The Orphans Series Vol. 1: The Orphans (12 page)

             
"But, sir! He's still alive! What do you want us to do with him?"

             
"Well, how about we wait for him to wake up and see if we can't have one of our bored Ranger boys misplace one of their forty-five caliber hollow points in the back of patient A's skull? Good work you two! Keep it up! It's too bad about Moffenberg." The Major was already counting him for dead. He turned on his heel and walked directly out of the small hospital ER unit.

             
Dr. Michaels finished typing up his notes and peered over at Christophers. "You think we'll get a promotion?"

             
"I think we'll go to hell! Would you look at him? He has all but about ten percent of his bones broken!"

Chapter 9

Day -120: January 31
th
, 2017 World Population 7,345,131,375

              Shaun followed Ellie in the doorway and closed it behind them. Ellie looked at the array of red movie boxes, and reviewed the selection. "Shaun this is awesome! How'd you get so many good ones on a Friday?"

             
Shaun came back in with the pizza boxes and two giant cups filled to the brim with pop. He was losing confidence with his balancing skills and murmured. "Pop, pop, get the pop! Gonna lose the pop!"

             
Ellie tapped her chin and let Shaun sweat a second longer before helping him. "Which one did you spike, young Mr. Fox?"

             
Shaun winked without missing a beat. "Spiking them? What are you talking about? I spiked them both, of course!"

             
Ellie grabbed both drinks and set them down. She set up the blu ray player, disappeared into the kitchen, and returned with napkins and plates. Shaun looked at her as he hadn't for a second considered getting those when he was in there.

             
Ellie looked over at Shaun. "Do you think tonight's the night?"

             
Shaun shook his head. "I hope not. I could eat like this every weekend. Maybe he'll chicken out tonight."

             
"He doesn't really seem like the chickening out type."

             
"He isn't.... It's not in his DNA."

             
"So is that why your dad beat you to telling me about how you feel about me, or are you lacking that gene?"

             
Shaun about choked on his pizza and stared, wiping his face and lips. "He just didn't know I had you stowed away in my room! I was waiting 'til the right time! Besides, you do remember that you weren't interested, right?"

             
Ellie took a deep breath and a drink of her pop. She met Shaun's eye. "You expect me to know what I want at all times? It's not like I can't change my mind."

             
Shaun got as tight as a knot. He couldn't believe this might actually be happening. He wanted to grab the words back after he let them slip from his lips. "What about my dad and your mom? They're intending on making the two of us related!"

             
Ellie shrugged and scooted closer to Shaun, wrapping her delicate arms around his neck. "Well, he hasn't done it yet." With that said she leaned into him, and gave him the first soft wet kiss of his young life.

             
Shaun's eyes grew large and then closed them and let his worries melt away. He rested his hands on her sides because he wasn't sure what else he was allowed to do with them. She broke away smiling, looking down and a little embarrassed. "Well, Mr. Fox, what did you put in that drink?"

             
Shaun smiled, turning red. "I think you came here this evening to seduce me!"

             
"We'd best watch some of these movies in case your dad quizzes you later."

             
Shaun smiled, picking up his dinner, and thought this was only the beginning and whatever comes of it he'll take.... This could be the best year of his life.

Chapter 10

Day -118: February 1st, 2017 World Population 7,345,344,345

              The next morning, Karen rolled over and rubbed her hand up Frank's smooth chest. Frank reached for her hand. "Good morning," he whispered.

             
She sat up on her elbow brushing her hair from her face. "How'd you sleep?" She looked at the alarm clock on the nightstand. "I can't believe we slept to nine!"

             
Frank's eyes popped open and he sat up straight in a panic. "We never picked up Ellie! I hadn't meant for us to fall asleep!"

             
Karen sighed and slipped out of bed knowing just as well they were in it deep. She was already up and sliding on a pair of jeans and looking for a shirt. Frank redressed in his clothes from the night before--everything that was crisp was now full of wrinkles having been thrown on the floor in the heat of the moment.

             
Karen checked her phone and blushed. "We are so busted! Listen to this message from Ellie...."

             
"
Hi, mom. Thank you for picking me up last night.... Oh, wait! You went home without me and never picked me up! Hugs and kisses.... Don't worry--we have plenty of movies, food, and drink to keep us entertained and out of trouble for the rest of the night.
"

             
Frank was fumbling with buttons on his shirt. "You don't think they got into any trouble do you, Karen?"

             
"I don't know. Do you trust two teenagers in the same house overnight with no adult supervision?"

             
Frank quit fumbling with the buttons and collected the items that had fell onto the floor. Karen, who had nothing to pack, was almost ready. She hit the remote start on Frank's pickup to get the snow covered windshield thawed. He got his last shoe on and they loaded into the truck. If it wasn't for how his son felt about Ellie, he wouldn't have been worried in the least.             

             
"What will we tell the kids?"

             
Frank replied, "You really think they'll ask?"

             
Karen's face went red thinking of Ellie and her missing gene which made her modesty filter sometimes very hard to control. "Well, I hope you aren't the shy type. She's only thirteen and I'm sure that she'll only get worse."

