The Predator

By

Linda Delaney & Jane Daffron

 

‘It is my opinion, that when a predator is hunting, the prey will be selected from
whatever is available at the time that the predator happens to be hunting!’
Unknown Author

"Sometime," Ned remarked to Henry one morning as they were preparing to go to work, "I should like to write about what things cost.”
"Too bloody much!" his friend growled…
Morgan Llywelyn, 1916

 

 

William A. Judd looked at his image in the mirror. He knew that he was a striking man. He believed that he was a good looking man. Tall and athletic, at 6’5, he commanded attention when he walked into a room. His frame was lean and muscled, indicating his almost slavish devotion to his daily ten mile runs, and workouts in his personal gym. His silver white hair, piercing gray-green eyes, and tanned complexion made people take notice of him, after they looked his way once.

He smiled at himself when he analyzed how he attracted women. To say that some threw themselves at him would be an understatement. When he entered a room, they literally flocked around him, some of them subtle, and some of them very forward. Either way, no woman that he wanted had ever walked away from him. Of course, his money and his position in the First American Militia didn’t hurt him. That alone was enough to attract a certain type of woman, the kind that he liked to have around him. He ran a comb through his hair a final time, and went out to his waiting limousine.

"Rico, take me to the Nelson Institute. I have an appointment with Admiral Nelson, and Admiral Crane. A long standing appointment…and when we get there, I am William Peter Ashcroft, of William Peter Enterprises!"

 

 

A black stretch limousine pulled up to the security booth at the Nelson Institute of Marine Research. The driver rolled down the window.

"Mr. Ashcroft to see Admiral Nelson and Admiral Crane." He presented a sheaf of papers, and was handed two VISITOR badges, and given directions to the Administration Building,

"You’re expected, sir," the Guard offered. No thanks were returned, instead the driver simply rolled up the window and drove onto the Institute grounds. He pulled up to the Administration building, and got out and held the door for his employer. Several men and women looked as Ashcroft casually strolled up the stairs to the main door of the Institute.

He entered the lobby, and security sent him towards Nelson’s office. He knocked and entered the outer office. Angie looked up and smiled at the imposing visitor.

"Mr. Ashcroft? Admiral Nelson is waiting for you. Admiral Crane had been delayed. He’ll be here in about 15 minutes, if you would like to go into Admiral Nelson’s office now."

He gave her a broad and friendly smile, "I would like to meet Nelson first if you don’t mind, and get started with the meeting. There are a number of things that I would like to discuss with Admiral Nelson alone."

Angie smiled at the tall man, and clicked her intercom. "Admiral, Mr. Ashcroft is here, sir. Admiral Crane will be here in about 15 minutes."

"Very well, Angie. Show Mr. Ashcroft in."

Angie rose, and led the way to the door to Nelson’s office. She tapped lightly, and opened the door.

"Admiral Nelson, Mr. Ashcroft." She closed the door as Ashcroft entered the office…

 

 

Ashcroft strode into the room, and walked right over to the massive mahogany desk that Nelson was standing behind. He moved quickly, and was at the front of the desk in a few quick strides. Nelson rose and extended a hand to the tall man, and then gestured to a chair.

"My apologies, Mr. Ashcroft. Admiral Crane had an emergency on the Seaview, and he’ll be a bit late. He was bringing our computer specialist with him, so there’ll be a slight delay."

"No problem, Admiral. It will give us time to get acquainted, and I’ll be able explain to you what I need from your Institute…"

 

 

Sometime later, Admiral Lee Crane, and Caitlin Davis Crane came into the outer offices of the Institute. The Admiral had a hand somewhat protectively at his wife’s elbow. "Are you okay with this, Little Girl?" he asked her pensively.

"And why wouldn’t I be okay? So he owns one of the largest electronics firms in the country, and he sits on the board of seven corporations, four of whom help fund the Institute. And so what if he can call on anyone in the world to do his computer work…and he called on me! … Me, nervous, what ever gave you that idea, Admiral?" She stood on tiptoe and gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek. "Seriously, Lee, I’m fine… this kind of man doesn’t impress me, all that I have to do is the job that he wants me to do, and if it helps you, HN and the Institute, then so be it!! You know that I’ll do the best that I can, and that I’m pretty damn good at what I do!"

Lee smiled down at his wife. "I know that! Admiral Harriman Nelson only hires the best! And we all know that Caitlin Davis Crane is the best computer designer/programmer on the West Coast!!!… Now…shall we go in and meet the Illustrious Mr. Ashcroft"

She again stood on tip-toe, took hold of his jacket lapel and pulled him down toward her slightly, and kissed him soundly. "Actually, I’d rather be home with you, Admiral Crane, but I guess we have to keep HN happy…" she sighed, "He does sign the paychecks after all!"

"You’d better not tease me like that, Mrs. Crane, or I may just do something that you’ll regret, right here in front of all these people that you work with," he laughed. She simply smiled brightly back at him, almost mischievously.

"C’mon, my dear heart, let’s get this over with!!" She linked her arm in his, and they walked into Nelson’s office. They looked at Angie, who beamed back at the two of them.

"They’re waiting for the two of you. Go on in!"

Angie smiled to herself, shaking her head, "Married all these years, and they still behave like newlyweds!"

 

 

Harriman Nelson and William Ashcroft were deep in discussion when Lee and Caitlin entered the office. Nelson looked up and grinned, "Well...it’s about time the two of you got here! William here has been most patient waiting."

Ashcroft stood, and Caitlin was slightly taken aback by the physical presence of the man. He was a good four inches taller than Lee. He was lean, and his silver hair coupled with gray-green eyes, made him an extremely attractive man. Yet there was something very disturbing about him too. He made Caitlin feel...uneasy. In fact, she hadn’t felt this way since her very first encounter with Joel McKenna many years ago. She shivered slightly as he reached for Lee’s hand, and Nelson made the introductions.

"Lee.... William Ashcroft. William, my Captain and head of Ship’s Stores, and Grants, when he’s land bound...Admiral Lee Crane."

Lee cordially reached for his hand. "Pleased to meet you."

"And may I present my step-daughter, and Lee’s wife, Caitlin Davis Crane. She’s my Computer Specialist."

Ashcroft smiled widely at Caitlin, and took her hand in his, "This is a real pleasure, Mrs. Crane. I have been very much looking forward to meeting you. The Admiral here has done nothing but sing your praises!"

Caitlin laughed, however the laugh was an uneasy one. "I’m afraid HN’s a little too enthusiastic at times, Mr. Ashcroft."

"That’s not what these performance reports indicate, Mrs. Crane. I know that the Admiral hires only the best, and these indicate that you indeed are!"

She smiled at him graciously, and with a slight nod of her head, replied, "Thank you very much, Mr. Ashcroft." She took a folder out of her briefcase and proceeded to the business at hand, "Admiral Nelson’s briefed me on the general plans, but perhaps we can discuss the specifics of your needs."

"It will be my pleasure, Mrs. Crane. I’m delighted that we’ll have the opportunity to work so closely together." He smiled at her, and she shivered again… the man’s look, when he gazed at her, was like that of a predator looking after small prey to stalk. Caitlin didn’t like that feeling at all. The man made her damned uncomfortable!

Lee Crane then spoke up, "How long will you be with us, Mr. Ashcroft?"

"Until the project is completed, Admiral Crane. Admiral Nelson has been kind enough to offer the use of one of your guest cottages to me. Unfortunately, I had to decline. You see, I need too many phone lines to keep in contact with all my business needs. I’ll be staying at a local Hotel…Fortunately, Santa Barbara has a large number of facilities that meet my special needs. I’m staying about ten minutes from here so I’ll be on the grounds every day…"

Caitlin shuddered slightly. There was something about this man that made her distinctly uneasy. Something evil almost...she brushed it off though. HN had a job for her to do and she would do it! No matter what.

Lee observed Caitlin as she sat and began talking to Ashcroft. Something was bothering her but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. They had been together too long for her body language not to convey her unease to him. He would wait...Caitlin would eventually tell him what was bothering her.

Nelson looked over to Lee and motioned for him to join him at the window, as Caitlin went over the detailed plans for the new computer system that Ashcroft wanted installed in his factories.

"Well…?" he queried, motioning toward the two as they set deep in conversation.

"I’ll reserve judgement, Admiral. I think I want to know a bit more of the man," Crane replied with a bit of a reserved attitude.

"Mmmnn, I see. Well, he seems to be have a great deal of work that needs to be done with his factories and computers. Caitlin’s certainly up to the work, designing the prototypes, and so forth. It looks to be about six week’s worth of work, and future contracts if the work is up to his needs."

Lee smiled. "All you need to do is give Caitlin a challenge, Admiral, and you know the end result will be better than planned."

Nelson clapped him on the shoulder, laughing, "Yes, I know…I know"

 

 

The next four weeks that Ashcroft spent at the Institute were spent almost exclusively in Caitlin Crane’s company. She was determined to see that the Institute came out on top in this contract so she was putting all kinds of time into the project, spending late nights and early mornings of time in it. It was beginning to concern Lee because she was so tired…

She still was uneasy with Ashcroft, and therefore hesitated to tell Lee that the big man had, in fact, made several advances to her. Consequently her decision was not to tell him at all. She had spurned all of his suggestions, as upsetting as they were, and put them off to working long hours, and stressful conditions. She had kept his advances to herself… not wanting to put the project’s conclusion in any kind of jeopardy.

And when the project was finally finished, to Ashcroft’s enormous satisfaction, and with many kudos to Caitlin, a gala event was planned to celebrate the conclusion, a new partnership forged, and the promise of more work for the Institute’s computer expert.

 

 

Lee and Caitlin Crane were getting dressed for the big event. Admiral Nelson had pulled out all the stops, and invited many local dignitaries, Navy Brass from COMSUBPAC, and others to the celebration. He had opened the gates to the Press as well, and was trying to be as open to them as he could. (The fact that he hated the press and reporters was well known to his employees, and friends, so this was a major gesture of good will.)

As they dressed, Lee noticed that Caitlin was quieter than usual, and as she fastened her Seaview necklace around her neck, he came up behind her to help her with the clasp.

"You’ve been very quiet lately, Little Girl. Anything I can help you with?" he softly asked as he laid his hand on her shoulder. She reached up and covered it with her own, and then leaned her head on it.

"No, Lee. I’m just tired. I just wish we didn’t have to go to this party!" she looked at the pile of papers on the dresser, and pulled one of them from the pile and handed it to him. "This came today."

"What is it?" he asked as he took the papers and glanced at them.

"The preliminary designs for the bedroom… the designer took our suggestions, and sent this over. I like it, Lee. It may be fairly expensive, you know." Caitlin turned around, and pointed to the sketch, "She’s moved a wall . . .here...and look at the bed! It’s outrageously oversized!" Her eyes held a glimmer of...naughtiness? Or was he mistaken?

"I don’t think so…nice and roomy is more like it." He smiled at her, warmth radiating out of his eyes. "I like them, too! Call her tomorrow, and tell her that it’s a go. We’ll use Robert’s room while they’re doing the work…or we can bunk on the boat…" He then winked at her and added, "That’s a little tight, you know, but there’s something to be said for tight Quarters!"

"Lee Crane, sometimes I think that you are the randiest Admiral in the Navy or out of it!"

He laughed, his amber-hazel eyes twinkling. He softly caressed her shoulder and looked at the two of them in the mirror on the dresser.

She sighed again, "I really don’t want to go to this, you know…"

His tone was light, "But it’s in your honor, Caitlin. You know the O.O.M.’s really proud of the job that you did for Ashcroft, and the way that you did it so quickly."

"Well, I for one, am glad that it’s over with. I really don’t like the man. There’s just something about him. I don’t know what it is, but he makes me...I don’t know how to explain it." She shuddered slightly, and his touch on her shoulder became more firm yet tender at the same time.

"We won’t go if you don’t want to, Caitlin." he said more seriously, "There are any number of reasons that I could beg us off," He smiled down at her and added, "Starting with old war injuries…"

She slapped at him playfully. "Oh, no, you don’t , Lee Crane! It isn’t too often that I get to see you in this formal evening uniform. You’re not getting out of wearing it!"

"Can’t say that I didn’t try!" he responded. She turned to him, and looked carefully at the Uniform, and the man in it. Lee was till trim and ramrod straight, and he still took her breath away with his looks and manner every time she looked at him. Reaching up, she straightened the tie slightly and brushed away the invisible lint. She preferred him in this uniform above all others. He was such a handsome man! Not to mention the warm, caring and loving man he also was. She was a very lucky woman, and she knew it! He bent his head to her, and kissed her warmly. She returned the kiss, and then, gently, pushed him off.

"Lee! We’ll never get there if you don’t stop!" He ran his hand lightly over her bare shoulder, and bent his head down to kiss it. She shivered with the thrill of his kiss. "Lee! Will you stop it? Lord, I never thought I’d ever be saying that to you," she lightly laughed.

He looked at her, amusement, and more sparkling in his amber-hazel eyes. "Well...you said you didn’t want to go!"

"Lee Crane! We can’t disappoint HN! You know that!"

"We could be fashionably late!" he replied, flashing her a knowing grin as his hands wandered down to her waist.

"Oh, yeah . . .I can hear that one, ‘Sorry that we’re late, Admiral Nelson, but Caitlin and I went for a tumble in bed before we came, sir’ That would set rather well!"

"I’d bet you that Karen and the O.O.M. would understand, though!" he said with eyes twinkling with merriment.

"Oh, Lee!!!!" Although she silently had to agree that her mother would, in fact, understand.

Kissing her lightly once more, he took her hand in his, and smiling, led her from the bedroom. "Let’s go, Little Girl, before this Old Man gets some ideas that will get him in a lot of trouble! Besides, the Admiral wants us on the receiving line…You know how he hates to deal with all these people alone!"

 

 

Lee and Caitlin stood next to Admiral Nelson and Karen Davis Nelson on the receiving line for the gala. Unfortunately for Caitlin’s nerves, William Ashcroft stood next to her. She was convinced that it wasn’t accidental all of the times he had managed to brush against her, and touch her arm or hand. She mentally berated herself for choosing to wear the gown that she had on. She had chosen it because Lee had told her, several times in the past, how much he liked it on her. It was a strapless dress of deep royal blue chiffon. The bodice wrapped tightly around her breasts, and then it flowed in layers of chiffon to the floor. There was a tiny band of rhinestones that lay just under the bodice, and in its simplicity it was quite stunning. Her creamy skin shone in the soft light, her light blonde hair was upswept, and off her neck, and the light caught the gleam of the small medallion she wore around her neck. The Seaview Charm had been the only necklace she worn for many years now, and it was dear to her heart, as dear as the circumstances that had brought it to her long ago.

Ashcroft looked down periodically at the woman standing next to him. He could appreciate the loveliness of her, and he had to admit he was slightly attracted to her. She was a beautiful woman, if a little too innocent for his tastes. He preferred heartier females. Ones that were a bit more...the word was brazen,...yes, he liked brazen women, not good ones. His advances, made to facilitate his plans, has been in at least some part, easy. He had plans for tonight, however…he had plans!

 

 

At exactly 2030, the receiving line broke up, and the members of the line made their way to the head table, for the inevitable toasts, and speeches before the dinner and dancing. Surprisingly, all of the speakers were blessedly short, and with the toasts summarily made, the dinner was served.

Ashcroft was once again surprised at the magnanimity of the N.I.M.R. The dinner was a different type than he had had at other affairs, and like the Senior Staff of the Institute, he had attended far too many of them to count.

The appetizer was a warm salmon mousse on a bed of braised greens, covered with a light cream sauce and liberally sprinkled with tiny baby shrimp. No limp, over cooked soup or dying salad for this group, and the guest of honor was suitably impressed.

The main course was a choice of one of two entrees, either a boned, stuffed Cornish game hen, or a wonderfully succulent, and appropriately rare, Beef Wellington. The game hen was light, savory and the chestnut stuffing slightly sweet, and deliciously spiced. The Beef was tender, and the pastry as light and flaky as in any four star international restaurant. The entrees were accompanied by several braised vegetables and tiny potatoes that were baked individual casserole dishes, with parsley and butter. Again a different spin, and one that the guests appreciated. The dessert was also a different confection for such a large gathering. Irish Cream Cheesecake, from the Nelson Family Recipes, served with a light chocolate and Kaluha sauce completed a dinner that was impressive for most. Even Ashcroft had to commend Nelson for his good taste and simple elegance.

