monster almost beyond help. Angel must try to help her even if she fails. Angel fears her dark side because in her heart she has always known what her mother was and that she somehow could become like her. You must show her that only her insecurity can make her stray into the darkness."
"How do I do that?' asked Peter.
"You will know when the time comes but you must first put aside your bickering with her." was the cryptic answer. "You fear having a friend that understands the Shoalin side of you. You lost everyone that was near your age and understood that part of you when the temple was destroyed. Now that you have found someone again you fear it will happen again. It is both your destinies to learn from each other." And with the statement the apparition vanished into the sunlight.
As his Pop vanished Peter had to consciously put aside his father's last words as he headed to the cabin to save his friend from her own mother.
Peter had came up behind her and sensed the pain she was in. His Pop was right as usual; he did know what to do. He walked up to her and held her. Then Angel took over. She didn't want to hate or kill but she needed someone's help to get past her pain. So when Peter touched her she reached for his mind and drew it into herself. Once their minds had joined Peter began to help her find the peace and joy inside herself that was being driven away by the hate. Then he reminded her of her own beliefs. She could face anything as long as she kept her faith in The Powers That Be. She was a Brethren Warrior taught to protect with out becoming the enemy. If she killed her mother because of hate and the need for revenge she would become her mother.
"Peter, I'm going to be OK," she softly said as she released his mind. "Thank you."
"I know." he replied. Then he kissed her temple softly and released his hold on her body. "Let's get those losers before they spot us. I've got the right."
"I guess I got the left. Ladies first." said Angel. Then headed for the doorjamb and knocked. When the guard on the left turned towards the open door she drove the head of her cane into his chin. He fell backwards into the room hitting his head hard on the end table.
The guard on the right turned and pointed his gun to shoot but Peter meditated and the gun grew hot in his hands. When the guard yelled and dropped the gun. Peter grabbed him and pulled him outside. Once outside the man tried to hit Peter but Peter blocked it with no trouble. Then with one hit to the jaw the guard hit the ground unconscious.
"Well it's been a long time, Mother, " said Angel as she walked into the cabin over the body of the man she had just knocked out. "I wish I could say I missed you but I didn't. I always knew you were a self centered bitch, but I made myself forget what kind of monster you are."
Belladonna had turned from Karen to her daughter as she entered the room. She had ignored the fight but Angel's presence was another matter. With the guard down and the witch's attention on Angel, Karen now could act. She grabbed for the end table drawer and her gun. Once it was in her hand she threw her arm around Belladonna's neck and pressed the gun muzzle against her temple.
"If anyone at the Gables are hurt because of you I'm going to rip your heart out and you can watch me feed it to the seagulls." said Karen with conviction.
"Spoken like a true Griffin." said Angel. Then she checked that her guard was still breathing and threw her roll of duct tape to her Dad. "Tie him up please while I take a look at Striker."
"Before you do that release Todd." Kermit ordered as he first headed for the bathroom and the first aid kit. Then he would get around to tying up the guard. He wasn't going anywhere soon. Angel obeyed her father by hitting the same rose on the mantle he had and once again their heard the scrapping of metal beneath their feet.
"Todd can you hear me?" asked Karen loudly.
"Yes! And it is good to hear and see you again!" said a relieved voice over a hidden speaker. "Everything is OK at the Gables. They were just taking Striker's people to jail when I called. It seem that the Ancient knew they were coming and the police were waiting for them."
"Thank God." Karen sighed in relief. "How are you doing?"
"Bored! But I've figured out what I want for a tomb stone." Joked Todd.
"I'll get it for on your next birthday, Son and you can use it for a statue for now." Joined in Kermit while he handed Angel the first aid kit and turned his attention to his other job.
"How did she open the vault, Kermit?" asked Belladonna still being held by Karen.
"I said that it would take a Brethren to open it. Angel is a Brethren." answered Kermit. "I wouldn't move Belladonna I think she would love a reason to shot and she can handle a gun very well."
"You didn't kill him Dad. Came close but no cigar." commented Angel as she started to bandage the still unconscious man. "The bullet is still in there but it just missed the vital organs. The FBI is bringing paramedics with them and they'll take care of our friend here. Todd time to call in the cleanup crew."
"Consider it done, Sis," said Todd using Jim's nickname for Angel. "Then can I get out of this room?"
"Come join the party, Son." consistent Kermit.
Then trouble started again. One moment Karen was holding Belladonna by the neck with a gun to her head then she was holding nothing but air.
