Dominic came up behind Kyra so quietly that
she jumped when his hand touched her shoulder and she dropped the piece of
paper.
“Oops! I’m sorry kiddo, didn’t mean to scare
you.” He said as he was reached out for
the crumpled paper that she dropped. She bent quickly to grab it before him but
then got distracted by movement from Skye. Her mother was calling her and that
was more important so Dom got to it first. Reluctantly she gave up for the
moment thinking he wouldn’t understand it either or he just wouldn’t look at it
and move on. Kyra went to her mother who was still on the floor but sitting up
now and drinking a glass of water as one of the paramedics removed the blood
pressure gauge from her arm.
Dominic wasn’t going to unfold the paper
that Kyra dropped at first. He was just going to toss it on the table until he
caught something out of the corner peeking out from the crumpled edges. There
was a slight hesitation in his hands before he opened it as if he knew what it
was going to be. The feeling of familiarity settled over him like a blanket and
once he decided that he was going to invade his niece’s privacy he did so with
a sad heart if this turned out to be what he thought it was. As he unfolded the
edges he did his best to keep the look of dread from his face. Once he
unravelled the single white piece of paper and saw what was written upon it his
thoughts took a more serious survey of what had happened this morning.
His eyes moved from Skye across the faces
of all of the children standing protectively near her. Cyrus being the man of the house and nodding
in the places where the EMT’s told him he had to watch for things, Savannah
trying to get the EMT to take her blood pressure and Kyra wrapped in her
mother’s arms and was the only one watching him. She had seen him open the
crumpled mess of paper. He was pretty sure she had no idea what it meant but he
could tell in her face that she knew it was important. He all but confirmed
that for her now by his stone cold reaction to what he held in his hands. Dom
gave her a slight nod and turned quickly to head out the glass door to the
backyard and see Chase.
He was moving so quickly that he stumbled
over a loose board that was kicked up in the deck but he recovered quickly
without losing a step. The noise startled Angel who was concentrating so
intently on the pepperoni ends that were coming her way and Kona briefly registered
that someone was behind him shown only by how he tilted his head and scented
the air before returning his attention to the human with salty goodness as he sat
patiently in front of Chase waiting for more pepperoni to make an appearance.
Chase smiled at the sudden clumsiness of
his boss and pushed himself off from the railing to stand his full height of 6’
2’’ in respect of this same boss he learned to pick out his tells so that he
was on the same page with Dom’s emotions. It didn’t take long to see that as
Dom got closer he seemed more than agitated and that was never a good thing.
“Is Skye ok?
Did something else happen?” he asked quickly.
Dom stopped, turned towards the door with a look of momentary confusion almost
forgetting why they were there in the first place and turned back to Chase.
“Um…No, she’s fine.” He glanced at the door
again and this time when he turned back to Chase he held out the crumpled paper
to him. “She’s fine, for now anyway.” He walked over to one of the deck chairs
and sat down across from Chase in one of them, put his elbows on his knees and
head in his hands.
Chase opened up the mangled page and saw
the three symbols staring at him. His head came up quickly and his eyes also glanced
towards the door. His head tilted back looking up at the sky made him feel
helpless and small in the universe. Chase now understood the look in Dom eyes and
knew that things were going to change again. They will lose another member of
the family and have three kids to raise on top of it. “When?” he asked, “How
long has she had this?” He paused again “How long has she had HER?” his voice was
rising, getting more agitated.
“Shhhh…” Dom said seemingly calmer and more
controlled than when he had first come outside. “Kyra had this and dropped it
but,” He looked around the yard and continued, “I don’t think she knows what she has yet.” He took a deep breath
and sat up straighter.
Chase finished his last thought for him out
loud. “That’s why this happened.” And Dominic shrugged and said
matter-of-factly, “Maybe, although we have seen this way too many times to
think it’s a random occurrence and NOT know what this is.” Dom turned his gaze
back to the family in the kitchen that were now saying goodbye to the EMT’s. He
assumed that Skye flat out refused to go to the hospital against the
recommendation of the professionals.
Both men pulled themselves together and got
over their initial shock rather quickly and settled into a damage control mode.
“Where is she?” Chase asked carefully. “I can get rid of her before it’s too
late.” This time when Dominic looked at the door Kyra was standing there right
up close staring at them. I quick thought raced through his head ‘That’s kind of creepy.’ He promptly
squashed it.
He sighed and shook his head before he replied,
“I think it’s too late for that son. I think Skye has already engaged without
even knowing it and that door is open now.”
His eyes locked back onto Kyra and thought of Deacon. They needed him
for this.
Kyra
opened the door and the two men watched her carefully but she felt like she
needed to be there…with them…she could feel that they knew something and she
wanted to know too. It wasn’t just morbid curiosity that had her wondering what
was going on. She could feel in every muscle and see it in every twitch that
something big was happening…she just couldn’t ask. She stepped slowly and
cautiously towards them almost shyly until Dominic waved her over and patted
the chair beside him.
She picked up her pace and sat down quickly
before they could change their minds about her being there. Chase held
out the symbols to her. “Do you know what these are?” He asked her. Kyra shook
her head and turned to Dominic as he spoke next. “Do you know where it came
from?” Again she shook her head but then she stood up, walked over to the glass
door once again and pointed inside. Dom, Chase and the two dogs in tow followed
her and followed the direction she was pointing in. Once they saw her pointing
at the White Oak Box sitting on the table they knew they were too late.
“Fuck,” Dom cursed and gave an
apologetic shrug to Kyra. He ran a massive hand through his dark hair. “It’s
time to call a family meeting.” He said to Chase without taking his eyes off of
the white box. “Get Maury to make the calls and let them know they’re all back
on duty…vacation time is over.” Kyra didn’t understand why the stress level was
ramped up after her mom was ok and that piece of paper seemed to make them even
more stressed out but she watched Chase immediately go through the house and
did what Dominic wanted.
After Chase
disappeared through the door Dom looked down at the beautiful little girl in front of him and
put his hand on Kyra’s shoulder. “Do you want to hear a story kiddo?” He asked
and she nodded emphatically.
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