As the meal was ending, the dancing and inevitable networking was beginning. Different groups of guests, met, mingled and danced. The after dinner drinks flowed freely, and a good number of individuals chose to take partake in them as well. Cigars were also provided for those who chose to try them.

Jiggs Stark was holding court with Ashcroft and several others on one side of the room. The more scotch he had, the more expansive he became and he began to regal the assembled group with tales of the escapades that he and Nelson had been involved in at the Naval Academy so long ago. Harriman Nelson, four star admiral, and head of the Nelson Institute of Marine Research was coming away from Jiggs’ tales as something of a scamp and prankster for all of his current reserve and authority. And Admiral Jiggs Stark was enjoying every minute of it!

Able to stand no more of Jiggs’ tale telling, Nelson took him by the arm, and guided him away from the group. As the group broke up, Ashcroft searched the room for Caitlin Crane. His eyes zeroed in on her as he saw her talking to several individuals, and as the music began, he smoothly approached her.

"Caitlin, may I have this dance?" he gaily asked as he extended his hand to her.

She reluctantly acceded to his request, and he spun her out onto the dance floor. He was holding her lightly as he expertly guided her around floor. She, however, remained tense and was not enjoying the dance at all. She refrained from making any small talk, and sighed in relief when the music ended. He looked down at her, and asked solicitously, "Might I get you something to drink, Caitlin? Allow me to show my appreciation for the job that you’ve done for my corporations. In fact," he said smoothly, "if you can spare me a few moments, and there’s a quiet place that we can talk, I have a proposition that you just might find interesting. For the Institute, of course."

Hesitatingly, she offered, "Uh, well . . .my office is just down the hall, Mr. Ashcroft. We can talk there for a few moments. Let me just tell my husband where I will be and…"

"That really won’t be necessary, Caitlin...you’ll be back in a few minutes. The Admiral’s busy right now, and there really isn’t any need to disturb him."

He had taken her lightly but firmly by the elbow, and was guiding her to the door leading to the hallway before she even realized it. She looked across the room for Lee, hoping to catch his eye, but saw that Admiral B. J. Crawford, and Commodore Lucius Emory had his ear as well as his attention. So . . .she left with Ashcroft, and headed toward her office.

Lee did see her leave from the corner of his eye, and he tried to get the conversation to wind down so that he too could leave but he was having a hard time breaking away. Like Caitlin, there was something about Ashcroft that he didn’t like.

 

 

Caitlin unlocked her office door, and uneasily invited Ashcroft into the small but smartly decorated office suite.

He looked around the room, and said to her, "It seems to me that Nelson should give a bigger office to someone who does such outstanding work! The prestige of the job, should be reflected in the premises occupied."

"I really don’t need more space, Mr. Ashcroft. I divide my time between here and Admiral Stark’s offices at San Diego. I do a lot of work for him as well as the Institute. And besides, I’m more than comfortable here."

"But I’m sure that you’d rather stay here, wouldn’t you? Closer to your husband, and your ‘parents’, maybe?"

She hesitated, unsure where the conversation was actually going. "That would be the ideal situation, however, I spend the time that Lee is away on the boat at San Diego, so that when he’s in port, I can be with him. It works very well for us...as well as for the two Admirals involved," she smiled nervously.

He sat down on the couch in the office, leaned back and relaxed a bit, and loosening his tie. She remained standing, almost rigid. Extremely uncomfortable at being in his presence. It wasn’t an attraction...it was almost...a feeling of...evil. Ashcroft looked carefully at her, once again. ‘She is a pretty woman… a bit tiny for my taste, from her photos with Crane, she's not inhibited at all with him, then again, she's only known him in bed… well,  if she doesn’t give, I can always take!… We’ll see!"

"Caitlin, why don’t you sit down and relax? There really is no need for you to remain standing. I simply want to talk to you, and I hate having to look up or tower over someone to do so. I prefer to talk eye to eye. Sit here...next to me." He patted the space next to him, urging her to join him.

She hesitated again, and finally sat at the far end of the sofa, with what she felt was a ‘safe’ amount of space between them. However, he reached a long arm out, and took her hand in his. Smoothly inching over closer to her, he softly remarked, "Mmm, lovely, delicate hands, Caitlin."

She tried to pull her hand from his massive grip, but it tightened and held her hand fast.

"Let go!" she said quietly but forcefully.

"Not until I’ve said my piece, my dear." He moved even closer to her on the couch, his other hand reaching for her other hand, and capturing it. "Caitlin, I desire you, " he said silkily, a look that was nothing short of lustful in his eyes. "You are an extremely beautiful woman." He turned her hands palm upward, and kissed one lightly, and then the other. She gasped in astonishment, frozen in place by the shock of his words and his actions. "I want to sleep with you...to make love to you . . .to drive you to heights of ecstasy that you’ve never known." He leaned forward, and kissed her lightly. She still didn’t react. He continued, "...And I am willing to pay an extremely high price for you. I will give the Nelson Institute all of my computer business for the next ten years from all of my companies." He then pulled her closer to him. "That’s roughly a half billion dollars a year for the next ten years. That would surely insure the survival of this institution of yours for many decades to come. You would bring a very high price. I want you for my mistress, Caitlin. I want to have you whenever your husband is away. I want you!" He pulled her to him quickly and kissed her passionately. Her eyes sprung wide at the ferocity. She wanted to pull away but seemed frozen, too stunned to act. He nuzzled gently at her neck, and kissed her softly, trailing kisses to the swell of her breasts. When she felt his lips on her neck, his hand pushing the Seaview medallion aside, she snapped out of her shocked state, and moved, taking her hands, and pushing against his chest.

"NO!… STOP!"

He only held her more tightly and whispered in her ear, as he delivered light, gentle kisses to her neck, and he nibbled on her earlobe. "Think about it, Caitlin. Your husband need never know…We could be together whenever he’s away,… think of the excitement of it!" He groaned in growing anticipation of taking her here in the Institute, under the noses of those she knew and loved, and that she would be willing to do it! In fact, his own body was reacting to the thought of the absolute possibility and irony of it all.

His immense hands roamed her soft delicate shoulders, and again pulled her closer to him. She began to struggle against him. "Don’t fight it, Caitlin. Admit it! Admit that you’re attracted to me. Listen to your body, Caitlin...Let IT be your guide. We could be very good for one another, you know! Your Admiral is older than me by what, eight years…? Think about what it would be like to have a younger, more virile man make love to you!!"

"No! I said, stop!!!!!!" she continued to push harder against him, to push him away. And he continued to hold and pull her closer to him, and to stroke her back, as she struggled to escape his grasp.

Finally, she pulled far enough away to reach back and slap him hard across the face. He suddenly released her, startled at the sting from her hand. Looking at her, his facial features suddenly darkened and he remarked in a tight constrained voice, "You realize that you are about to make a mistake here that you will soon regret?"

"I make no mistakes, Mr. Ashcroft. You, sir, have made a great one. I happen to love my husband. I will never be unfaithful to him for any reason! I believe in my marriage vows." Rising from the sofa, she turned from him, then quickly turned back and glared at him. Then, in a voice of soft, strong anger, declared, "I have loved Lee Crane all of my life! Nothing, do you hear me, nothing, could or ever will make me betray him in such a way. You are low, Mr. Ashcroft, low and despicable. I believe the southern terminology is ‘lower than a snake’s belly’. I don’t want anything ever to do with you again. and if HN asks me to work with you, the answer will be a resounding ‘NO’. Do you understand me?" She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, then continued. "However, to spare everyone the embarrassment, I think that you had better leave here, and leave now. I won’t tell Admiral Nelson what took place. But I don’t want to see you again! Ever."

He slowly rose from the couch, and towering over her, he said in a quiet, and very deadly voice, "You will be sorry for this decision, Mrs. Crane. Very sorry!" and he turned quickly on his heel, and left her office, almost slamming the door behind him.

She collapsed into the couch, taking deep breaths to calm herself, and let the adrenaline that had built up in her system release itself. What the hell was he trying to do? Who the hell does he think he is trying that crap with me? When she felt she had herself under control...when her breathing and heart rate had returned to normal...she got up from the sofa and left the office, and headed back to the hall.

 

 

Lee glanced at his watch several times, still trying to politely extricate himself from the conversation that he was, for all intents and purposes, trapped in. He saw Ashcroft return to the hall, talk briefly with Admiral Nelson, and then leave. He couldn’t help notice that Ashcroft’s face seemed almost contorted in anger for some reason. In fact, there was something very eerily familiar about him at that point but Lee couldn’t pinpoint what exactly it was. The face reminded him of someone he’d seen but he couldn’t remember who.

Ten minutes later, Caitlin returned to the hall, slowly making her way to him. She looked almost ashen, and he wondered what was wrong. She laid her hand lightly on his arm, and asked, "Admiral Crawford, Lucius, would you please excuse us? I’m not feeling very well, and I would like my husband to take me home." She smiled demurely at Lee, "That is...if you don’t mind?"

Grateful that she was in fact providing him with excuse to leave, he responded, "Of course not! Lucius, Admiral Crawford, by your leave?"

The two of them nodded, and then continued their conversation, sans Crane. As they walked over to the Nelsons, Lee felt her hand grip his arm tighter. Something’s wrong!

"Caitlin..?"

"I just want to go home, Lee…Please? I’ll tell you in the car."

He agreed, and they came even with Harriman and Karen Nelson. "Caitlin’s not feeling well, Admiral. We’d like beg off for the rest of the evening...if you don’t mind."

Both Nelson and his wife looked at her critically. Both were concerned about the pallor of her skin. Karen reached out to touch her daughter, "What’s wrong, sweets? Want me to come with you two?" She knew her daughter well enough to know that this was something more than a sudden ‘physical’ ailment. What, she wasn’t sure. But something had upset her.

"No mom, I’ll be fine. I’ve been fighting a cold all week, and I think that it finally caught up with me. I didn’t want to disappoint HN tonight, but I’m sorry, I think that its time for me to leave."

Karen hugged her daughter, though secretly skeptical of her reason, "Okay, Sweets. If you or Lee need me," she looked over at Crane, "Be sure to call."

"We will, Mom," she acceded. Karen kissed Lee lightly, and he shook hands with Nelson and they left the hall.

The parking valet brought the red Cobra to the steps, and held the doors for the two of them to get in. As Lee drove away from the building, Caitlin began to shake. Lee pulled the car over, and reached for her.

"Caitlin, what is it?"

"I’m cold, Lee. Just cold." In response, he took off his jacket, and wrapped it around her.

"We’ll be home in no time," he told her after he made sure she was warm. She nodded, and was silent.

Very quickly they reached their home on the compound grounds, and Lee pulled the car directly into the garage. He quickly jumped out of the car, and was by Caitlin’s side before she could move. He reached down and scooped her out, and opened the door to the kitchen. Once inside, still holding her close, he kicked the door closed, and went right upstairs to their bedroom, where he sat his wife carefully on the bed.

Looking at her critically, he demanded, "Now…tell me what’s wrong!"

She slowly looked up at him and they locked eyes...blue to amber-hazel. "He wanted me to be his mistress!"

"He what?"

"Ashcroft propositioned me. He wanted me to be his mistress. In return, he would guarantee the Institute a half billion dollars a year in business!"

Lee wanted to explode, to chase after the man, and throttle him within an inch of his life.

"The son of a bitch!! How dare …?"

"I told him no, of course. I told him I would never betray you." She looked up and smiled knowingly at her husband, and then grew serious again. "He told me that I would regret my ‘decision’!"

"I’ll have the bastard banned from the grounds, and I’ll see him off myself.!!!" Lee ranted. He was furious. That bastard! Who the hell did he think he was...?

"No, Lee," she gently laid her hand on his arm, "It’s over. He won’t be back. He won’t come near me any more. I sent him off." Caitlin managed a slight smile. "In fact, I slapped him rather hard. Stung my hand a bit. I can only imagine what HE must have felt. Right now, all I want right now is for you to hold me…to keep me warm, my love. To keep me warm."

Lee gathered her into his arms, and later that night, their loving was warm, and intense, and Caitlin once again felt secure and safe.

 

 

The next morning, William Peter Ashcroft stood at the door of the Crane home, and rang the bell. Months of planning were about to come to fruition. He held the key to a plan that was about to unfold. He was holding in his hand at the moment, a very large and ostentatious bouquet of three dozen red roses. He was going to use them to further his plan. Personally, he hated the things, but…they did serve a purpose!

Finally he heard footsteps in the foyer of the house, and the latch on the door clicked. for a moment , there was silence, for the flowers prevented him from being seen. A soft voice on the other side of the sill asked, "YES?"

He dropped the flowers down, so he could be seen, and wearing his most contrite and charming face, he said smoothly, "Mrs. Crane...Caitlin.. I’ve come to apologize to you for last evening. I’d like you to accept these and also to allow me to come into your home and apologize to the Admiral as well. I don't know what came over me." As he was speaking, he made his way unobtrusively into the foyer. Caitlin Davis Crane found herself inching backward as Ashcroft was speaking to her, still holding the flowers. No matter how much he apologized, there was still something about him that she didn't like.

Once in the foyer, he deliberately looked at his hands, and said, "Oh, I am sorry. These are for you!" He thrust the too large bouquet towards her, and she stumbled backwards into the wall. Reaching out to steady her, he grabbed at her elbow.

At that moment, a voice called from the kitchen, "Caitlin, is everything alright?"

"Yes, Lee. It’s Mr. Ashcroft . . .he says he’s come to apologize for last evening."

Lee Crane came into the foyer. He was dressed in his gray Navy sweats, he and Caitlin having just come in from their morning run on the beach. Caitlin was dressed in a simple the Institute T-shirt, and running shorts. Years ago, Lee had instituted a running program for the men on the boat, and even years later, he kept the regime active, with Caitlin a willing companion.

Ashcroft reluctantly let go of her arm, as Crane moved next to his wife, and slid an arm, protectively, around her waist. Ashcroft gave Lee a false smile, and watched the interaction between the husband and wife. "Yes, there’s a great deal of love here! I’m going to enjoy this" He thought maliciously "Enjoy destroying this a great deal!" He was waiting for his opportunity to act, and Caitlin unknowingly presented it to him.

"Look, Lee… aren’t the roses lovely?" she remarked as she turned toward him.

Lee looked at the large bouquet that she almost shoved in front of him. Lee momentarily took his attention from the visitor, and looked at the flowers and in that short a time, Ashcroft quickly, but smoothly, reached beneath his jacket and pulled a gun, complete with silencer, the click of the safety being removed drawing the Crane’s attention back to him.

"What the hell’s the meaning of this, Ashcroft?"

"Things are about to become very clear, Admiral…very clear…Drop the flowers, Caitlin, and let’s begin at the beginning, shall we?"

Caitlin let the flowers fall to the floor, and Lee pulled her closer to him. "The beginning?"

"A kidnapping, of a certain Admiral, some 20 years ago, or more, and a rescue… you were there, I believe…"

Lee looked at the gun, and the man behind it. As he’d thought before, there was something vaguely familiar about him, but Crane still couldn’t place it.

"Let me refresh your memory a little more… there was a certain woman pilot of a black helicopter… I believe, in fact, that you know her very well…she’s your mother-in-law."

"The First American Militia! The General!!" Crane hissed. Now he knew. Looking closely at the man before him, he saw the ghost of the man who’d died many years ago.

"Yes, Crane…my father!" Ashcroft/Judd confirmed.

"William Judd! You’re the one who had Robert and me kidnapped…"

"Too bad that wasn’t successful," he sneered, "…My plan was brilliant, but so’s the thinking of your employer…Nelson had simple blind luck…or rather, you and your son did… but you know, this may actually work out much better for me, however! You see, Crane, since your wife refused me last night, I intend to simply take her."

"No! I don’t think so!"