"Belladonna has Jim!" He yelled into the cabin before he began running toward the beach.
Kermit grabbed his gun out of the end table drawer and headed after him with Angel and Karen following. It only took a few minutes to find Belladonna and her son. Jim laid on the sand with a net over him and covered with spiders. Belladonna stood over him with a look of triumph while two of her women stood on either side of her with guns pointed at them. Kermit and Karen didn't give them time to shoot first. Both women hit the ground wounded before they could react.
"No!" screamed the witch looking down at the two women who were her favorites. "I'll make you pay for that Kermit, starting with your heir. He'll be dead soon Kermit and so ends The Griffin. Only the first born son can become The Griffin."
"That's a family myth. I am the new Griffin," said Todd as he joined the group.
Karen started to ask what was going on but one look at Peter shaking his head told her that her questions would have to wait. Peter moved closer to Jim and with a wave of his hand the spiders vanished with smoke and fire leaving only the net on Jim. Angel made the next move. She threw her cane at her mother and as it flew it became a cobra and rapped itself around Belladonna's neck and torso. The witch screamed with fear and vanished again leaving the cane laying on the beach next to Jim. Karen didn't have the time to comprehend what had just happened before everyone around her began to concentrate on saving Jim's life. Kermit tore the net off him and checked for a pulse. When he found none Angel and him began CPR.
"Peter can't you do anything?" asked Karen fearing that her husband was about to lose his son.
"No. Am just a Shoalin Priest not a Shambhala master." replied Peter feeling helpless to save his friend.
"Todd get the robe! It may be able to save him." Kermit ordered while he continued working on Jim.
Todd turned and ran for the altar and what lay within it.
"What is this robe that everyone is talking about?" Karen asked needing to do anything to keep from feeling so helpless.
"It's the Robe of Christ. This island is where it is kept and the Griffin family protects it." stated Peter. He gave her an outline of the story as they waited for Todd to return. He would leave it to Kermit to fill in the details.
Karen looked behind her hearing Todd returning at a dead run. At this moment his military training was paying off. He wasn't even winded has he tried to hand the robe to his father. Kermit wouldn't take it he just got up. The gauntlet had been passed. What ever needed to be done Todd had to do it. Angel stood up has Todd placed the robe on his brother and they all waited in silence for The Powers That Be to decide Jim's fate. Time seemed to stop as they waited.
Kermit stood with his arm around his daughter while his hand rested on Todd's shoulder. Peter had his hand on Karen's shoulder to comfort her and himself. Then Jim breathed and opened his eyes.
"Did you know that the angel of death doesn't carry a sickle?" Asked Jim as he looked up into their concerned faces. Everyone broke into laughter more from relief than Jim's joke.
Well it's done!! After finishing it I'm convinced that I'm going through a mid life crisis. It's taken me four months to write it but I've done what I've set out to do. I started and finished a fiction story. One more thing to cross off my list of things to do before I died.
I hope I haven't offended anyone at Warner Brothers (or anyone else)
and I thank them for the use of their characters.
Partners Now and Forever
Epilogue
The FBI and Coast Guard had come and gone. They left with prisoners and one wounded but alive leader but Belladonna had somehow escaped with one of the boats. Angel had said she would fax her written report to the president and everyone else who needed it, tomorrow. With company gone and the cabin cleaned up it was time to answer questions and deal with the emotional aftermath. Jim, Angel and Karen were physical fine but they had emotional wounds that didn't show.
Kermit and Jim were making supper, one that their had made many times before. Karen, Peter and Todd were sitting around the table talking about anything but what had happened today. Angel was on the phone in her bedroom filling in Charles on what had happened. Karen wanted desperately to call Marilyn and find out about Abby. If she did she couldn't help but want to talk to her baby and that wouldn't help Abby get over thinking of her as Mommy.
Angel walked into the room from her bedroom and was greeted by the smell of pizza and fries. She joined her brother and father in the kitchen to help serve. That and the clean up were about all they trusted her to do. There was little conversation outside of the cooks did a good job and the story of the first time Angel had gone to the resort town of Old Orchard Beach on the coast of Maine. She had been twelve and she had discovered two things how well pizza and fries go together and roller coasters. Now more than a decade later she had ridden almost every major roller coaster in the world and still loved pizza and fries. It was Karen who finally broke the silence about the day.
"Angel what is a Brethren and why is it that almost no one has hear of them?" she asked.
"A religion. We follow the teaching of Christ and we keep to ourselves because the world doesn't care for us much. They called us witches and used to burn us at the stake a lot." Was her answer.