             
Frank frowned as they came up to a stop sign. "How is that supposed to make me feel better!?"

             
Karen shrugged. "Hell, if I knew it was more of a statement than anything, to tell you the truth, it didn't really make me feel much better, either."

             
Frank fishtailed skidding into the driveway just waiting to be shoveled. Karen, for the life of her, wasn't sure what she was so nervous about. Ellie had told her it wasn't an issue, but Karen knew as well that teenage girls were anything but decisive about what and who they liked.

             
Frank and Karen parked in the driveway and tried as quietly as possible to enter the house without waking up the teens. Their attempts at being quiet ensured they had hit every creak the old house had in it. They heard the television on and peered around the corner at the living room and saw Ellie's and Shaun's heads poking out from the couch.

             
They were staring intently at a movie which neither of them knew. Ellie shouted above the film, "We'd better get dressed and put your dads booze away before they get home...!"

             
Karen, in a tone only a mother could possess, yelled, "Ellie Gene Randall! You had better, for the sake of your own life, be kidding or so help me I will--"

             
Both teens leapt to their feet dancing around pointing at their parents. "Francis," Shaun mocked, "do you have any idea what time it is! You missed curfew by about nine hours young man! Why Ellie and I have been worried sick about you two! Don't you two know how to use a phone? It's why we let you have one for the love of God!"

             
Frank and Karen just stared at the overly dramatic, and completely dressed, flailing teens. Shaking their heads, they walked to the kitchen where the echoes of teen laughter followed them. Frank pulled out the coffee and a fresh filter and started brewing a strong giant pot. Karen saw how strong he was making it and inquired, "Apparently, you're hoping that you don't blink the rest of the weekend, huh?"

             
Frank looked around the corner of the kitchen. "If people thought I was a workaholic before, I'm going to give it a new definition. I'm going to have Rogers, my assistant, help me with this. The research will be too much to do on my own--too important. If you need me I'll be there in a heartbeat, but I'll be working non-stop. I'm going to find my journals and get a plan together to modify the experiment to work. The basic structure that we had in Iraq is the key. It's the key to everything. I need you to stop in today--it will be less strange having you in there on a Saturday, and I'll make sure Rogers isn't around."

             
"What do you need me to do, and why is it that Rogers can't be there?"

             
"I need blood samples. It's what we need to fix. If we can get your CBC back up to what it should be, then we will know it's working."

             
Karen came up behind and hugged him. "Good! For a second I thought you wanted my help. I was going to remind you I'm in accounting, not research and development."

             
Shaun entered the kitchen rubbing his hair. "Developing what dad? Did they give you a new assignment at work?"

             
Frank stammered and nodded. "Yes, Shaun. I need to get to work on it right away. They have a real tight timeline they're pushing me on. Supposedly our company isn't the only one that wants to get this out on the market before summer."

             
Shaun shrugged, disinterested already. "So you're saying it's the same as usual, huh?"

             
Frank grabbed his thermos filling it to the brim. He thought about what Shaun said. "This one is pretty important son. I need you to give me a little leeway on this one, okay?"

             
"Shaun," Karen interjected, "he told me about it last night, and this is the kind of thing that E&T should have been working on for years."

             
Ellie saw this was going to get ugly quick if Shaun and his dad started fighting about being gone all the time. She looked around for a topic changer, and was practically hit in the face by the new diamond and gold ring on her mom's hand. She screamed, drawing everyone's attention and pointing at it. Shaun saw it and his shoulders sunk--something Frank didn't miss. Ellie hugged her mom. "Apparently, you had a reason to go out last night and celebrate!"

             
Karen smiled, hugging her back. "Thanks, honey. It would seem that we're going to be one big happy family."

             
"We're not rushing anything," Frank added. "We wanted to make sure to give you two time to adjust."

             
Shaun's face was turning three shades of red. He was feeling sick to his stomach and thinking that his start to things getting better was short-lived. He sat on the couch looking at the messy living room from the night before, and decided it was probably best to get things picked up.

             
Frank offered to drive the girls home. He took his box from the attic which had his military medical journals with detailed notes in it with him, along with the coffee. After the drive, he walked the girls up to their front door.

             
Ellie grinned. "Now, don't you kids sit out here kissing all day! Karen has got a ton of chores and homework to do if she wants to go to the sock hop tonight!"

             
Karen turned around peering at her daughter. "You aren't even close to the right decade, smart ass! Get inside! And I'm not
that
old!"

             
Frank gave her a long passionate kiss and an even longer hug, and whispered, "I love you more than anything." He took a deep breath and continued, "... And I'm going to save you. I know it."

             
Karen squeezed his arm and felt a small amount of relief for the first time since getting the news a week ago. "I know you will."

             
Frank smiled again. "Why don't you catch a shower and get something to eat, and meet me at the lab as soon as you can? I need blood work to be able to start, but take your time. I have hours of reading ahead of me. I'm going to have to bring Rogers completely up to speed as well."