"I have a gun, and I have the two of you . . .what kind of chance do you think you’ll have against me? I did come well prepared!" he gestured with the gun towards the Great Room…. "In there, Admiral, Caitlin…now!"

Lee nodded imperceptibly to Caitlin to follow the man’s orders. The two of them slowly backed into the great room, Lee’s eyes never leaving Judd nor letting go of his grip on Caitlin.

"Admiral, if you would please move away from your wife?" Judd gestured smoothly. It was more of a command issued as a request. When Lee remained standing next to Caitlin, he strengthened his demand, "Admiral, I do need you to stand aside."

Lee continued to standfast next to his wife.

He took a step or two closer to his two prisoners. "If you don’t move away from her, I shall have to make you move."

Lee stood his ground. Caitlin saw at the implacable look on her husband’s face. He was going to protect her at all costs. She squeezed his hand that held her side.

Ashcroft/Judd simply shook his head, and calmly fired his gun. The ensuing bullet hit Lee high in the thigh. Lee felt the bone give, heard Caitlin’s scream, and fell. For a moment, he was stunned and felt nothing, and then suddenly, blazing waves of molten pain threatened to overwhelm him. He had a flash of memory, of a time when he had been shot, many times, coldly and deliberately. He instinctively grabbed at his leg, and cried out in agony! A very large bloodstain grew larger and darker as the blood soaked the gray material of the sweatpants.

Caitlin screamed and fell to her knees beside him, only to be pulled roughly away from him by Judd.

"I warned you, Admiral Crane. I did warn you." His voice echoed false charm and concern. "My objective today was not to harm you physically. I’m just going to use your wife, and use her well, I might add. And I really wanted you to watch and enjoy the performance...it promises to be a good one…but you didn’t want to cooperate. What a shame!"

He had grabbed Caitlin by the arm and was holding her tightly. She struggled against him...she wanted to help Lee...to get away from this man. With several deep breaths, she tried to calm herself… to remember something that she had learned long ago….that only the body could be hurt. You had to allow someone to hurt your soul….she would not allow this man to hurt her soul, to destroy their special love.

She realized that Judd was a big man, several inches taller than Lee and much heavier. His hands were huge, and he was hurting her arm as he held her tightly. She twisted and pulled against him, as his grip on her arm tightened further.

"Now…now, my dear Caitlin, you have to stop fighting me." He stroked her face almost tenderly. "I can be very nice to my ladies, Caitlin. If you don’t stop fighting me, I won't be nice." She pulled away harder, and he abruptly pulled her back toward him. He put the gun in his pocket, and gripped her in both of his large hands.

Lee was struggling to rise, fighting the nausea and pain, being hampered in his attempt to rise by the wound in his leg. In a moment of malicious revenge, as Judd struggled with Caitlin, he calmly kicked Lee in the leg, and caused the Seaview’s Captain to let out a cry of pain, and collapse, unconscious.

"LEE!!" Caitlin screamed… Judd slapped her across the face. His face was briefly twisted in a mask of anger with her.

"Oh, shut up!" he spat out. Brutally grabbing her wrists, he tied them together in front of her, with pieces of cord he had in his pocket. He pushed her down on the couch, and quickly tied her ankles together as well. Leaving her there, he moved to her husband. He pulled Lee’s arms behind his back, and tied his wrists tightly together, separating the rope and then tying it tightly, in the fashion of tight handcuffs.

"The good Admiral is known for his ability to escape the inescapable. I do need to prevent any escape on his behalf, at least until I have finished here with you!" Then he stood, and leered lasciviously at Caitlin. Caressing her in a possessive manner, allowing his hands to just touch and stroke her lightly all over, he smiled, as she shivered in fear of what he planned to do.

"I don't expect you to go anywhere, my dear. I have to get a few things from my car. I'll be right back!" He pulled her face toward him, squeezing it hard, forcing her mouth open and he kissed her, long, hard, vicious and plundering. He released her, and ran a finger gently down her face. "Sweet…so very sweet…" he murmured, "I am going to enjoy you!"

Her anger at his treatment, and her fear for Lee, welled to the surface, and she spat in his face.

His huge hand crashed into her face, three times, stunning her, and bringing her to the edge of unconsciousness. He threw her back onto the couch, and angrily wiped his face clean. then controlling the anger, he looked at her as she lay there.

"So there is fire there after all… all the better… be advised that your little bit of rebellion will be costly. You will pay for that, my dear Caitlin…and so will your husband...but, that will be later…much, much later!"

He bent over and pulled the phone cord from the wall, and on the way out of the room, reached into the kitchen and pulled the wall phone off the wall.

She heard him go out the front door, and tried to pull herself up on the couch. The room spun as she tried to move. She could feel the bruises rising on her face, and she tasted blood in her mouth.

"Lee…!" She called his name, terrified when he didn’t answer her. Her husband didn't move. She stared at the wound in the leg and her fears increased when she saw there was a slow, steady pulse of blood continuing to ooze from the leg wound.

"LEE!" she called again, as she allowed hysteria to begin to build, fed by fear and terror.

Seeing her husband ...the man she had loved all her life. . . lying before her...wounded, unconscious, made her momentarily freeze in fear. Then, slowly, surely, as if someone else was beginning to possess her entire being. . . .a scream from deep within.

"LEE!!!!!!!!!!!"

She then looked toward the doorway, in dread and again looked at the unconscious, unmoving form of her husband. Slowly, she rose to a sitting position, somehow finding the strength and remembering the words, shared with her at another time and place. ‘You do have the strength...You're my daughter!’ She saw her mother's face and then out of the stillness and fear, heard a man's voice, ‘And you're my daughter too, Caitlin! We gave birth to you. You can do it!’

Her father! Her father!

Just as Judd's father had hurt Nelson, the son now desired to hurt her and her family. And just as her mother had vowed… ‘NO!’  She fairly shouted, ‘NO!’

So she rose up and vowed the same. Looking quickly around the room to get an idea of exactly where things were, she crawled to the secretary's desk by the window. Fumbling, her bound hands hampering her, she opened the lid, then hurriedly opened a smaller interior door and extracted a small .22 caliber Colt double barrel derringer pistol.

On the floor, near the couch, Lee, in obvious pain, was hovering on the edge of awareness. He saw what she was doing and tried to tell her not to, the words, unable to form because of the pain. However, when she turned around to face him, the expression he saw chilled him further.

‘The Ice Queen!’ In an instant, her facial expression reminded him of her mother’s, so many years ago, on that day at the compound of the militia. He saw the faces blend, as he again lost his tenuous hold on consciousness.

In that moment, Caitlin Davis Crane found newfound strength she never knew she possessed. She was a Davis...and Davis women did not take kindly to being treated in this manner. Though she did not have the military training her mother had had, she was graced with her inner strength. No, if Judd thought he was going to bully her, he was about to find out that the old saying like mother, like daughter was absolutely true.

She made her way back to Lee’s side, and was calling his name…

Lee Crane heard a voice calling his name from far off…He tried to focus on the voice and allow it to pull him from the darkness. Waves of agony raged through his being, flowing outward from the wound in his leg, He knew the bone was broken, from the feel of the leg and the pain that was radiating from it. He tried to reach for the wound, and found himself unable to use his hands, realizing that they were bound behind him…

Overriding the pain was his fear for Caitlin…hoarsely, he called her name, "Caitlin!"

"Here, Lee…next to you!" She reached out for him, to touch him. "I have the derringer!"

"NO! … If you try to use it, he’ll hurt you. It’s too small a caliber…He’s too large a man!"

"Even I know, properly placed, a small gauge bullet will hurt!! I can do this, Lee!"

"No! The danger to you is too great, Caitlin! If he retaliates…"

"We both know what he intends to do. I can stop him with this. I know it!"

She palmed the derringer, and tried to reach out to help him sit.

Lee found the effort was overwhelming! He was too weakened by the blood loss and the intense pain. "No!" he said raggedly, "Caitlin, I can’t!"

Gently she said, " All right, Lee. Just lie there. I’m going to…"

"Going to what, my dear?" They started. Judd had come back into the house, and was standing in the doorway. "The good Admiral is in no condition to run from me. There’s no one home on the right side of you, the Morton’s and O’Brien are away for the weekend. They all left earlier today. And you’re too far from the Nelsons for your good mother to hear anything."

He grinned maliciously at Caitlin. "Your ‘lovely’ mother, Caitlin, how is she today? I hope that the party last evening wasn’t too much for her! As I recall, you have a brother, too, don’t you? He’s much younger than you. An added bonus for me… one more agonizing wound to open and twist…"

"Haven’t you done enough? Why are you doing this?" Lee asked in obvious agony.

"Why, Admiral?… you’re an intelligent and astute man, I think you can figure it out, can’t you? It has to do with paybacks… you and your wife are going to be part of a payback due me from Karen Davis Nelson … Do you want me to be blunt, once again, with my plans? I’m going to take your wife…She’s a sweet piece." He knelt next to Caitlin and bent his head to kiss her shoulder, and ran kisses up her face. She struggled against him , and he held her more tightly. He turned back to Lee, "I’m going to have her while you watch… I am, most likely, going to hurt her, and hurt her badly… I’m going to use your room, and your bed! … And then I’m going to leave the two of you here to be found by the Nelson Bitch! … I don’t think that you will ever want to look at your wife again, when I am through with her…. And I know that you’re not expected anywhere today, and neither do you expect anyone here today… so we have plenty of time. And I do intend to enjoy myself!"

"Bastard!" Lee spat out. He struggled to sit up. Judd simply laughed at him.

"Sticks and stones, Admiral. Sticks and stones!!" He went down on one knee, next to Lee. "I think that I had better check this wound, Admiral. I was an army medic, did you know that? I can’t have my special audience leaving me during the performance!!!!" Deliberately harsh and hurtful, he roughly handled the leg until Lee had again lost consciousness. He smiled wickedly at Caitlin, who had drawn herself into a ball at her husband’s side. In that position, she could hide the gun, and not let it be seen.

"What’s the matter, Caitlin? Aren’t you looking forward to things to come? You see, it’d have been do much easier if you’d allowed me to have my way last night. A simple seduction, a harmless adulterous act, and this would not have happened. I admit that I prefer this. It will be so much more painful for all of you, especially, your mother!"

"My mother? Exactly what does my mother have to do with this?"

"You truly don’t know?…You don’t understand the connection? The good Admiral Nelson, and your husband never told you? Tsk, tsk… you will be learning a lesson without knowing the reason behind it!! Well...when I’m finished, perhaps the bitch will explain it to you. I can guarantee that after I finish here today, none of you will ever forget me, and what I represent!"

She looked at him, her eyes showing fear and anger mixed together. She was fighting to overcome the fear with the inner belief that she had to act and act now, if she and Lee stood any kind of a chance at all. Judd leaned over and pulled her toward him. She fought him, keeping curled into the tight ball until she was in the right position, keeping her hands tightly clasped together.

"Caitlin, my dear…" he said his the silky, smooth crafty voice. The coldness of it made her shudder involuntarily. He shook her, none too gently. Her eyes hardened with resolve. She looked at this man, so intent on harming them, who had already hurt Lee badly. He ran a hand over her head, "You are so sweet! I am going to enjoy taking away that sweetness… for all of your life here at this Institute and at the Naval Bases, you’re such an innocent, my dear…. I intend to take away that innocence!!!!" He pulled her to a sitting position.

"You and I are going to go upstairs to begin to get more ‘intimately’ acquainted. And when I’m ready, and I have you ready, I’ll then come down here and bring your husband up to watch the performance. And I promise you, it will be quite a performance!"

Sitting up straighter, she simply and quietly stated "No!"

He laughed at her. "I don’t believe that I made this a case where I sought your acquiescence. You don’t have a choice!"

"Yes, Judd, I do! I do have a choice!" She let the derringer slide silently into her grip, holding it in her two hands and pointed directly at him.

Judd’s face registered surprise then he chuckled. "My, my! You are a spitfire aren’t you? But look at me, Caitlin…Look very carefully at me… do you really think that such a little thing like that can really hurt me?"

"Maybe, maybe . . .but I don’t have anything to lose. All I can do is try," she replied with resolution. He laughed at her again. She held the gun the way she’d always been taught and aimed at him, her hands rock steady.

He made a slight movement and reached for her. "Move and I’ll shoot!" she calmly but forcefully informed him.

He reached further, and she squeezed the trigger, and the bullet exploded out of the derringer. He moved away a bit just as she released the trigger, and the small caliber bullet pierced his shirt, and tore into the surface of his forearm. He rolled away from her, grabbing the arm for a moment. The pain momentarily stunned him but not enough to detract his attention from her. Then he wickedly smiled at her, and rising to his full height, stood over her. "That was foolish, Mrs. Crane. All you’ve managed to do is to ruin a perfectly good shirt! This is no worse than an insect bite! And you, my dear, have made me more angry than before!"

Caitlin held the gun and cocked the second hammer back, ready to fire it again, trying to aim it so that she could get a better shot off. She didn’t see him slowly move, panther-like, to kick at the gun in her hand. However, before she could react, his foot found the gun and sent it flying across the room. Her wrist snapped backward, and she cried out in pain. He lunged toward her and quickly yanked her to her feet. She cried out as his huge hands dug into her slender shoulder and arm. He pulled her to him, and hit her twice across the face, blackening her right eye, and bruising her cheek. Then he pulled her face to his, and kissed her, again. It was a cruel, hard, merciless kiss, meant to hurt and terrify. When he finished, he smiled. He again pulled her toward him, and lifted her. She started hitting him with her clenched fists.

"Futile, my dear. Very, very futile. You can’t hurt me!" he held her up, and lifted her over his shoulder. She continued to fight him and struggle with him. With disconcerting ease, he carried her up the stairs to the bedroom she and Lee shared, had shared for the last 14 years. Her struggles with him became more intense, as he entered the room and looked around.

"Nice…very nice… this will suit me very well!" He dropped her on the sleigh bed that she and Lee slept in. She rolled onto her side and attempted to sit up. He saw her, and backhanded her, knocking her flat.

"You won’t get away from me, Caitlin. You’re mine to use as I see fit…" He ran his hand over her bruised and bleeding face, and laughed again. "I like my women to wear some mark of my affection. And you wear my marks very well!" he bent his head towards her, and kissed her viciously. Running his hand along her face again, "Nice…very, very nice! You and I are going to have quite a good time, and your husband will have quite a show to watch." He pulled her arms tightly above her head, and tied them to the top of the bed. Then he took her legs, and tying rope around her ankles, tied each ankle to the separate sides of the bed. Her struggles continued, as she tried, futilely, to free her wrists. Her overriding concern was not herself, not what may happen to her, but for Lee. He had looked so pale. She was terrified, of what Judd planned to do to her, but she also knew that she could not give in to it. Then she knew that all would be lost and Judd would have won. She wouldn’t let him win!

Judd gave the ropes on her ankles a final pull, and she gasped slightly. "Did I hurt you? Oh, I am so, so sorry . . ." he said to her with false solicitousness. He sat on the bed next to her, and slowly looked down her body, running his huge hands slowly over her. She tried to pull away, to shrink from his touch, but tied as she was she could barely move. He enjoyed the obvious discomfort that she was in, as she chewed on the inside of her mouth in order to not cry out. She did not want to give him any more power over her than he already had.

His large right hand found its way to her right breast. He first caressed it gently, then began to squeeze it, and then twisted it until she cried out in pain.

"You bastard!" she cried out at him, her blue eyes blazing with both hurt and fury.

"Hardly, my dear, hardly…My parents were married!" He laughed at the pain he was causing her, and then bent his head and kissed her, forcing his tongue into her mouth. "You are a sweet thing, Caitlin. So very innocent for all the years that you’ve been married…And you’ve never known any man but Crane! How old fashioned! How very quaint! I’ll be changing that for you shortly… then, at least you will have a point of comparison for the Old Man!" He laughed, cruelly, and then he hit her, across the face, hard, stunning her. He kept his hand on her breast, continuing to squeeze it painfully. Leering at her, he informed her, "I’m going to go now and bring your husband here, and then, well, you and I will begin our very intimate acquaintance."