"They don't burn witches any more. "Karen reminded her.
"We know that but we still would have to answer more questions then we care too." she said. With that statement Karen got the point that the subject was best dropped.
"What does the phrase The Powers That Be mean? And why do you carry a cane?" asked Todd continuing the interrogation missing the point that Angel had hinted at.
"It's both our way of saying God and tell other Brethren who we are. " said Angel. "The cane is my equalizer. I don't like to carry a gun and what I do for a living can put me up against some very dangerous people. It makes a very good weapon. Anyway I'm an amateur magician and a magician needs a magic wand. Karen ask what you really want."
"What happens to Todd?" She asked. She loved her husband and accepted him for what he was a man with a dark past but she didn't want their son to have a dark future.
"I promise you I won't let him become a mercenary." Kermit answered knowing what she was feeling. "He has to protect the robe and be there to protect the Brethren if they need him. My family and Brethren have shared in the protection of the robe for centuries. The family, in payment for their help, protects Brethren from the outside world. Because my ancestor won the robe he was told that he and his children had to spend their lives protecting it and the innocent. It was the price he paid for crucifying Christ. His family was trapped forever trying to stop the monsters of the world."
"I don't feel trapped." corrected Todd. "Dad someone has to stop the monsters and we have been chosen by God or destiny or want ever you want to call it to help do that. That not a trap that's an honor."
"You've remembered what happen with Pop in France haven't you? He told you about your family and what your destiny was?" asked Peter hearing his father thoughts in Todd's words. Todd nodded in an agreement. "Kermit, Todd's right someone does have to stop the monsters. Have you ever though about how many people would have died if your family hadn't been there to protect them.
"I know that we done some good but at what price to ourselves?" Kermit answered him remembering what he had been through in his life.
"Dad the things that happened in your life had more to do with your being over zealous. You hooked up with Balasdale and started looking for trouble instead of waiting to be asked to help. You always had to do things the hard way."
"Cracker barrel psychology by Angelique Griffin. " taunted Kermit. " Let's change the subject. It's getting morbid. Karen it's your turn to answer a question. What were you and Striker talking about before they took him away?"
"He asked me how I was so sure I was going to be your last wife." she began. "I told him that the only way you'd get a divorce from me would be if I got the Corvair."
"I think she's got you Dad?' Jim teased while the others laughed. Karen just sat there looking at him with raised eyebrows and a smile.
Kermit sat looking at her with mock outrage then he began to laugh, too. "When we are alone we'll have a long talk about the line you fed him about sunglasses and guns." Said Kermit for it was his turn to tease her.
"You mean the one about liking men who wear sunglasses and treat their women like their guns?" Blabbed Todd with the same raised eyebrows and smile his mother had just worn.
"Todd!" was all his mother could say.
"Well Captain, what is that suppose to mean?" asked Peter in surprise.
"My guess is something like respected, well care for and kept close." guessed Angel.
"There she goes again, playing physic." said Todd.
"I'm not physic that his forte." she said pointing at Peter. "Dad his first lessons are in logic. Todd I know how our father treats his gun and to be honest I think most women want their man to treat them that way."
"I think Todd's first lesson is how to treat women." joked Peter. "Or was that lesson for all the men in the room?"
"Well if everyone is done eating I've got to get this mess cleaned up," said Angel ignoring Peter's question.
"Don't worry about it. I know you need some time alone. Go change and I'll clean up." Volunteered Jim.
"Thanks, brother." said Angel has she got up and kissed him on the top of the head as she headed for her bedroom. Everyone was helping out with the clean up when Angel returned to the room. Kermit and Jim took no notice of what she was wearing but the rest were obviously surprised.
"Love the outfit." joked Peter. "That is what you wore at the monastery isn't it?"
"This is what everyone wears in the monastery." answered Angel commenting on the monk's habit she was wearing. "I wear it now when I having a formal conversation with my boss. I'll be back in a few hours."
"Does she ever take anything seriously?" asked Karen after her stepdaughter had left the cabin.
"Only when she has to." replied her stepson. "It will grow on you."
"Well are you going to join me or not?" questioned Angel from under her hood.
"Sure." he said as he sat down beside her in the sand. "I saw my Pop today, in a way. It was more like I saw his ghost."
"Astral projection."
"You're going scientific on me."
"Science is just someone else's magic."
"Who said that?"
"One of my instructors at the monastery. I was the only child there. That's why I enjoy the world so much. I go over board don't I?"
"Yes! You still look at things with the eyes of a child. Don't stop. The rest of us are jealous because we lost that somewhere along the way. You must have been lonely."
"Yes, for people my own age. Dad says that why I collect people, especially men. I've have a lot of men friends but that's all their are just friends. After the memories came back I realized why I've never felt anything but friendship for men."
"Angel you will get past that. You have a lot of people who care about you and can help. Especially me. When our minds touched I relived all those memories with you. Let me help."
"I hate what she did to Jim first abandoning him and then today almost killing him. I can sense his hatred for her as well as his need for her to love him. He needs my help.
"You have to help yourself first. Resolve your own problems then you can help your brother.">P>
"She made sex something horrible to me. I know in my mind that it's something beautiful but my heart won't forget what was done to me.
"You'll never forget but you can find the beauty with time. I'm here to help you. Just reach out."
Angel pulled back her hood and looked at Peter for the first time since he joined her on the beach. She needed no words, her eyes told everything she needed to say. He put his arms around her and she hid her face in his chest and began to cry. He sat holding her as she cried out the tears that had been locked away for so long. The tears stopped and Peter realized that she had cried herself to sleep. Gently he picked her up into his arms and carried her back to the cabin. One though was prevalent in his mind. Tonight he would find a way to stop any nightmares. She would have no monsters to fight tonight.
Karen awoke to him looking down on her with a faraway look in his eyes. There was a smile on his face, one he wore when he had something sexual up his sleeve. Just what did he has planned for today after the others had left, then she noticed the silence?
"Their gone, aren't they?" she asked without needing to truly have an answer.
"Yes." he replied and lowered his body on top on her to kiss her good morning. His kisses become more passionate as he began to caress her body
and she slowly began to return his passion. Their need for each other was too great to take off their nightclothes. They simply made love with them on.
They realized that this urgent need for each other had more to do with fear than
lust. The fear that the witch had taken part of their lives away when she tore Karen's memories from her mind. Neither of them had talked about the incident. They had buried the pain and fears inside themselves and just continued as if it hadn't happened. With their first kiss this morning all that they had buried came to the surface with a vengeance. Their reaction was to prove to themselves and each other that together they could get past it and back to being lovers again. Their lovemaking was like fireworks, explosive, beautiful and over almost as quietly as it was lit. It was after the explosion of passion that her anger and frustration took over and she began to sob in his arms. Anger and frustration that part of her life that should be private had been taken from her, forever. There was also joy in her tears. Joy that just memories had been taken not her desire for him.
Karen pulled herself out of Kermit arms and sat up. After she had wiped away the tears she turned to her man and saw the tears on his checks. She smiled at him while she wiped them away. Times like this made all the waiting she had done for him worth while. He was sharing part of himself that he shared with no one else. The part that could cry. This told her more that he loved her than all the words in the world. He sat up in bed next to her and rested his back against the backboard then pulled her into his arms again. They sat there like that for a time enjoying the closeness.
"Karen I have some idea of how you feel." He began. "I've been..."
"Love! You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to because you think it will make me feel better." she interrupted.
"I know that. My mother said that marriage is a partnership was it's more important that you share the pains of life than the joys. It's easy to share joy but if you can find someone whom you can share pain with as easily then you have a marriage. My mother lived to see my first marriage and she told me that I married for the wrong reasons. She also said it wouldn't last but if I give it enough time I would find you again."
"She knew about me?"
"No, but somehow she knew that I was in love with someone that I couldn't forget. Karen I wasn't raped the way you were but I was raped." He began and as he held her, he told her of his time in a prison in Afghanistan.
Angel slipped into the kitchen as she heard a key in the lock of the apartment door turn. Jim and Todd had returned to Maine to pick up the honeymooners and were returning with them from the airport. She listened as the foursome came in with the luggage and then the door shut behind them. So far Karen hadn't spoken so Abby wasn't aware that her Mommy was near. Angel was sure that once Karen spoke Abby would start crying for her. That was what she was waiting for.
"I though you said that your sister was working and would join us for dinner?" Asked Kermit spotting Angel's cane on his living room chair.
"She is." said Jim while putting down the luggage he was carrying. As he turned to look at his father he saw the cane in his hand and knew that the jig was up.
"Angel where are you and what are you up too?" asked Kermit in a very loud and demanding voice.
That was all Abby needed, she knew that voice. It was Daddy and she began to squirm and cry in Angel's arms. Karen heard the cry and like any mother she knew her own baby's voice.