He left the room, and she allowed a single tear to escape her eye. In spite of her fears, she hardened her resolve not to let him hurt her soul… She heard her father’s voice, ‘You’re my daughter!…’ and her mother’s again telling her, ‘you do have the strength!’ She wouldn’t give into him…no matter what he did, she wouldn’t….

 

 

Judd went down the stairs to the Great Room. He bent down over Lee, and seeing all of the blood on the rug, felt for a pulse, hoping that his ‘audience’ hadn’t died from blood loss. Judd had, indeed, served a brief stint in the military as a medic and he had some basic knowledge of bullet wounds. He knew that Crane’s was a serious one, and if left unattended, that it could be a fatal one… He wasn’t seeking that… at least not yet anyway, he had more plans concerning the Captain of the Seaview and he was relieved when he felt a fairly strong pulse in his captive’s neck. The admiral had lost a great deal of blood, and would probably be in shock very shortly, but he would be able to revive him then he would be able to see just what he would do with his wife! As he lifted Lee, he smiled to himself.

‘Would that I could be a fly on the wall when the Nelson Bitch found the two of them! I’d love to see her face, to hear her pain, when she discovered that I’M the one that’s done this. This was just the beginning... her daughter, then her son, then her husband…My plan’s progressing quite beautifully!! In spite of what was always said, Revenge was sweet!’

He reached the head of the stairs, carried Lee into the bedroom, and dropped him into the chair that he had placed next to the bed. Caitlin drew in a sharp breath, when she saw Lee’s body remain limp, as Judd tied him to the chair.

"Oh no! please! is he…" she whispered hoarsely, fearful of the possible answer

Again, as he had so many times already, he laughed at her. "Dead, my dear? No, he isn’t dead, at least not yet. If he were, I wouldn’t be wasting my time!!" He finished tying a gag in Lee’s mouth, looking at Caitlin "I can’t allow your husband to disturb my concentration when I am working!" and then reached into a bag that he had carried up when he brought her up. He took a bottle from it, and waved it under Crane’s nose.

 

 

A sharp, pungent odor brought him back to a pain filled awareness. He tried to move and found himself bound to a chair, and gagged.. His pain glazed eyes scanned the room, and settled on Caitlin, tied to the bed. "You don’t like the gag, do you, Crane? Too bad, really. I can’t have you distracting your wife, I need to have her complete attention."

Judd was sitting next to her, his face wearing an evil smirk, his hands on Caitlin’s body, handling her with an air of total possession. He looked over to Lee, as he continued to move his hands all over her.

"Ahhhh, Admiral…. As you can see, you wife and I are already becoming acquainted…I must admit that I am enjoying the feel of her! I must admit that I am enjoying her! Soft and tender, she is!"

Lee saw the bruises on Caitlin’s face, the blackened eye, his anger mounted and he fought against his bonds. His struggles were weak ones at best, the blood loss sapping most of his strength. Caitlin’s eyes sought his, and when they found one another, she momentarily looked away, then locked her gaze to his. He saw her resolve, she saw his. They both knew, that should they survive this, they would get through it.

Neither of them would let him win their souls!

Judd continued his verbal torment. "Your wife is lovely…her skin is so … pliant…so lovely." He ran his hand over her arms that were stretched so tightly above her head, pinching and twisting the tender flesh as his hands roamed, raising bruises and welts where he touched. Caitlin’s whole body quivered, trying to twist and turn away from his hands, to no success.

He dropped his hand to her breasts yet again, and again squeezed first one, and then the other until Caitlin was moaning in pain… "She is mine, Crane…All mine!" He leaned over her and said softly into her ear, "This is only the beginning, Caitlin, only the beginning…!!!" He bent his head, and kissed her, long and hurtfully, and when he lifted his head, he laughed, a laugh intensely evil and malicious, and looking at Lee, laughed even harder, a laugh intensely evil and malicious. "How does she taste to you, Crane…there is a sweetness in her mouth that I can’t begin to describe…"

Lee was continuing to try and fight his bonds, but his battle was becoming a losing one. He was getting colder, and the idea that he might be going into shock crossed his mind…his thought patterns were becoming confused, there was a loud humming in his ears, and he could hear Caitlin’s cries of pain, and Judd’s laughter, as the humming got louder…

‘Caitlin!! I’m sorry, Little Girl! I was supposed to protect you!! I failed you!! I failed you!!! Like I failed Cathy… now I’ve failed you, too!!!’ His head fell forward onto his chest as his fight to remain conscious ended.

Caitlin saw his head fall forward, and began to struggle even more. Judd just smiled at her.

"Go ahead, my dear…try and fight me…it makes your helplessness so much more evident to you, and it really makes me so much more pleased. I like feisty women!"

He took her head in his hands, and held it tight, squeezing it in his huge, paw-like hands. He moved to kiss her, and she allowed his lips to touch hers, his tongue to begin to probe, and then, she bit him. He roared with rage, and grabbed his handkerchief, to stem the blood leaking from his mouth. He slapped her across the face, bringing fresh blood and new bruises. He split her lip in another place. Regaining his composure, his slickly evil manner, he dropped the cloth on the nightstand, and then began talking to her.

"That wasn’t very nice, Caitlin - you’ll have to be punished for it. You and your husband. I’ll have to think hard on what would be an appropriate punishment…I’m sure," he said confidently and condescendingly, "that I can think of something!!"

"Animal!" she hissed at him.

"Perhaps!" he smiled. "A panther I would like to think…slow, deliberate, and deadly… very, very deadly." He looked at Lee, and shook his head in mock concern. "It looks like the good Admiral will not be watching the performance…too bad, I had hoped to give him some interesting moments…No matter, I think it is time for us to begin our little, what shall we call it, my dear, a tete-a-tete?"

"Call it what it is, Judd…a rape," she said hoarsely. "I want you to know I hate you!"

"Good, Caitlin, good…Hate is a wonderful thing. Become filled, consumed with hate…it is such a good motivator! Ask your mother sometime about hate. She knows it so, so well."

He bent over her, his huge form shadowing her, "I think that I should begin here…" He locked a finger into her T-shirt, and in one swift movement, tore it down the center. Then he reached down, and ripped her bra open. Her breasts spilled free, and he licked his lips in anticipation. "Lovely…so very lovely…" he murmured. He first ran a hand over one, and then the other, softly caressing, and then he put his mouth to one…first licking then, biting and tearing. She screamed, a deep guttural scream, borne of pain, deep and soul-wrenching. He looked up and hit her again, and then resumed what had been interrupted …

 

 

Lt. Robert Crane walked up the path to his home. It was so good to be home! It seemed that it had been a long time, even tho it had been a brief 12 weeks since his leave after nuclear prototype school ended in Charleston. Now, Sub school, in New London, was over, and in two weeks, he was on his way to his first posting, on the Prometheus, the Navy’s first new nuclear sub in a dozen years. He paused at the door and slid his key into the lock. Caitlin and his father weren’t expecting him today. He put his duffel down in the foyer, and he saw the roses strewn on the foyer floor. A tingle of fear trickled down his back. He looked around the Great Room, and saw the phone lying on the floor, base and handset in two different places. He saw the stain of blood on the carpet, and the general chaos in the usually neat room. He was becoming more and more alarmed. He turned and looked into the kitchen, and then at the stairs to the upper part of the house.

He found his voice… "Dad!…Caitlin!!"

When he received no response, he called louder, "Dad!! Caitlin!!!"

He took the steps two at a time, and halted on the landing, seeing what looked to him like a trail of blood leading to his parent’s room.. Then he heard it…a soft moan, pain-filled, and agonized… an evil laugh, … a voice, not his father’s.

" Ahhh, … Caitlin, you are so sweet…" R.C.’s blood chilled…

"Dad!!! … Caitlin!!!…"

In a few strides he was at the door of the bedroom, and the scene froze him in place. A huge man was straddling his stepmother. The man’s shirt was open and he was out of his pants. She was tied to the bed, and was naked to the waist…her face and torso were bruised, and bloodied. Her right eye was blackened, the other swollen almost shut. The man had his hands on her hips. His father was bound, gagged and unconscious in a chair, next to the bed. Robert saw the bloodied pant leg, his anger, and fear then rose to the fore.

Caitlin saw him in the doorway, saw the look on his face, and through bruised, swollen, bloodied lips, rasped, in a barely audible voice. "Robert! No!!"

Judd had had his hands on her shorts, and was beginning to pull them down as she cried out. He quickly turned and looked at the young man in the doorway. A younger version of the woman’s husband to be sure. Before Judd could react, Robert had launched himself at the man, knocking him from the bed, and became entangled with him on the floor. Once he recovered from his surprise, at being hurled to the floor, all of Judd’s personal training rose in him. He punched at the body on top of him, finding satisfaction in making contact with flesh and hearing a grunt, that indicated that he had, at least startled his adversary. The two men battled briefly, and then Judd hit Robert squarely in the jaw, stunning him.

Judd stood. He looked at Caitlin, who had been struggling weakly, to see what was happening. He knelt next to her on one knee, buttoning his shirt and putting on his pants, as he talked to her. With his other hand, he viciously squeezed her bruised body, making her moan in further pain. He spoke to her, calmly, in an almost business - like manner, as his hands continued to torment her .

"I’m afraid I’ll have to leave this unfinished between us, my dear. But I’ll wait for another opportunity… I will have my time with you. It may be some time, but I will have you again…completely." He bent over her, and kissed her again, ravaging her mouth and neck a final time…

"Tell your dear mother I said ‘thank you’ for the opportunity to get to know you so well… and tell your husband that I said that you are very good!!"

He went to the door to the deck, and went out, gingerly jumping down to the beach. He rounded the house, and his driver saw him, and started the car. Judd casually got in, and they drove off, and out of the Institute grounds, before anyone knew what had taken place…

 

 

Robert came to his own awareness slowly. Hearing a voice, he began to become more alert, and he heard the deck door open, and footsteps and then silence. Shaking his head to clear it he rose to his feet, and looked around the room. He was, momentarily indecisive, not knowing who to go to first. He went to his stepmother.

She opened her eyes, as much as she could, and saw him. Her body shuddered.  "Oh... God, … No!!!… Robert!!…No!!!" Her voice was harsh, weak and torn from the screams that her attacker had ripped from her. She twisted her head away from him, the humiliation of the deeds done to her not as bad as Robert finding her like this!!

He reached out to touch her face, gently and began to talk to her as one would talk to a sick child "It’s going to be okay, Caitlin. It’s going to be okay. Easy...just take it easy.  Caitlin…do you know…who did this to you?" he softly told her as he reached for the ropes that held her to the bed, untying them as gently as possible. Seeing her wrists torn and bloodied by her struggles, he carefully unbound them, and then released her ankles as well. He went to the closet and pulled out a robe. It happened to be his father’s blue one, and he wrapped it around her.

Then he moved to his father and cautiously untied him, lifting him cautiously and laying him down on the bed. He looked at the leg wound, and taking a towel from the bathroom, tore it and wrapped it around the leg, cushioning the wound. Robert felt for a pulse. It was light and thready. Lee felt cool, almost clammy to the touch. Robert was convinced he was already in shock.

Caitlin took his head into her lap, and then began to lightly stroke his forehead. She said nothing, yet made a slight rocking motion as if one were soothing a child. Robert sat next to her on the bed for a moment. My God! She’s in shock! What did that monster do to them?!

Quietly but her, reassuringly, he told "The phones here are out, Caitlin. I’m going to get my cell phone from my duffel. I’ll be right back…" She nodded mutely. He rose and quickly went down the stairs, dug the cell phone from his bag, and dialed. He was talking as he went up the stairs and back to the room.

"Frank, this is R.C. Crane. Something’s happened at my parents, I need you and Jamie here, now! You’ll need an ambulance… My father’s been shot, and….there’s more…Just get here."

He then dialed security. "Chin! R.C. Crane. My parents have been attacked here at the house…. Get here!"

He went back upstairs and stood silently in the doorway, watching Caitlin as she cradled his father, knowing that the next call would be the most difficult one…he had to call Admiral Nelson and Karen. He had to let them know of the horror that had just taken place. Crossing the room, he sat again next to Caitlin, and went to put an arm around her, to comfort her, and she violently pulled away from him.

She turned to look at him, a dazed expression in her eyes, and said, in a barely audible voice, "Don’t call them… not yet. I don’t want them to see me like this… I have to get cleaned up. We have to take care of Lee. He’s hurt so badly…his leg…there’s so much blood downstairs. I’ve got to clean it up. I can’t let Mom see . . ." she gestured towards Lee’s leg, and her voice drifted off.

R.C. watched her as she sat there.  “Caitlin…who did this?” his hushed voice barely audible.

Her almost vacant eyes looked at him, almost not seeing him.  In a voice so tiny and quiet, she spoke, “Judd.”  The doorbell rang. She jumped, her nerves raw and to the breaking point.

"I’m sure that it’s Will and Frank, Caitlin. I’ll be right back," he calmly but quietly told her. He was almost afraid to leave her...there was no doubt that she was in shock, but he had to go let the med personnel in.

He fairly bolted down the stairs, and yanked the door open. The two doctors stood there, staring at him. "Upstairs, the bedroom…" He stopped, choking on the next words, "He was…trying to … to… rape Caitlin… I stopped it…She’s…" Frank went on ahead, Will Jamison taking the young man by the arm to the steps.

"Are you okay, R.C.?" He gently turned Robert’s face, and stared. "You’ve got quite a bruise rising there."

He nodded, "I’m all right, Will. Just take care of them …take care of Dad and Caitlin, …Please!"

Hearing the young boy in the man’s voice, Will Jamison patted R.C.’s arm. "We will, Robert. You know that." The young naval officer nodded numbly, and sat heavily on the steps, as the older doctor took the stairs. He took several deep breaths, and then, quickly went to the small bathroom beneath the stairs, where he was violently ill. He came out, after washing, and went back up to his parents room…

If Will or Frank noticed R.C.’s pallor, neither man said a word. Frank was working on Lee, hanging an IV of warmed platelets, and pushing an IV of Ringer’s into the Seaview’s Captain, in order to speed his recovery from the shock of the blood loss. He was also wrapping the leg wound, while giving orders to the corpsman. They had moved Lee to a stretcher, and were preparing to transport him to the Med Facility.

Jamison was with Caitlin. She was sitting on the bed, her arms now in the robe, and he was gently wrapping her wrists with gauze and antibiotics, and talking to her in almost a whisper. Slowly she stood up and let Will lead her towards the doorway. She stopped briefly at the stretcher where Lee was lying, reaching out towards him, and then pulling her hand back, as if she were afraid to touch him. "Lee…?" she whispered.

Frank looked up, and nodded at Jamison, who softly spoke to her, "He’s going to be ok, Caitlin. Frank’s taking good care of him…  We’re getting him to the Med Center…  We’re going to take you there, too. Okay?"

She nodded slightly, still in a daze, and let him lead her to the door…

 

 

At the Nelson home, Karen and Harriman were having lunch with their son, Sean. A second year man at the Naval Academy, Sean had come home very unexpectedly when Bancroft Hall, the residences and more had to be closed down for fumigation of a tick infestation. No one knew where or how, but there had been too many cases of tick bites, and several of the ticks had tested as carriers of several tick borne diseases. The Superintendent had elected, at the advice of the Medical Department, to have the massive building fumigated at once, and closed it down for a week, sending the entire Brigade of Middies home for a week. Harriman and Karen Nelson had been elated. For, if the truth be told, in spite of the brave front that they put on for family and friends, they sorely missed their only son.

Sean was making his way toward the Dining Room, when the flash of a red light caught his eye. He went to the front door, and looked out, then went purposefully back to the Dining Room.

"Dad, maybe you’d better call Uncle Lee and Caitlin…there’s an ambulance at their door."

Harriman Nelson looked up in alarm, "What?"

"An ambulance, and Commander Chin just pulled up," Sean confirmed.

Nelson tossed his napkin on his plate, and, rising, strode toward the door. Karen followed close behind, "Harriman, I’m coming with you!" She reached out and, giving Sean a look, made sure the young man was close to his father as he left the house. The three of them reached the front door of the Crane’s in several minutes, having run for most of the way down the hill. Pausing for breath, they then entered the foyer. The small room was crowded with people. Thomas Chin and several security men were there along with several corpsmen, and R.C. Crane. Chin, and his assistant, Yeung, were talking to the younger Crane. When R.C. looked up and saw the Nelsons, he put a hand on Chin’s arm, directing the attention their way.