"Abby." said Karen in a whisper not quite daring to believe what she was hearing. Then Angel rounded the corner with the squirming crying bundle in her arms. Angel handed Abby over to Karen and stepped back to take in the sight she had been waiting to see. Karen held the baby like she was a life vest to a drowning man. She kissed the baby's head as the Abby laid it on her chest. Then Abby gapped her blouse as if to say that I'm not letting you go again. Kermit just stood there with his glasses in his hand and his month open in wonder. Then he put down what was in his hands and walked over to his wife and baby to encircling them in his arms. With that Abby began to giggle with delight and grabbed for her favorite toy, his tie. Kermit ignored the fact that the baby was doing her best to choke him with his own tie as he covered both of them with kisses.
"Well it looks like they want her, brothers," said Angel with a grin "It's a good thing because she's theirs legally."
"What!" they both said at the same time.
"Angel, give us the whole story from the beginning but first are you saying that Abby is our to keep?" Said Karen a little afraid that this was too good to be true.
"She's all yours, Karen. Her last name became Griffin Friday." Said Angel trying to blink back the tears in her eyes.
"I'm telling the story. You won't tell it all." interrupted Jim. " As soon as we got back Angel headed for Miss Donovan's superior with Peter, Todd, and I in tow. She cornered that guy for three hours using the Griffin charm. It seemed that two attempts by mercenaries against Abby were too much for the Carters. They wanted nothing to do with her. Angel was very quick to point out that Abby most likely would be in that kind of danger the rest of her life if she weren't given the right protection. Who better to protect her than two police officers? After a lot of mental arm-twisting he saw the logic and agreed. We had help getting the matter rushed though the courts from the mayor and a judge friend of Caine's. You just have to sign the papers at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow morning and it with be totally legal."
"I don't know how to thank you." Said Karen to her stepdaughter.
"Well it may sound funny but if it wasn't for Striker and the Black Widows it never would have happened. It just goes to show that The Powers That Be can make something good out of something bad." Angel philosophized.
"Are you two up to more good news?" asked Jim but before he could say any more Angel's cellular phone rang.
While Angel was on the phone Todd had walked over to his mother. "Mom she's beautiful." he commented as he stroked his new baby sister's hair. "Do you want me to continue to play the part of Gregory Simms' son?"
"No!" she stated. "You make it clear on the island whose son you are and Gregory made it clear that he wants it that way. I'll tell my officers about Kermit and my past, tomorrow. I hope that you and Gregory can get past this for no matter what happens he did raise you as his son. I never mean to hurt him and at one time I loved him. I couldn't just be what he want me to be."
"I know Mom," he said trying to understand what happened between those three people so long ago and his feelings for them. "I will work it out with him, someday. I've left West Point and I'm starting college here in the fall. I'll be working for Griffin and Co. part time. Hope you don't mind having me under foot all the time?"
"We'll both love it." She said with joy at having her son back in her life again.
Kermit and Jim were standing with Angel listening to her end of the conversation on the phone. After she had put it back in her backpack she told them what was going on. "That was Albert. Griffin and Co. have it first mission from the President. We have neo-nazis with the makings of an atomic bomb in the middle of the Nevada Dessert. He wants us to clean up the mess with no publicity. He doesn't want the public frightened with the knowledge that a group of terrorist can get their hands on things like that. There'll be FBI agents to take the prisoners once we take them out, but until then we are on our own. "
"Not totally." said the voice of Peter from the door that no one had
heard open. He was just standing there with the Ancient.
"Congratulation, she is a sweet child and less trouble than her sister. Well are we going or not? Asked the Ancient. "Maybe if we get this done quickly we can catch a Las Vegas show.
"Only if your my date." answered Angel ignoring this shot at her. She was well aware that it was true.
"Bloody Marvelous." he replied with his usually spirit.
"Are you going to give me more information so I can help?" asked Kermit as they headed for the door.
"No. This time Dad we are on our own. You get your life together. When we get back we'll start working on getting Griffin and Co. really off the ground. Oh yes, we almost forgot. The three of us have decided to change our last names to Griffin, so I guess you're stuck with us." informed Angel as she headed everyone out the door, before her father had time to react.
Kermit just stood there staring at the door trying to take it all in. Karen didn't give him long to think for she handed him the baby and headed for the phone while giving him instructions on what to do as if they were back at the precinct. "I assume you have access to Griffin and Co.'s business plans. I want copies. I'm going to get everyone that the two of you hand pick to work for the company over here tonight. And I'm going to do my best as the company's new president to get them to sign on. By the time they get back here I'm going to have this company up and running."