The security chief turned around. At that moment, Will Jamison was leading Caitlin down the stairs. Karen stared at her daughter, shocked at her appearance ...

"Will?" Karen stammered, unbelieving at what she was seeing.

When Caitlin heard her mother's voice, she looked at Karen. Trying to form words, that would not come, she finally said, in a voice that was childlike and barely above a whisper, "Mommy, he hurt me." and she suddenly collapsed into Jamison's arms. Will grabbed her, but it was Sean Nelson who lifted his sister up, and following Jamison’s nod, carried her to the waiting ambulance. Karen swayed, stunned by her daughter’s condition, and Nelson steadied her. She, too, moved quickly toward the ambulance.

Then a few moments later the stretcher carrying Lee Crane was carried down the stairs. Lee was pale, an oxygen mask covering his face. There were two IV bags on the stretcher, one of them containing blood. There was a massive white bandage on his leg, and the remains of the blood soaked pant leg that clung to it.

Harriman Nelson moved haltingly towards Lee, looking at Frank, and then realized that R.C. was here, too. He was so overwhelmed by emotions, so shocked by the sight, that he was barely able to ask the young officer, "R.C. what…what happened here?"

"Sir?  Admiral…I… I’m not sure myself. I came home today instead of tomorrow, I was able to wangle myself a seat on a navy transport from Groton. I came into the foyer and saw those roses all over the floor…I saw the blood on the rug in the Great Room. I called for Dad and Caitlin… There was no answer, I went up stairs, and saw the blood on the floor in the hallway, and heard noises from the bedroom, and went in, and there was this huge man, on the bed, over top of Caitlin. She was tied up, and he was…" Robert sucked in his breath, and as angry and upset as Nelson was, he managed to lay a steadying hand on the young man’s arm.

"Easy, son. Just tell me…easy…"

"He was going to… going to…" he hung his head in a moment of infinite grief. Caitlin was as dear to him as his own mother could have been. She was his mother, for but an accident of birth. And to see someone attempting to harm her, and in that way, he was finding it very hard to deal with. " Caitlin saw me, and called to me and he turned…"

"You saw his face?" Nelson coolly replied, the horrible news sinking in.

"Yes, sir. He had gray-green eyes, silver white hair, and he was a big man, Admiral…bigger than Dad and me. I sorta tackled him, and knocked him off the bed. We fought…he punched me, and put my lights out. When I came to...he was gone… Dad’s hurt badly, too, sir."

Nelson patted the young man on the shoulder, "He has Frank and Will looking after him…I’m sure he’ll be okay, Robert."

With eyes filled with pain and grief, he asked Nelson…  "But why, sir? Why would anyone want to do that to Caitlin, and to Dad? Do you have any idea who this is, sir?"

Nelson nodded thoughtfully, trying to contain his own raging emotions. "I may, R.C., I just very well may…" He turned to Thomas Chin, "Thomas, find out if Mr. Ashcroft was on the grounds today... find out when and where...and let me know ASAP…  The man that R.C. just described…it’s got to be him. Find him!  I’m going with the ambulance."

He strode out to the Ambulance, to find Karen and Sean already in the back with the two stretchers, Frank Lerner, and a corpsman. Jamison called him, "Harry, R.C. is here with me...why don’t you come with me, too… I’ve got my car here.... we’ll follow close behind."

 

 

In the Exam room, Jamison moved about setting up the necessary materials to treat and examine Caitlin. These kinds of cases were few and far between for him but he’d do the best he could for her. When he tried to remove Lee’s robe, she held tightly on to it. After several attempts, he stopped trying and let it be. Karen was standing at the opposite side of the bed, holding her daughter’s hand, her eyes glassy with tears unshed. Caitlin looked at Karen, with eyes that were pain filled, "It hurts, Mommy…why does it hurt?"

Karen patted her hand as she would a small child. She brushed a small strand of hair from her eyes and choked a response, "The doctor will make it feel better, Sweets. Let him do what he can, okay?"

Jamie looked at the young woman on the bed, and smiled what he hoped was a reassuring smile. Touching her arm gently, he said to her, "Caitlin, I promise not to hurt you if I can help it...but I do have to examine you…Do you understand that?"

She nodded comprehension but then asked, "Can my Mommy stay with me?"

"Of course she can." He nodded at Karen. Karen’s heart lurched with pain for her daughter.

"Caitlin...honey...the doctor needs for you to take off the robe, and put on the gown...will you do that for him?" she soothingly informed her daughter

She clutched harder at the robe, and looked indecisive.

Jamison saw the look on her face, and again gently said to her, "Caitlin, I just want you to take the robe off… You can hold on to it if you want, but I need you to put this gown on so that I can take care of you. Will that be okay?"

Fright filled her eyes, and she looked to her mother for guidance.

"It’ll be okay, Sweets. Let the doctor do what’s necessary. I promise...it’ll be all right." She smoothed Caitlin’s hair as she used to when she was a small child, and frightened. "I’ll even help you if you like." The young woman on the exam table nodded slowly, and then sat up, and began to take off the robe. Karen Davis Nelson shook with rage and pain, as she saw the marks, bruises and wounds on her daughter’s body. Jamison eased Caitlin into exam gown, and she laid back, clutching the robe and her mother’s hand at the same time.

"I’m tired," she wearily told her mother.

Karen looked at Jamison, and he nodded to her. "Then sleep. Sweets. I’ll be here when you wake up. I promise" Caitlin sighed, and closed her eyes.

Jamison watched, until he saw the pattern of easy breathing that told him she was in a deep sleep, and he spoke softly to Karen, "I’m going to give her a sedative, to keep her sleeping for a while. It will be easier to do the exam and the PERKS procedure if she’s sleeping."

The tears that Karen had held in check began to fall down her cheek. "Will, is she going to be all right…I mean…" she choked. Harriman Nelson came behind his wife, and slid an arm around her waist. She grabbed tightly at his hand.

"She’s had a horrible shock, Karen. We have to wait and see. Right now, she’s retreated to a safe place. We just have to wait."

  

 

Will Jamison stepped into Caitlin Crane's room...Nelson, Karen and Sean stood at the bedside. their faces showed incomprehensible grief. Gently, he said to the Nelson's, "Would the two of you come with me? We need to talk"

Karen turned to the medic, torn between her need to know about her daughter's medical condition, and her desire not to leave Caitlin's side. "I don't want her to be alone, Will."

Sean put a hand on his mother's arm. "I'll stay with her, Mom. I'm not going anywhere for a long time."

Karen looked at Jamie and Harriman. Something in her son's face told her that he was going to be a strong source for her to lean on... just like his father! "Go ahead, Mom." he said gently. Harriman clapped him on the back, too emotional to speak to him. His grief-stricken blue eyes conveyed all of his thanks to his son. He took his wife by the arm, and guided her out the door, after Jamison

Sean pulled a chair next to the bed, and sat heavily.

Looking at his big sister lying there......he couldn't believe that someone would actually do something like this to her. To Caitlin…His 'Taitie'…who had held him close when he fell as a small child, who had told him stories…who had spent hours and hours patiently answering all the questions an inquisitive five and six year old would ask… 'my sister! 'Taitie'!!!! If I could only fix this for you!"

He reached for his sister's hand, his head a jumble of questions and emotions.

Yet as he touched it, she suddenly pulled it away...even in her unconscious state, she recoiled from the touch of another man.

He shook his head in grief...'Poor Caitlin! Who was this animal!' She stirred again, and tried to open swollen eyes...

"Who are you?" she whispered, afraid of another person she did not know, yet not fearful of the presence of this 'boy'.

"I'm Sean, Caitlin.  Your brother.  Don't you remember?"

"A brother…I don't have a brother... where's my Mommy? and my Daddy?"

Sean was stunned.  Caitlin had no idea who he was. "Your mommy? Mom and Dad are in with the doctor.  You're going to be ok, you know. Doc Jamison said so..."

"Who is Doc Jamison? Mine and Mommy's doctor is Doctor Miller…they live next door. They have a son… are you a friend of his?"

"I uh…yes…uh I'm a friend…."

"My daddy's name is Robert. What's your daddy's name?"

Carefully, Sean considered his answer. Obviously, Caitlin had no idea who he was.  She thought her own father was still alive even though he'd died many years ago. Yet she thought his father, Harriman Nelson, was, in fact, Robert...her own father.... It was all so confusing.   Something was terribly wrong.  What had happened to his sister to make her be like this? This animal had attacked her, but what happened to her mind? Why didn't she know him? She was there when he was born. Yet...

For another time in his life, Sean Pearce Nelson had a long list of questions for his parents, and the sinking feeling that answers would not be forthcoming!  Dad… He would ask his father for answers…Harriman Nelson would have to tell him something!

He looked again his sister. Tears of rage, and pain streamed down his cheeks. She was beginning to sleep yet again, but she reached up and touched his cheek… "Don't cry, boy.  Don't cry," she whispered sleepily. "Everything will be all right." Her hand fell, as she drifted to sleep and the tears of the 'boy' fell on the sheet, and on her hand...

 

 

"Karen, Harry, sit down, so that I can talk to the two of you."

The Nelsons had been summoned to Will's office. Sean had volunteered to sit with his sister, even though Will had promised that she wouldn't wake up for quite a while. Jamison drew a deep breath. Somewhere in his subconscious mind he thought… 'As I get older, life is supposed to get easier. It seems to me that it is only getting harder, not easier! I am really getting too old for this!'

He fidgeted with some papers, looking away, before he looked at the Nelsons, and began, announcing flatly, "She wasn't raped. The only evidence of sperm was older than six hours, and the testing indicates that it was Lee's."

Karen had been holding her breath, and now she let it out with a deep exhale, and then grabbed Nelson's hand tighter than before, if that was at all possible.

"However, the rest of the news is more grim. He did do some significant damage to the tissue of her breasts and there is some damage to other parts of her upper body, her neck, her shoulders…and some to the abdomen as well…her arms, and legs, particularly her thighs are very badly bruised. And her ankles and wrists are deeply abraded, there may even be some permanent scarring. The police have all the information that we can give them, they've taken pictures, and the samples, and they want to talk to Lee and Caitlin, of course, but I can put that off indefinitely. She will recover, Karen, Harry… It may take a long time, but she will…

 

 

Leaving Will Jamison's office, Karen Nelson was seeking something.  Solace.  Release from her formidable guilt, some sort of sign that this was all a nightmare, a horrendous nightmare that they would all wake from and be able to assign to the subconscious dream world as a non-event.

Unfortunately that was not the case. She knew that it was all too real! Her daughter, and her daughter's husband were in the Med Bay because of her.  All because of her…

Standing outside against the railing in rear of the Sick Bay building, Karen looked out at the almost motionless sea. Several clouds dotted the azure blue sky, moving slowly and changing shapes as the moments wore on. She left and walked down the walkway to the steps which led to the beach below. Struggling through the loose sand, she walked...faster and faster...until she was almost into a run. Then suddenly.... she came to an abrupt halt and fell to her knees.

"No!!!!! Oh, God...No!!!!!" was the anguished cry. Tears, violently streaming down, as she rocked back and forth. Gasping for breath between the tortured sobs, she screamed, "Oh God! Please forgive me! Please forgive me, … Caitlin! This was never meant to happen! Please … forgive me!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Silently, another figure had come up from behind and gently knelt down beside her. She felt arms surrounding her, cradling her as if she were a child. Harriman Nelson had followed his wife down to the beach, knowing her habits well from their years together. She would go to the one place where she could let the power of nature take hold of her being...where there was a much Higher Power at work that could calm and soothe her.  Holding her, he said nothing. There was nothing that he could say at this time that would make one whit of a difference to Karen.

The tears he had held in abeyance fell silently down as well. His tears mixed with hers and fell to the sand, joining them in the insurmountable grief and pain that both felt, and yet, until this moment, hesitated to show to one another.  Caitlin may not be his biological daughter...but she was as much his as Sean was. To see her in the pain she was in the bruises, the cuts, the mental torment...was devastating to him. To see his daughter like this...was almost as painful as if she had been killed.

Suddenly he was aware of Karen talking very rapidly. "I should have told her…I should have protected her from…I should have…"

"Karen...ssshhh...it wouldn't have made any difference.... you can't reason with insanity. Especially Judd's kind of insanity."

"But I should have known, Harriman...I should have known he wouldn't stop. Not after what he did to Lee and R.C. last year. My GOD! Harriman...he wanted to rape her in front of Lee! Oh, God!"  She was shaking violently and the tears wouldn't stop. "He wants me! Don't you see? He's after me and he's not going to stop until he destroys me! And he doesn't care who he hurts or how. All because of me!  He hurt my child...because of me!!!!!!!"

"We can't let him win, Karen...we won't!!!!. If you want blame...then I'm to blame also. Briggs offered to take care of the situation last year and I wouldn't let him. I told him that we take care of our own. Maybe, if I had let him handle it, this might not have happened. I don't know. . . .we'll never know. He's insane, Karen...insane with revenge. You can't reason or predict logic with insanity."

Harry took both his hands and cupped her face, turning it toward his. Locking eyes, he forcefully said through his own tears, "I swear to you...we'll get through this some way...we'll get that bastard for what he's done and make him pay for it. But we'll do it the way it should be done. Together! Do you understand? He's not going to win, Karen. He's not! Do you understand me? He's not going to win because we won't let him!"

Her eyes were locked into his so tightly, his blue ones boring into her brown ones like liquid steel. She slowly nodded in the affirmative and then collapsed, exhausted in mind and body, in his arms.

 

 

When Karen and Harriman returned to Caitlin's room a half hour later, they found Sean seated next to the bed, his head leaning on the rail, his hands wrapped around Caitlin's hand. He didn't move when they entered, and only his father's touch stirred him to react.

"Sean?" Nelson asked quietly.

"She doesn't know me!" he replied sadly. "She doesn't know that she has a brother. She thinks you’re her father...Robert." He looked up, the anguish in his eyes drilling into Harriman Nelson's already shattered heart.

"I know," was the only reply that the Admiral could say.

"Why, Dad? Why?" There seemed to Sean to be no relief from the punishing sorrow that filled his very being. His father's eyes told him that the Admiral was feeling similar emotions. Sean stood, and his father stepped back to allow Karen to take the seat their son had just vacated. She nodded at her husband, and father and son left the room for the small office down the hall that was allocated for the Institute Director's use when he was in the Med Facility.

Harriman Nelson opened the door into the office, let Sean pass, and then closed the door behind him.

Sean turned on his heel and looked at his father. "Okay, Dad. Spill it! All of it!!! Right now!!!" Angry and upset, he was taking a tone and attitude with his father that he had never used before.

Nelson had walked to the window and stood gazing out. He either didn’t hear his son or refused to answer.

"Dad!"

Turning around to face him, Harriman Nelson slowly but carefully told him, "Caitlin and Lee were attacked by the man you knew as William Ashcroft. His real name, however, is William Ashcroft Judd, Junior. All that I can, and will, tell you is that he’s an old enemy of ours."

"All!!! All that you can say...all you’ll tell me...is that he’s an old enemy?!! That's not good enough, Dad. A lot’s happened here today, and all that you’ll tell me is that he’s an old enemy? Not god damned good enough!!!!"

Nelson went into his shut down mode, and quietly but forcefully answered his son, in a tone icy and brittle. "He’s an old enemy, Sean...the same man who kidnapped R. C. and Lee. He has some scores to settle with us, and this is how he went about it. We were caught unawares, not once but twice. It will not happen again!"

"You're damn right about that, Dad, because if we catch this guy, I'm going to be the one to kill him…for what he did, and tried to do, to Caitlin!"

"No, you won’t!… All of us would like to, but none of us will…We will leave his capture and punishment to the proper authorities, and no one…understand me, no one from this Institute, or this family will take any action against him!!! No one, Sean!"

"Dad!"