"You've made up your mind? When?" asked Kermit a little over whelmed. When he had told her all of Angel's plans for Griffin and Co. and that they both wanted her to run it she had only said that she need time to think it over.
"When Angel handed me my baby. It's going to be easier to be a mother to Abby running Griffin and Co. than being Captain of the101st and any way it is one hell of a career move. Kermit the honeymoon was a wonderful fantasy, but it's time to start our new lives. I know that most people will say I crazy but to think that I wouldn't be working side by side with you anymore doesn't sound right. I know that like Peter you can't stay at 101st anymore. Your kids, no our kids, need you helping them. So I'm going with you. It's called Griffin and Co. isn't it and I'm a Griffin now, aren't I?"
"Oh. Yeah." was all he said as he headed for his computer, with the baby in his arms happily playing with his tie.
The End.
Only A Woman Like You
Sometimes a man he falls so hard
CHORUS:
Oh, isn't if funny how when times are bad you
BRIDGE:
Copyright 1971. Blendingwell Music, Inc. (ASCAP)
" No Todd the object is defense not aggression." Said Peter Caine for maybe the tenth time. " Man they got you trained well, but I'm afraid that what I'm teaching is to protection.
"Angelique, the children loved the show." said Dr. Sabourin. "But they did miss your brother."
***
"Lo Si, why aren't we going in?" asked Peter.
The emergency van pulls up at the side door of the hospital without the sound of sirens. To the casual observer it would look like the attendant had forgotten some supplies and were just making a quit stop to get them. Inside the van four men dressed all in black crouched, and faces covered my ski masks with automatic guns ready. Only the driver was dressed as one would expect but next to him were a ski mask and an automatic as well. The diver slipped the mask on and grabbed the gun. After hitting the side of the van once to tell the others that the coast was clear he headed into the building. Quietly and casually the four masked mercenaries followed him up the stairway to the second floor and the nursery, where they were excepted. Angel sat at the desk pretending to be going over patient files, looking as if she was unaware of the men coming up behind her. She was very aware of them, she knew their number, and she even knew one of them my name. Striker's second in command, Braden. After allowing herself one sly simile, before she turned and began her act.
Karen began to stir in Kermit's arms, as they lay asleep on the rug in front of the fireplace. With a scream she bolted up, then sat trembling trying to remember were she was. Looking around she noticed that the only light in the room was from the embers in the fireplace and the stereo that had been left on. Kermit was sitting beside her now brushing her hair from her face and pulling her trembling, naked body close to his.
Part 2
After Chief Frank Strenlich had checked out the five prisoners in the emergency room he headed to the second floor to hear what had gone on there from Peter Caine. He knew that most of the precinct gang, as Kermit liked to call them, was already they're giving Peter and his friends the third degree. Mercenaries were trying to kidnap a baby out of hospital. Why? He had gotten no where with any of his questions to the five men. Their only reply was, "I want a
Lawyer". Dr. Sabourin had hinted that he might find some answers on the second floor. His police instinct told him she knew more then she said, but she was far to busy for him to question further.
Part 3
Angel had to change her timetable. Her and her three companions would be spending the night in Jim's plane instead of their beds. It was the same plane that had taken Kermit and Karen to Maine only that morning. Now it would be heading back before dawn. The discovery of the fact that the Black Widows were behind Striker had moved up Angel's time schedule a few hours. Jim listened to the time change then headed back for a nap in one of the two small bedrooms in the rear. He was exhausted for he hadn't slept since the nap he took before the prewedding party. He couldn't help but think that the last 24 hours had been one hell of a ride as his head hit the pillow. The all night bash at Dalencey's, the wedding at sunrise, the round trip plane ride to and from Maine, and then stopping kidnappers at the hostipal. That's life with his sister, if she isn't riding roller coasters she is making their lives into one. His last thought before he fell off to sleep was, just which bedroom did the honeymooners use.
Karen stood before the bedroom mirror bushing her hair has she watched Kermit dressing behind her. Black jeans and black sweater, the color was right but that was all. Gone was his usual uniform of black suit, white skirt with a pocket full of pens, and a narrow tie. She liked him in jeans and he knew it. She stops looking at the body and started studying the face. He was happy and sad just as she was. Losing Abby was the only dark cloud in what should be a perfect time, for both of them.