Nelson placed a strong hand on his son's shoulder. Sean looked at his father, and the two men shared a silent moment, full of emotions and feelings that neither could yet express. Finally, Sean asked him, "Will Caitlin be okay, Dad? Will she come back to us?"

Wearily, rubbing his eyes as tears formed, Harriman Nelson told his son, "Will Jamison seems to think that given time…yes, she’ll be back with us. All that she needs, all that we all need, is time…"

"Yes, Dad…I need time to find out who Judd really is and what really happened, and I will…I will"…

 

 

Several hours later, Karen Nelson walked to her husband’s study. She had come home to shower and change, and make a phone call…one very important phone call!

Karen closed the door to the study then went to Harriman's desk. Sitting down in the huge overstuffed leather chair, she felt as if her whole being had been ripped from her. This man...this animal had done this...this...thing to her child. When she had learned the identity of the man who was behind the kidnapping of Lee and R.C. last year, she had begun to suspect that it wouldn't stop until this person was dead. Like his father before him, William Judd was crazy. But crazy like a fox.

When Michael had told her that it was Judd who had masterminded the kidnapping, she knew in her heart it wouldn't stop until one of them was dead. The man was bent on revenge. Revenge against her for that fateful day in the militia compound so many years before...and to him, revenge also meant death.

Now he'd gone after her child...her first born. An innocent. The damn coward.  The goddamn coward!

He's afraid to face me! To come after me! So he goes after the innocent.

Her eyes gravitated toward the telephone on the desk and then before she knew it, she had picked it up and dialed. Hitting the speaker button and replacing the handset, she slumped back into the seat as the phone began to ring on the other end. A few seconds later, a decidedly feminine voice answered.

"Angel 1 compound . . ."

Finding her voice, she inquired, "Is he in?"

A slight hesitation, then, "Yes, ma'am. Can you hold for just a moment?"

"Fine...just get him to the phone...now!" Karen calmly but forcefully told her.

"Yes, ma'am, Mrs. Nelson...he'll be on the line in just a moment," the voice replied and the put the call on 'hold.'

Karen was one of the few people allowed the use of this particular line and with the ID trace he kept on all lines, it was easy enough for the young woman to know who she was talking to.

Some old habits die hard, don't they, Michael?

A few seconds later, the line became active again as a man's voice came over the line. Older, but most definitely still smooth and sexy...he cheerfully asked, "Hi, beautiful…what can I do for you?

Finding her voice and trying to keep it calm and on an even keel, she hesitated then slowly replied, "Michael, Judd's at it again. This time...this time, it's...it's Caitlin, Michael. He tried to...to…rape her."  This time, however, her voice betrayed the pain as it broke.

It took a few seconds for the news to register with him. "What!  Oh, my dear God! Karen, is she....?"

"Michael . . .he bruised her...beat her. He shot Lee . . .made him watch. They're both in MedBay."

Michael Briggs was stunned. He could hear the pain in Karen's voice as she tried to tell him what had happened. These two women were very special to him and now they had been hurt by this madman. He could hear barely audible sobs over the telephone and realized that, for the first time since he'd known Karen Davis, she was crying.

"Oh, God, Karen...I'm so sorry. How...I mean...what happened? I thought he’d slipped from sight after last year. We hadn't heard anything out of him...damnit to hell! Oh, God, Karen...Caitlin, is she going to be all right?" The pain in his voice was evident to anyone with earshot.

"We don't know, Michael. We just don't know. That animal didn't complete the act…he got interrupted 'cause R.C. came home a day early and found them. He found Caitlin stripped to the waist, tied to the posts on their bed...Lee'd been shot and was unconscious in the bedroom. He'd evidently carried him up there to watch. . .. Oh, God, Michael, he fully intended to rape her in front of him…" she wearily replied, the anguish in her voice was mixed with the pain. Her baby…her child… had been violated and all she could do was sit here and cry.

A few minutes passed...neither of them spoke.

He didn't know what to say to her...he was on the other side of the country, yet all he wanted to do was grab the next jet available and come to her side and simply hold her. To let her cry out all her grief and anger over this. However, Michael knew that was impossible, so he had to be satisfied with simply sitting on the other end of the telephone listening to her...in a pain that he could never truly know but cut him to the very core regardless. He heard the crying stop and he waited.

Then with a coldness he hadn't heard in a very long time, she spoke. "Michael, I want his head. I want it now! I don't care how you have to do it...who you have to pay...but I want that goddamn sonofabitch found and I want him now!"

Briggs knew this was the emotionality of a mother taking hold. He'd known the Davis women far too long to know that Karen wouldn't be any other way about her daughter. For probably one of the few times since he'd known her, he had to be the voice of reason. Drawing a deep breath, he calmly tried to reason with her.  "Karen, I'll see what I can find out. More than likely he's skipped the country. If what you're saying is true, if he's the one who attacked Caitlin, he's smart enough to know that every law enforcement agency in the country will be looking for him. The police were notified, right?"

She fidgeted with a pen on the desk...ironically, one of Harriman's favorites, given to him by Sean as a Father’s Day present. "Yeah… SBPD sent a couple of detectives over. Will Jamison worked with a nurse they brought with them...something called a SANE...I think it's for Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner...she and Will did the examination on Caitlin. God, Michael...she's so scared. What that animal did to my baby . . ." Karen shuddered and strained to continue. "They've confirmed that consummation of the act did not take place. Thank God for small favors. The only semen present was hours old and it belonged to Lee." She was alternating between total unemotionality and almost emotional breakdown. "I understand they're hoping to confirm his identity with the DNA that's on file with the military records section in Maryland. The detective promised me that as soon as they've got everything, he'll be placed on the NCIC computers as well as Interpol. Scotland Yard has been contacted as well as the RCMP."

Briggs listened to her recitation but knew instinctively that a man such as William Judd would simply 'buy' his protection from the authorities. Legitimate law enforcement wouldn't be what brought William A. Judd, Jr. down...if it happened at all...it would have to be more covertly accomplished.

"Karen, they're doing everything they can…"  He hesitated just a moment.  “Are you sure it was Judd?”

Her voice suddenly turned dark and cold...contorted with a pain that, for him, was unfathomable. "Bullshit! And you know it, Michael!  And yes…we’re sure.  R.C. said that she managed to tell him that’s who it was.  Why didn't you take care of him the last time when you had the chance? You knew who he was...you knew what he was capable of doing...and yet...you sat on your ass and did nothing. Now this monster's attacked my daughter and nearly killed my son-in-law. What's he going to do next, Michael? Which of us is he going to come after next? Harriman...Sean…me?" she was almost to the point of raising her voice in a scream yet couldn't find the strength. "I wish the bastard would come after me. Let him face me. Only a coward would do what he’s done!"

She didn't really want to face the reality that she had 'called off the dogs', so to speak, last year. Now she realized what a mistake that had been...that she should have let him taken care of Judd when he first surfaced.

"Karen, I make you a solemn vow, I'll do whatever it takes to find him and deal with him."

"I want that sonofabitch dead, Michael. Do you hear me? Dead! Or else he'll never stop. He's already vowed to finish the job he started on Caitlin. I don't want to even give him the chance."

"Karen, I can't just order a man's death...you know that."

"Bullshit, Michael. It certainly wouldn't be the first time, and it most certainly sure as hell won't be the last. Either you do it, or by God, I'll put whatever resources I have to finding him and do it myself. Either way, he's going to find that I'm not going to roll over and die simply because he's insane. The bastard wants a fight...by God Almighty, I'll give him a fight! If he’s got the guts to face me!"

Briggs could hear that she was dead serious. The tone of her voice was something he hadn't been privy to in a very long while. That last time, he was on the receiving end of the trashing. No, he knew Karen Davis Nelson was deadly serious about finding William Judd. However, he also knew that Karen was, ultimately, a moral person...that she wouldn't stoop to Judd's level.

"Karen, step back a moment and calm down. I know what this bastard did was reprehensible. Personally, I'm surprised that Harriman Nelson's still there and not working to find Judd's ass to kill him. But the fact is, both of you need to leave this to those who can best handle it. Just give me some time, Karen. I'm retired, remember? But I still have some favors I can call in. We'll find him, Karen. I promise you that...and we'll deal with him this time. Our way."

She leaned back into the chair, letting it envelop her. It was her husband's and it clearly fit to his form from years of use...there was something comforting to her about that...almost as if HE were there holding her. She could smell his cologne from years of permeation into the leather. Cradling the phone against her ear, she felt her heartbeat start to slow as a calmness seemed to center over her.

‘Michael's right. I can't go after this idiot! Not by myself, anyway. That's what he wants me to do. He wants to control us...to control Me! To control my feelings and make me like him. He wants me to lose it again. To be just like him!’

"All right, Michael. I'll let you handle this...but I'm warning you...you either deal with him, or I will. Find him and deal with him. I don't care how long it takes. Just deal with him." Her voice was now cold...controlled...unemotional.

Briggs let out a sigh of relief. He knew what would have happened had he not talked her out of it. She herself would have exhausted every method, avenue, and option to find William Ashcroft Judd, Junior and, ultimately, kill him, just as she had done his father some 20 years ago.

"Karen, please know I'm sorry that I didn't take care of him before. Never in my wildest dreams did I think he'd come after Caitlin and do this to her," he slowly told her. The remorse in his voice was most evident. "I swear to you...I'll deal with this situation."

"As I said, Michael, either you do, or I will. It may take me a long time, but William Judd will come to realize who Karen Nelson really is and that Virginians don't like their families threatened."

"Will she be all right, Karen? Mentally and physically? Will she be all right?"

Karen hesitated as she struggled to find the words. This was one area in which her hardened unemotional resolve would not serve her.  "I...we...don't know. She's retreated into the world of a nine year old, Michael. She thinks Harriman is, in fact, her father...that he’s Robert and that he's still alive. She doesn't know who Lee is, only that he's a friend of her Daddy’s. She accepts Sean, but isn't really sure how he fits into the picture. The doctors seem to think it's only temporary...but no one really knows. She keeps hold of Lee's bathrobe, the one she was wearing when they brought her in, the one that R.C. had wrapped around her when he found her. Won't give it up. It's sort of a 'security blanket', they say. A connection to him...so at least there's hope."

"And Crane? How's he taking all of this?"

"Michael, the bastard shot him in the leg...he lost a lot of blood and has a broken leg from the gunshot wound. Judd carried him up to the bedroom and put him in a chair in front of the bed and intended to force Lee to watch him rape Caitlin. Thankfully, for Lee and Caitlin, Lee went into shock and was unconscious. Lee hasn’t come around yet, Michael. I don’t know how he’s going to take it, but I can well imagine! The man is an animal, Michael. No...he's worse than an animal. He doesn't deserve to live."

"Karen, I swear before God that we'll deal with him. I can't tell you that it'll be immediately...but he will be dealt with. He's got too much money and power for you all to handle...just lay back and let us do it. We'll get him. I promise you...and Caitlin...that."

"Thank you, Michael. Please...just get him. Don't let him...don't give him another chance."

"I'll call you when I have something," he assured her. He wanted so much to simply...but he knew he couldn't and never would again. "Take care, Karen. And I'm so very sorry . . ."

She didn't say another word...instead she simply hung up the phone. Leaning back into the chair again, she closed her eyes and let the tears flow free as her heart broke totally in two.

 

 

Lee Crane snapped awake. He sat up in the bed, and called out, "Caitlin!!!"

Two pairs of strong hands forced him to lie back. He looked from one to the other. Will Jamison stood at the left of the bed, his son, Robert at the right. Both had their hands on his shoulders. Jamie spoke to him first.  "Lee, do you know where you are?"

"Of course I do, Jamie…Sick Bay! Where’s Caitlin, Jamie? He had Caitlin tied to the bed… he was going to…"

"Dad, she’s here. A couple of rooms down…She’s okay. He didn’t… I got there before he..."

"Robert! Where did you…when?…" he moved his head back and forth. He scrubbed his forehead with his free hand " I…I promised to take care of her…always…. I didn’t … I couldn’t… I failed her… like I failed Cathy!…Oh, God, it’s happening all over again! You! Karen! The Admiral! I failed you! Failed them all!"

Jamie reached for the needle on the tray and gave Lee an injection. Robert looked at him.

"Just a sedative. He needs to rest. This agitated state isn’t going to help. Stay with him, R.C. He needs to have someone with him. Over the years, I’ve found he recovers more quickly if he’d not alone."

Robert nodded in agreement. The young Lieutenant was bone tired, saddened and, frankly, scared as well. It wasn’t as if he’d not seen in his father in the Med Center, or hospital. It wasn’t even as if he had a fear that his father was going to die. He was afraid of this horrific evil that existed, that would harm his father, and try to harm Caitlin in such a way. He wondered who this man was, and more importantly, why he had singled his parents out for such…treatment. When he had been lying on the floor of the bedroom, trying to recover his wits, he thought he heard the man refer to Karen…. What was it he had said, ‘Tell your dear mother I said thank you for the opportunity to get to know you so well’… He sat back in the chair, and put his head into his hands. ‘Who is Judd…?Why…?’

He didn’t hear anyone come into the room, and he jumped when a hand touched his shoulder. He looked up into a pair of bright blue eyes, that he immediately recognized, and he stood. "Uncle Chip! Sir!"

Chip Morton’s smile was a kind one, his face a picture of concern for the young man and his father. "How’s Lee?"

"He came around a bit before, and was upset, so Jamie gave him a sedative…He’s been restless."

"How are you doing, R.C.? You look a little bit over the edge," Morton’s voice was soft, and concerned.

"I guess I’m doing okay. I’ve been here, going on…" He glanced at his watch, "...36 hours now. I got in yesterday at 1530 and went right to the house. I’ve been with Dad since they brought him in."

Chip laughed without humor. "Been there and done that more times than I care to count, R.C. Seems to be the lot of the XO on our boat. Keeping vigils for the commanding officers!"

Some of the tension left Robert’s body. "Dad’s told me that time and time again. He never would have made it without you! And here you are again.! … Uncle Chip, do you know who this man is that did this? Does anyone?"

Chip sat in a chair next to R.C. forcing the younger man to also sit. "A lot of what I know you’ll have to leave to Lee and the Admiral to answer and tell you about. I’m really not free to talk about it. . . .And even if I was, it’s Lee’s, or the Admiral’s place, not mine to talk to you. I’m just here to check on the boat, and the like…."

Robert nodded and then said very quietly, "He’s blaming himself for what happened. He said he should have protected Caitlin. Like he should have protected my mother." The young man looked at his godfather, his green eyes dark with fearful questions. "He couldn’t have protected her, could he?"

Chip sighed. Cathy Crane, Lee’s first wife, and Robert’s mother had been killed in a car crash long ago. As far as Chip knew, that was all that Robert had ever been told. He was in an awkward position… He wanted to tell R.C all that he needed to know, but he didn’t want to violate any confidences either…. He sighed heavily again.  "Maybe I shouldn’t tell you this, R.C., but, well, here goes…The accident that killed your mother wasn’t an accident. It was caused by members of a group that was trying to keep your father from a mission. They thought that if you mother was dead, that the mission would be called off and your father would be unable to participate in any future missions. Well, Lee went ahead with the mission anyway. It was as if he was driven to do it. Then, when we found out what had really happened, Lee blamed himself for your mother’s death. He blamed himself for a long time. Caitlin helped him get over that." Chip shook his head sadly. "Now this, well, I wish I knew how to help him. Your father blames himself for a lot of things that are beyond his control…"

 

 

Lee Crane was fighting his own demons. His sleep was a restless one. Cathy and Caitlin’s faces were blending together. They were crying for help, hands reaching for him, calling out for him to help them. He was trying to reach them, to get to them, but something, someone was holding him back.

‘I’ve got to get them!! Got to help them! Cathy!!! Caitlin!!!! I’m sorry!!!! Oh, God, I’m sorry!!!!’

He woke, bathed in perspiration. This time, he didn’t sit up with a start. Instead, he slowly looked around the room, and saw both Robert, and Chip Morton sitting at the other side of the room, talking. He moved, realizing that his leg was in a cast to his hip. He didn’t feel anything in the leg. He swore silently. There were several IV lines attached to his arm. He looked over at the two men on the other side of the room, deep in conversation, and he called to Robert in a low voice.