Peter and Todd had spent what was left of the night talking. Todd was trying to sort out his feelings about his new family while Peter was doing the same about his girlfriend leaving him. It had been four months now but the pain and questions were still there. Jordan couldn't handle his life as a Shoalin priest. His vanishing because someone needed his help, the constant demands on his time by so many people, but mostly she couldn't handle his grief over his father leaving him again. Peter had asked himself a million times if he could have done more to help her understand and accept his new life, or did he let her go because he couldn't love her enough. Sometimes he wonders if he could ever love a woman enough to make a real commitment to her.
"Angelique are what are we doing?" asked Peter angry with her as usual. The foursome was sitting around an outside table in for the time being, quiet restaurant in Bar Harbor, Maine. They had just finished a long breakfast that Angel had insisted they take time for. Peter had spent the first part of the meal complaining until Jim grabbed him by the collar and told him to shut up.
"Kermit if anyone had said that this is where we would end up when I became your Captain I would have said they were crazy." stated Karen as they lingered over their after breakfast coffee. "I had convinced myself that I was over you and that we had changed to much to go back to those feelings."
"Well just what is this fantasy of yours?" Karen asked once he had placed her on the floor of the bedroom.
For almost an hour the foursome walked the streets of Bar Harbor. The streets were just beginning to wake up, with shops being opened, cars going by, and tourist starting to walk the streets with the four would be rescuers. Peter was worried if Angelique's timetable was off they could arrive too late. If Striker wanted three boats he was bringing a small army to take the island. The plan that Angelique had formed hinged on them getting there first with time to prepare. How did she know that Kermit and Karen needed this morning? She was a Brethren Warrior. How well could she read the future and after that snake trick this morning just how many tricks did she have up her sleeve? As they walked Peter began to force himself to remember what his father had taught him about the Brethren. Then he remembered something about a legend, a Brethren legend about their protectors. One for every generation known only as The Griffin. Was Kermit's last name just a coincidence?
After their passion for each other was spent, the lovers left the cabin for the first time in almost 24 hours. They walked the beach barefooted hand in hand; neither needed to speak just being together was enough. Karen had never taken the time for walks on beaches. With a son away at school most of the time and Kermit lost to her, walks on the beach meant nothing. Walking on this beach meant something to Kermit though. She could imagine him and his kids walking, playing, and making sand castles here. She had seen some of this side of Kermit while she watched him take care of Abby. The memory brought her pain but no matter how much pain she refused to give up the memories of her time with Abby. They were worth the pain. The happiness that Abby had brought into her life, even for so short a time, had made it worth the price.
Part 4
"Dad. Peter, Jim, and I can take care of welcoming our guests. I think Karen and Todd need you right now." Said Angel as she pointed to the scene behind him. "Dad, he knows!"
"Welcome to the control room." Said Angel to Peter as they entered a door off the helicopter pad. Peter wondered if he had entered a filming of the new James Bond movie. The room looks like a scaled down version of NASA's mission control room right down to an electronic map of the world on the wall. One thing made it clear that NASA or the British Secret Service had nothing to do with this place. In one corner of the room was a life size statue of the Archangel Michael with a real sword and shied in his hands and before him was an altar. His Pop at the temple had taught him about the Brethren and their Warriors and how they would look for guidance from Saint Michael. The angel what had driven Lucifer out of heaven.
*
"Well I guess it's a good time to do the dishes." Said Karen once Kermit and her were back in the living room of the cabin. They had never gotten around to taking care of the aftermath of breakfast. Other things had taken precedent. Karen didn't like the position she was in and she need something to keep her mind off what was going to be happening soon. "Kermit, tell me the truth can we really handle this with just the six of us?"
Peter, Jim, and Angel had divided up at the grotto entrance and each headed for one of the three beaches that the boats were landing at. Jim got the beach with the first landing. There was a dingy fill of men already there when he arrived. He laid in the dune grass like a cat waiting for it's prey and watched as the men deployed. There were six of them that headed out into the island's interior while a seventh headed the small dingy back to the lobster boat. They fanned out to cover as much ground as possible and the one at the far right was headed right for Jim. As the man walked past him, not suspecting his presence, Jim reached out and hit him in the knees with the stick he had in his hand. The prey fell on his face in agony but it was short lived for his captor brought the club down of the back of his head sending him to peaceful unconscious. Jim made sure that the others had seen nothing and then he tied his prey up with the duct tape using the grass as cover. Once this was done he headed for his next victim using the dune grass again for cover. Number two and number three were taken out with much the same method and just as easily. Jim hoped that Peter and Angel were doing as well.
Karen had volunteered to wash the dishes and as she began to fill the sink she watched her man prepare for their company. He pulled open the drawer of the end table nearest the door and pulled out two matching Dessert Eagle handguns. He then made sure that they were in working order and then returned them to the drawer. Then he moved his green shades from the mantle to the same end table. Her mind wandered back to the party and her gift from Angelique and Jim. Most of the presents were elaborate jokes and this one wasn't an exception. It was a Desert Eagle handgun to match Kermit's. His present from them had been a pile of books on love, romance, and understanding women. Someone had asked him he was going to bring them along on the honeymoon for reference. Kermit jokingly replied yes and that she was going to bring her new gun along so he could show her how to use it. Then some how both presents had mysteriously showed up in their luggage. Now it looked like she was going to get her first lesson the hard way.
In the control room Todd had been watching what was going on in the cabin. At first he was unafraid and sometime amused by how his parents were handling their uninvited guests. That changed! Belladonna never said it openly but it was obvious that she knew they were there. They had been tricked here so she could get at the robe and kill them. But before Todd had time to relay the information to the others he heard Kermit's last order. Then watched as metal doors drop down to seal him in and then his monitors went blank. He tried to reach the others but communication was dead as well.
"Todd! Todd!" called Peter trying to contact his young friend but all he heard was silence. "Angel what has happen to Todd?"
Peter rounded a boulder and stopped in shock. On the path in front of him was his Pop. His form was ghostly transparent like smoke. Things were going from bad to worse or his Pop wouldn't be here.
Angel arrived at the cabin only moments after the shot rang out just in time to hear their female antagonist's plans for Karen. What kind of monster was this woman? Then Angel recognized her. That woman was her mother. Then the memories that she had buried for so long came to the surface. The strangers, the noises, people touching her, candles, smells, and mostly memories of being alone in a room for hours hungry and scared. She held her head as if to force the memories back inside again. Then the hate surfaced! At that moment she wished she carried a gun like her father so she could kill the monster and the memories with it. She didn't need a gun she would kill it with her own hands. Then she felt arms around her and her mind reached out to touch the mind of a friend.
Peter had been standing at the door watching what was going on inside the cabin. He remembered the old saying about a family that plays together stays together. All he could think of was that the Griffin family had added their own twist to that old saying. Then it dawned on him where was Jim? He should be here by now he thought as he turned to see if he was coming. Then he heard Karen give a small cry. When he turned back to the cabin's interior and saw that Belladonna had vanished from Karen's grasp. Then his Shoalin alarm when off in his mind. Jim was in trouble. He was dying.
Epilogue
Angel sat on the beach with the hood of her monk's habit pulled over her head and her arms warped around her legs. Her bare feet stuck out from under the habit, the only part of her you could see. Peter just stood there watching her for a sometime remembering their minds touching. He could still feel her in his mind like a sound you can barely hear. Background noise like birds or running water, soft and soothing. If someone had told him yesterday or even this morning that he would like have her in his mind he never would have believed them. He knew that it would fade soon but until then he would listen to her joy of life that echoed in a back corner of his mind and relishes it.
When Kermit awoke in the morning he knew that Karen and him were alone. Silence filled the cabin, no movement of people outside of their room and no feeling of the presence of others. He looked towards the alarm clock on the nightstand to see that it was nearly 11:00 o'clock. He guessed that they had left hours ago without waking them and Angel somehow made sure that Karen and him slept thought their leaving. He turned back to his wife. What to surprise her with today? Then it dawned on him, the cove, it was protected from the sea and totally private. A picture formed in his mind of her sunbathing on that tiny beach with nothing on but the suntan lotion he had put on her. Then he let his imagination take over.
"Well Pumpkins, Mommy and Daddy are going to be here any minute now," said Angel to the six-month-old baby she was holding. "It's time for you and me to hide. "
In the first part of my story I mention a song by Cashman & West. For those who never heard of it, here are the lyrics.
And he brakes at the seams and he comes apart
He'd rather stay down than
Get up and fall sown again
Then out of the night
An angel appears and
She picks him up
And dries his tears, she walks by his side
And she's there when he needs a friend.
Who takes a dyin' man
And makes him feel alive again
When it looks like nothin' can
Who takes world of rain
And brings the sweet sun again
A miracle wouldn't do
Only a woman like you
How I need a woman like you
Only a woman like you.
Only look back at the troubles you had
And now it seems like they never were there at all
Now tomorrow is what it' all about
'Cause I know when I stumble
You'll catch me before I fall.
Oh, don't I love you so
Oh, don't I need you
How I want you to know.
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