"Robert…" he raised his voice a little more, "Robert…"

Robert Crane looked over to the bed, and seeing his father awake, a broad smile spread across it. Chip also looked in the direction of the bed, and both men rose, and went to Lee’s side.

"Dad! Glad that you’re awake."

Chip Morton grabbed his arm. "Lee.."

"Chip…How long have I …you were away…the family…."

"We came back a little early...the Admiral called."

"Caitlin! Where’s Caitlin? How is she?" his face showed the pain and visible concern. He wanted to know...he needed to know...where and how she was.

"She’s in a room nearby, Dad. The Admiral and Karen haven’t left her side, except to shower and change. And neither has Sean. So she hasn’t been alone."

"Have you…seen her?" the elder asked the younger.

Robert cast Chip a look. "They aren’t allowing any visitors, Dad. Jamie says that it’ll be a while yet."

"Chip?" Lee snapped into his command mode. He had to know. Now!

"Yes, Lee?"

"Find Jamie, for me, …Now!"

"Aye, Skipper." Chip knew better than to argue with Lee Crane’s ‘brook no interference attitude!’ Chip exited the room, quickly, and Lee began to question his son.

"What happened, Robert? How did I get here? How long have I been here? The last thing that I remember was being in the bedroom, he had Caitlin… What about Caitlin? Was she…?" his voice faltered. Here, he was not the Seaview’s firm and assured Captain, but a confused, and hurting husband of an attempted rape victim, something he, none of them, had no reference to.

Robert’s grip on his father’s arm tightened. He spoke to Lee softly, "Caitlin wasn’t raped, Dad. I…I stopped him, before he…before he could hurt her further." The young man shuddered, and this time it was the father who tightly gripped the son.

"Thank you." Lee said quietly. "At least someone was able to help her." He sighed sadly.

"Dad, this wasn’t your fault. You were wounded. You couldn’t help anyone, much less stop this maniac!"

"I should have protected her! She shouldn’t have been put in a position like that! I should have known who he was!"

"How, Dad? How could you have known who he was? You’d never seen him before… You had no frame of reference!"

"I should have known, and protected her!" was his anguished reply. "I should have known! … Just like I should have known what was going on, and protected your mother!"

Lee turned his face from his son, and buried it into the pillow. The tears that he was holding with the pain from his wound and his broken leg, together with the wretched loss of his sense of self, welled over, and spilled onto the white linen. Robert wanted to retreat, to let his father, the very private person that was Lee Crane, be alone at that moment, but he remembered Jamie’s words, about how his father hated to be alone. So he stood at the bedside, gripping his father’s arm, benumbed by the emotions his father was displaying, the emotions he himself was feeling. Finally, Robert eased his hand from his father’s arm, and continued to stand silently by the bedside.

In all of his career, Lee Crane had faced many things, and faced them head on. He had never, however, faced the overwhelming sense of failure that he felt right at that moment. He had lost Cathy because in his own arrogance, he had thought her safe, and he had failed to protect her. Caitlin, and her love and warmth, had helped him, if not overcome the sense of failure, then at least accept that there was nothing he could have done about it.

And now, Caitlin…his Caitlin…his Little Girl…he had failed her, too. He had failed to keep her safe, in the one place above all that she should have been safe. Her home,… their home, on the grounds…. He had to see her, … to talk to her, … to tell her he was sorry!

Gingerly, he pushed himself up on his elbows. Robert looked at him, questioning, "Dad?"

"I need to see Caitlin. I need to see her now!"

Robert put a restraining hand on his father’s shoulder. "Dad, this isn’t a good idea. You’re not ready to get out of bed, and Jamie has said no visitors."

"She’s my wife, damnit!!!! I’m not a visitor…I’m her husband!"

"And the current behavior of her husband is just what she doesn’t need, Lee!" Will Jamison walked into the room followed by Chip Morton. Seaview’s Exec hung in the doorway, and he signaled to Robert to come towards him.

The young officer turned back to his father, "I’ll be back in a few minutes, Dad."

Lee nodded to Robert, and left the room in Chip’s company. Jamison took his place at Lee’s side. He reached for Lee’s wrist to check his pulse.

"I want to see Caitlin, Will, I have to see her!"

"I can’t let you out of that bed, Lee. The femur was fractured by the bullet. I should put you in a fixator for at least three weeks. I hesitate, only because of the wound itself. I want that to heal, first. You cannot move that leg. If you do the results could be devastating! I can’t let you out of the bed."

"Leg be damned! I don’t care about my damned leg! My wife was attacked, assaulted in our home, I was shot. I come to, and you tell me I can’t see her because of my injuries?!!  Will, I want to see Caitlin, and I want to see her now!…What aren’t you telling me about her? What’s happened?"

Jamison cleared his throat. There were few things that he had to do in his career on Seaview which were as difficult as this was going to be. He sat in the chair next to the bed, and stuffed his hands into the pockets of the white lab coat that he was wearing. He looked at Crane, took a deep breath, and began, "Caitlin’s a strong woman, Lee. In time, I believe she’ll be alright. I’m just afraid that it’ll take some time. I still don’t have all of the picture in my mind,… perhaps, if you can tell me what happened, or at least what you remember.... maybe that’ll help me to help her....to help the both of you...in a better way."

"I…I’ll tell you , Will… but, what’s wrong with her? How badly was she…hurt? Robert said that Judd didn’t rape her… that he had arrived in time, and …"

"Just because he didn’t conclude the rape doesn’t mean that Caitlin isn’t feeling...isn’t reacting...as if it was. He had her tied to your bed, he was hurting her, every possible way he could, physically and mentally. He was going to humiliate and degrade her on her OWN marriage bed. And you were there. His objective was to have you witness her humiliation. Even a very strong mind would have trouble processing that. Caitlin didn’t want to, so she’s ‘gone away’ for a while."

"What…?" Lee’s voice cracked with both disbelief and hurt.

"She thinks she’s nine years old. She doesn’t have any memory of anything past that time in her life. It was a safe time for her...her father, Robert...was alive and they were a happy family."

"Oh , God! Will she come back, Jamie? Will she come back to the present?"

"There’s no reason to believe that she won’t. It’s just going to take time."

"I have to see her!"

"Lee, she won’t know you! It won’t help you....or her!"

"Will, I have to see for myself that she’s all right! Don’t you understand that?" Lee implored the doctor. Caitlin was his wife...his life...he had to know.

Jamison’s lips tightened into a terse line. He was thoughtful for a moment, and then spoke to Crane in a very tight and steely voice, one that was unnatural for him.

"Lee, I’ll let you go and see Caitlin. But only to reassure you that she is physically okay. You can not stay with her. Karen, Harry and Sean are the only people she’s seen. She thinks that Harry is her father Robert. She hasn’t figured out where Sean fits in, but she accepts his presence. I don’t know how she’s going to react to you."

"Alright, Will. I won’t do anything that you don’t want me to. I just have to see that she’s ok. I promise you, I’ll behave." He took a deep shuddering breath, "I have to see her, Will!"

Adopting a comforting tone, he held onto Crane’s arm. "I know that, Lee. If I didn’t, then I wouldn’t let you near her!"

 

 

As he was pushing Lee down the hall in a wheelchair an hour later, he was talking softly to him. "When Robert found the two of you, after this man Judd had run out, he got a robe, from the closet to cover Caitlin with, your old blue one. She hasn’t let the robe go… some part of her knows that it is connected to you. Robert said that she held your head in her lap when he went to get the phone… she told him that you were badly hurt, and that you needed help. And when I was taking her from the room, she stopped by your stretcher, and called your name." He laid a hand on Crane’s shoulder. "Your love for each other is stronger than this horrible thing, Lee. You will work it out…the two of you will."

Lee didn’t respond. His head was filled with all kinds of images, and feelings. There was an emptiness, an emptiness that he had not felt in years. He couldn’t go thru something this again! He wanted to turn around and run away…far away…but Caitlin…His warm, loving, gentle Caitlin…He shuddered, then he called upon that inner resolve that held him in tight control time and time again…Jamison paused outside a door. ‘NO VISITORS’ was posted. This time the doctor’s voice was almost gentle.

"Ready, Lee?"

Crane nodded, and Jamison pushed open the door. Karen Nelson was standing next to the bed, holding Caitlin’s hand. Harriman Nelson, and Sean were sitting in two chairs to the side, behind Karen, deep in conversation. Lee had eyes only for the figure on the bed. Caitlin appeared to be sleeping. The hand that Karen was not holding was clutching a blue robe. It was actually wrapped around her arm. Lee tried to get a grip on the emotions that were raging inside of him. Will pushed him to the bedside, turning the chair so that his leg was protected. Karen bent over and kissed him lightly on the cheek.

"Hello, Lee." She slid Caitlin’s hand into his, and stepped away from the bed. Nelson stood and took his wife in his arms, holding her.

Nelson asked him softly, "How are you doing, son?"

Lee nodded at the Admiral, his eyes fixed on his wife in the bed. She looked so tiny, so vulnerable, and so very fragile. Her sweet face was so badly bruised, her lips swollen and cracked, her eyes blackened. His eyes roamed down her body, taking in the bulges of bandages on her upper body. His grip on her hand grew tighter, his body grew rigid with the anger, and the sorrow that was washing over him. In a voice, that was barely above a whisper, he said, "I’m sorry, Little Girl…so, so sorry!"

He bowed his head, and touched her hand to his cheek. "Caitlin, I love you…"

She stirred in the bed, and Karen moved in behind Lee, laying a soft hand on his shoulder. In a kind voice, she softly told him, "She knows that, Lee. Somewhere . . .deep inside...she knows that. The doctors say that’s why she won’t give up your robe. Somewhere, where ever she is , she loves you and is worried about you. I just keep hoping each time that she wakes up she will be back with us… But the doctors aren’t making any promises."

Caitlin moved slowly about again. She realized that the hand holding hers was different. Her eyes wouldn’t open far, but she could make out the face of a man. ‘A MAN!’ her body tensed. But this man didn’t do anything…He was sitting there holding her hand, and he looked sad…very sad…Her mommy was standing behind him, and when she saw that she was awake, she greeted her with a kind, reassuring smile.

"Hi, Sweets. Did you have a good rest?"

"Yes…" She looked at Lee, faint recognition tickling her brain, but being pushed away by other, darker images, "Do I know you?"

His response was choked, and unsure, "Yes…I’m…I’m a friend of your …Daddy’s."

"Oh… I don’t remember you."

He was taken aback, hearing her words. "Well, I do know you." He smiled at her, through his own pain, and helplessness, realizing that he had to build a bridge to her, if he was going to help her at all.

"Why do you look so sad?"

Lee was startled by the question, failing to remember that she was in a nine year old’s mind. He looked to Karen for what to do.

"Tell her something, just keep it vague," his mother-in-law whispered.

Turning to her, he thought just a moment and then quietly explained, "Because someone very close to me was hurt badly."

She was thoughtful for a moment. Then she slowly pulled her hand from his grasp, and touched his face, "I’m sorry. I hope that they get better soon."

His voice husky with emotion, he replied, "So do I, Caitlin, so do I!!"

She moved her head slightly and looked at Karen, "Mommy, my head hurts! I’m so tired."

Lee took her hand, and placed it back in Karen’s, as Nelson’s wife moved to the other side of the bed. She stroked Caitlin’s head lightly. "Why don’t you try and sleep, Sweets. I’ll be here when you wake up, ok?"

"Mmmnn, yes…" She closed her swollen eyes, and in a few moments, began to breathe slowly and regularly, once again asleep. Lee looked over to Nelson. His mentor wore new lines of grief and pain. The Admiral was concerned, not only about his stepdaughter, whom he dearly loved, but also about his wife and, and their son. The impact of this appalling attack on Caitlin had devastated his wife, and totally confused his son. Sean could not imagine that anyone would want to hurt his sister. And to see what this man had done to her completely bewildered him.

He was concerned for Lee Crane as well. His Captain and friend didn’t deserve this additional pain! In all of the things that they had faced in the years of service on the boat, none of them had faced something like this. Pure, unadulterated hatred, marked by deeds so numbingly cruel, that none of them had any experience with it.

Lee futilely attempted to push away from the beside. Nelson caught the action, and stepped toward him. He cleared his throat, "Let me help, Lee." Crane dropped his hands into his lap. Nelson pulled the chair from the bedside. "Where do you want to go?"

"Frankly, sir,…I don’t know…my room, I guess…I… just don’t know!"

Nelson simply nodded, and began to push the chair from the room. He looked over at Karen, and nodded, saying, simply… "I’ll be back."

She smiled warmly at him, and he pushed Crane out of the room.

 

 

When Lee and Nelson arrived back at Crane’s room, it was deserted. Without a sign of Jamison or Frank Lerner, both men hesitated, and then Nelson pushed the wheelchair next to the bed, and locked it in place. He settled into a chair. Neither man had spoken since leaving Caitlin’s room.

Harriman Nelson studied his friend, and step-son-in-law. That last ‘title’ was most likely the most appropriate to his relationship with Lee Crane. ‘Son’ For many years, the only son Harriman thought he would have. How would he help Sean, his son by Karen, in a similar situation?  What would he say? What would he do? At this time, words escaped him. Perhaps he would let Lee lead the way…

Lee Crane looked at Nelson, his mind a jumble of images and emotions. The Admiral looked older than Lee had ever seen him. He adored his step daughter, she held a special place in Nelson’s heart, not just because she was Karen’s daughter, but also because Caitlin had been the person that had pushed Nelson toward her mother during a time in their courtship that matters had been so very difficult for them. That was over 20 years ago, and the bond that Harriman Nelson had forged with Caitlin Davis was a strong one of deep paternal love and admiration for the talented, gifted woman she had become. The woman that Lee Crane had come to love so deeply!

Nelson finally broke the silence. "Lee…"

"Aye, sir?" Crane snapping, automatically into his ‘role’ of Captain, subordinate, and ‘son’.

He cleared his throat, "When Jamison says it’s time, Karen and I would like to take Caitlin home with us. If she hasn’t…um,…come to herself…it may be the best thing…" Nelson left the sentence hanging, waiting for some response from Crane.

"Of course." Crane’s answer was a monotone. Sadly, he added, "She may never want to come home again."

"In time, Lee. She’ll go home to you in time. Jamison seems confident enough."

Lee looked at the older man, his amber-hazel eyes bleak, "I don’t know, Admiral, I just don’t know. I couldn’t protect her from him! I couldn’t even stop him! Why would she ever want to be with me again?! I failed her! Just like I failed Cathy! … I don’t deserve someone like Caitlin! I can take care of the boat, the men, my friends, but I can’t take care of my own wife!"

Nelson rose from the chair and moved to the side of the man who was his friend and, yes, son. He placed a hand on his shoulder, as the younger man bent his head in sadness, and self-pity. "Lee…" when Crane didn’t react to Nelson calling his name, Nelson called him sharply again "Lee, look at me!"

Harriman Nelson looked at the man who sat before him. His own heart was heavy about the situation in so many ways. Not only for what had happened to Caitlin...the sheer physical pain but the emotional and mental pain and hurt as well. Looking out the window, he thought back over the years.

Then, turning back to his friend...his 'daughter's' husband, he spoke in a barely audible voice. "Do you remember many years ago when Karen was hurt in the Azores? When I almost lost her?"

The younger man slightly nodded.

"You told me shortly before she made that dive that I needed to tell her how I felt...I started to...intended to...tried to, in fact, in my cabin right before she went out. But I didn't. There was something about that dive...I felt it in my gut. I didn't want her to make it. God in heaven, I tried to talk her out of it. But you know how she is." A faint smile formed on his lips. "Karen doesn't take kindly to being told 'NO', especially where the Team is concerned. Anyway, I never got the chance to tell her before the accident. And then I almost lost her. She almost died. I've thought so many times over the years what my life would have been like if I had lost her." His eyes started to mist over as he continued. "When she went away for those six months, part of me died. Believe me, I do know how you feel. You don't know how many times I think back that I should ordered her off that dive."

"Yeah, she would’ve had your head and you know it, Admiral," Crane wearily remarked. "She’s always been strong willed."

Leaning forward, Nelson slightly smiled and replied, "Don't you think I know it?!  When she came back that October, I vowed that I'd always keep her safe...no matter what. Problem was...the one person I couldn't keep her safe from was herself. She had to do that.... She had to come to terms with what went on down there. I pushed her, Lee. I pushed her too soon, and she paid dearly for it."

He looked at Crane as he sat slumped in the wheelchair. "Caitlin's a strong woman, Lee. She's her mother's daughter. Believe me, I know. It's just going to take time. And just like Karen came out it, so will she. Don't blame yourself, son. Judd did this deliberately to get back at us. He's insane and insanity sometimes gives people an advantage we don't fully understand."

Crane raised his eyes to the blue ones that seemed to bore into his soul, "Listen to me! You had no control over the situation! There was nothing that you could do! You were wounded, bound, how could you have helped to stop it? This man, we know how evil he is! We know how diabolical he can be… You and Robert know that first hand! How could you have stopped him?"

"I should have known who he was… I should have called you the night of the Gala, and told you what happened with him! Then I could have kept him off the grounds!"

Nelson stiffened at that statement, "What do you mean? What happened?"

"Ashcroft,… no, I mean Judd…he propositioned Caitlin. He wanted her to become his mistress, tried to seduce her in her office. Offered her a half billion dollars a year for the Institute if she would sleep with him."

Harriman Nelson felt as if he had been slapped in the face. Hoarsely, he questioned, "He did what? Was that why she looked so poorly when you left?"

"Yes, sir. Caitlin said that he promised her all of the computer business for all of his companies for the next ten years, to the Institute, if she would become his mistress. Caitlin said that he told her it would be quite easy, with me being away for long periods on the boat! Told her that she would be bringing quite a price! When she turned him down, he told her she’d regret it. It is my fault!"

"Lee, how could you have known that he would come under the guise of an apology and instead attack! There was no way!"

"I tried to act in a civilized manner, and the result is all of this. Dammit, Admiral! And damn him to hell!!" he heaved a deep, wracking sob, and looked at Nelson, "And what do I do if she doesn’t come back, Harry?"

 

 

Caitlin was having dreams…nightmares really…A man’s face…silver hair, haunting gray green eyes… and a huge pair of hands…hurting…always hurting….and laughter…evil, awful laughter!…

She woke, bathed in perspiration in a bright and airy room, with long white curtains blowing in the windows. She didn’t remember the room…Where was her mother? She raised herself up on her elbow, and looking around the room, saw a lady in white sitting in a chair, reading a book. Lying back into the fluffy pillows, she called, softly, "Where is my mommy?"

The lady in white had a kindly face, and she smiled sweetly at the woman in the bed. "She’s in her room, Caitlin. She was very tired. She needed to sleep." The older woman, obviously a nurse, rose and came towards the bed. "I think that you may need to put on a new nightgown, don’t you?"

She nodded, "Yes, this one is wet!!"

The nurse reached into a high dresser, and took out a white nightgown, moving back to the bed with it. "Will you sit up, Caitlin?"

She nodded, and sat up. Clutching the blue robe in her one hand, she meekly allowed the nurse to change the gown she was wearing to the clean, dry one. The kindly older woman fluffed the pillows, and straightened the covers over her acquiescent patient. Caitlin carefully watched the older woman move about the bright and sunny room.

"Is my Daddy home?"

The nurse smiled at her, "No, dear. He had to go to work."

"And that nice boy, Sean?"

"He had to go back to school?"

"Oh… is that sad man here?"

The nurse looked puzzled, then recalled what Karen had told her about Lee Crane. "No, Caitlin, he has a broken leg, and he is still in the hospital. He did send you something, though."

Caitlin’s interest piqued. "A present! For me?!"

"Yes, dear. Your mother said to give it to you when you woke up."

She clapped her hands together, sitting up as she asked, "May I have it now, please?"

Margaret, the nurse lifted a large, brightly wrapped box, and carried it over to the bed. "Here, dear…It looks very exciting! Such a big box!"

With all of the delight and anticipation of a nine year old, Caitlin tore into the paper and ripped the box open. Inside was a large, soft brown teddy bear.

"OH! Look!" she hauled it out of the box, and squeezed it!

"There’s a card, here, Caitlin."

She carefully opened the card. Inside it read…

Caitlin, I hope that you enjoy this.
Lee Crane

"The sad man… he’s a friend of my Daddy’s"

"And yours too, dear."

Caitlin looked puzzled. "He is?"

"Yes, a very good friend."

She hugged the bear, and wrapped the blue robe tightly around her arm. "Well, I don’t remember him…does he know my Mommy, too?"

"Why yes, he does. Your Mommy and Daddy said that he is a very good man. He’s a submarine Captain."

Caitlin looked at her with interest…"A submarine? Wow! My Daddy has some neat friends! Maybe some day I can go on the submarine!! Mommy was supposed to take me but we never had the time.  Do you think that my Daddy will ask his friend to let me?"

"I’m sure that it can be arranged, Sweets." Karen Nelson had come into the bedroom, and walked over to the bed. She leaned over and kissed Caitlin on the forehead. "How did you sleep, Caitlin?"

She pursed her lips, "I had bad dreams… A mean man…" she shuddered. Then she looked at her mother, her eyes childlike in a woman’s slowly healing, bruised face. "I don’t want to talk about it, Mommy!"

"Okay, Sweets. Maybe you’d like to have a little something to eat? Some soup and some chicken?"

"No jello! I hate jello!"

"Caitlin, we don’t say that we hate things. We don’t hate!"

Caitlin gave her mother a strange look, and the woman/child clutched the bear, and the robe more tightly. "I do…" she whispered in an adult voice. She looked at her mother, and the child came back to the fore. "Look at the bear, Mommy. That sad man sent it to me."

"I know, Sweets. He told me he was sending it to you. It’s a nice bear."

She nodded happily, "I like it. I guess he’s a nice man, even if he is so sad. He came to visit me a lot of times in the hospital. And he always was so nice."

"Lee is a good friend, Caitlin."

She pointed to the nurse. "That lady says that he is a Captain of a submarine. Is he really? Can we go on his submarine some day?"

"Yes, he is a Captain, and yes, maybe we can. That lady is our nurse. Her name is Margaret. Now, let me get you something to eat, and then Margaret is going to help Dr. Jamison to change the bandages."

"I don’t like that! It hurts!" she said sulkily.

Very gently, Karen responded with, "I know it hurts, Caitlin, but we have to take care of those sores so that you can get better. You know that we have to get you better, so that you can get out of bed, and go out again."

"Yes, ma’am," she said sulkily, and then brightened, "And go on the submarine?"

"We’ll see, Caitlin…we’ll see"

 

 

Admiral Lee Crane, Captain of the submarine Seaview, moved the wheelchair around the room for the thousandth time, or so it seemed to him! At least he was leaving the damn Med Center! He was going home with the Morton’s. His house was out of the question with a broken leg. And considering all that had happened there, he wasn’t ready to be home alone anyway. Chip and Matty Morton had extended an invitation for him to stay with them, since they had a guest room on the first floor, and they had plenty of room. Better to be with someone, than with no one. And he had no one! Robert was at school, and his mother, Helen, had passed away almost two years ago, right after Robert had graduated from the Academy.

‘Without Caitlin, he had no one!’

His job, his boat, his extended family of crew, officers, and staff of the Institute, but he had no one! The one thing that Lee Crane hated the most was being alone. At least at Chip and Matty’s there would be people around. Drew and Catherine Elizabeth were still at home. That meant at least there would be some activity.

He had visited with Caitlin a number of times while she was in the Med Center, but as soon as Jamie had given permission, Karen and Harriman Nelson had taken her home with them. Lee had agreed, simply because he had had not choice. There was no way he could take care of her, and she didn’t even know who he was!

He had so many memories of the times he and Caitlin had spent together over the years. It had taken him so long to realize that she was in love with him. All those years lost to him, because he had been too blind, too fixed in his own hurt to see…and now…

Chip Morton’s knock on the door broke his spiral of self-pity.

"Lee…Ready to leave?"

Crane laughed without humor, "I’ve been ready to leave since I got here!"

Morton’s natural good spirits took over. "Then let’s get going, Skipper! Matty and Catherine are looking forward to having you in the house. My son is looking to bend your ear for information about his father, and the Academy! Again!"

"Thanks, Chip…Once again…"

"Belay that, Lee. We’re friends… that’s all!"

"Yes, well, thanks,… friend!"

 

 

Gingerly, Lee Crane walked into the Morton house. He was long used to using crutches, but the leg, in a full cast to the hip was awkward to maneuver, and he was grateful when Matty kissed him and then led him to a chair in the living room. He had had no idea how tired a simple walk from the hospital, and to the house would make him, and he was hoping that the room that Chip and Matty had offered him was ready for him.

"Lee, would you like something…coffee, a sandwich…something?" Matty turned to her husband, "Your sandwich is on the counter in the kitchen, Chip!" she said with a smile to him.

"Nothing for me, Matty, just a bed, I think. I’d like to lie down."

She waited for him to rise, not offering help, knowing Lee too well, that he would rather do it all himself. Once he was standing, she came to his side. "Well, Admiral, you know where we are going! And Lee, you will eat something… I promised Will that I would put some meat on those bones of yours! He told me you’ve lost weight… and you know that you can’t afford to lose weight… How long has Jamie been after you…? 20 some odd years?"

"You sound like Caitlin…she’s always after me to eat… she…" he stopped in mid sentence. Matty looked at him, and saw the pain in his amber-hazel eyes. She touched his arm.

"She’ll be back, Lee. A love like the two of you have… She’ll be back."

"I’m trying to make myself believe that. The counselor says to believe it. I don’t know. I just don’t know!"

In order to try to break his dark mood, Matty moved to the door of the bedroom. "Well, here we are, Lee." She threw open the door of the guest room. It was a large, colorful room, with a double canopy bed in the center, and a desk, TV/armoire, and small music system in the room. The walls were a light green, with a floral border at the ceiling. The room was comfortable without being smothering.

"Thanks, Matty. I think I’ll just rest for a while. Leaving the Med Center tired me out."

She touched his arm again, "When you wake up, I’ll fix you something.. I’m home for the day. Drew has a soccer game at 1500, and Catherine has her volunteer work at the community center at 1730. But other than that, I’m here!" She smiled brightly at him, and quietly closed the door.

Chip looked up from the counter, where he had been studying his coffee. "Is he settling in?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "As well as he can, I guess." She walked around the back of her husband, and dropped her arms around his neck. He reached for her hand. She leaned against him. "I wish I knew what to say to him, Chip. He’s so sad."

"Brokenhearted is more that description, I think. And totally lost. He has all the guilt that he had with Cathy’s death, and more… in some ways this is so much worse for him. I don’t know what we’ll do for him if Caitlin doesn’t recover."

She kissed her husband on the cheek. "Then we have to pray that she does. I don’t like seeing him like this."

"Me either. Maybe you could persuade him to go with you to Drew’s game. Get him out, among people. It has to be good for him!"

"I’ll try. Don’t know if I’ll be a success at it, but I’ll try! … In the meantime, sailor, don’t you have to get to that blessed boat of yours? Something about an electronics project that the O.O.M. is running? ‘

"Yep!" he grabbed at the uneaten half of sandwich, kissed her on the cheek, and headed for the door, "Look after him, Angel. I’ll get home as soon as I can!"

 

 

Later that week, in the Nelson house, Caitlin sat quietly on the bed. The nurse was waiting for the doctor to ask for her help with the dressings on three wounds on Caitlin’s body. Two large bites on her left breast had become infected, and Jamison had been waging a battle to clear the infection. There was a similar wound on her left hip. All three lacerations were resisting the medic’s best efforts to heal them. Jamison did not want to get more aggressive with his treatment, since it would mean hospitalizing Caitlin again. In her present mental state, he didn’t want to do that. He felt that it would be more of a setback.

Caitlin cried out in protest at the gentle touch of the doctor. "That hurts!"

Gently he said, "I know, Caitlin. But I have to put the ointment on it if you want it to stop hurting."

She threw out her lower lip, and it trembled. "Can you make it hurt less?"

Margaret patted her hand as Jamison tried to work quickly. "It will be over soon, dear. You know that Doctor Jamison just wants you to get better!"

Jamison gently touched her arm, "See, there it’s done!" He peeled off the rubber surgical gloves, and tossed them into the wastebasket. He nodded to the nurse, and amid a good bit of clucking and gentle admonitions, Margaret eased her patient back into the bed. The woman picked up the bear that lay on the side of the bed, and holding tightly to it with the arm that was still wrapped in Lee’s blue robe, and settled into the pillows.

Will Jamison walked out of the room and down the stairs to the kitchen where Karen was waiting for him. He took the proffered cup of coffee, and sat in the comfortable chair at the table. Karen waited for him to begin.

"There doesn’t seem to be any improvement in the sites, Karen, and while I can understand an infection in the glands in the breast, the infection in her side baffles me. They were very deep, and large bites. I’m afraid, that if there isn’t any improvement after the weekend, that we’re going to have to hospitalize her and do some aggressive antibiotic therapy there. And I really don’t want her back in the hospital."

"Afraid that she’ll regress further?"

"Frankly, yes." He looked critically at Karen Nelson. "You look tired, Karen!"

She smiled, somewhat sadly, at the doctor. "I’d forgotten how hard it is to have a sick nine-year old in the house. Been nine or ten years since Sean was that age, you know."

Will said nothing, just nodded. Karen added, "A very confused nine-year old." Her eyes began to well up, and she asked him, softly, "It’s been almost six weeks…Is she… going to… come back to us?"

"I wish I had an answer. All the information out there, and all that I’ve been told…every case is on its own time table. The patient is the one who determines recovery….Especially in the cases like Caitlin’s. Sometimes all it takes is a trigger, tho’ lord knows what that could be…" He gulped down the rest of his coffee, and stood.

"I’ve got to get going, Karen. I want to stop by Chip and Matty’s and look in on Lee. The cast came off today. He’s down to a leg brace, but he’s still not pushing to get back to the boat. His counselor and I have had a long talk, and we both feel that he won’t begin to recover emotionally from this, until he sees Caitlin improve. Puts more pressure on all of us. I’ve only seen Lee like this once before, and that was when he had been so badly wounded, and we didn’t know if he would recover the use of his hands. Caitlin helped him put everything in the right perspective, then."

Karen nodded at Jamison. "I wish we could help him, Will. I’ve tried, I just don’t know what to do for him."

Jamison shook his head, "Neither do I, Karen… and his counselor is just as frustrated. Trust me… I’ll see you tomorrow, and if anything comes up…"

"…I’ll call." She gave him a small smile.

 

 

Lee Crane walked slowly and wearily to the front door of the Morton’s home. He was tired… tired of fighting and tired of trying to recover… there was nothing there for him. The only thing that mattered was Caitlin. The only person that mattered was Caitlin…if she didn’t come back….

He was leaning heavily on the cane that he had been given at the Med Center when they took off his cast today. The brace and cane were better than the crutches, and cast, but they were still restrictive…Not that he had anywhere to go. The boat, with Nelson and Chip was off for three weeks on a charting mission, Robert was settling into his first assignment, and Caitlin…

His counselor had urged him to talk about how he felt,… how he was feeling about the entire situation since the attempted rape, but there was nothing to talk about. As far as he was concerned, Caitlin’s condition was his fault. What had happened to her was all his fault. He had failed to keep her safe.

He reached the front door, and opened it. Will Jamison smiled at him. "Afternoon, Skipper." He stepped into the foyer. "I told Frank that I would check on that leg, and radio him on the boat."

"Anything you say, Will. My room do?"

"Sure, Lee." They walked through the house to the guest room, and into the bright room. Lee sat on the bed.

"Why don’t you pull that leg up on the bed, and let me check it out?"

Lee swung his leg onto the bed, and Jamison pulled the pant leg up to the high thigh, gently probing the remains of the wound, and the area of the fracture. Lee didn’t react at all when Jamison poked and probed. When he was finished his exam of the leg, he continued to give his commanding Officer a cursory physical simply to satisfy himself. Lee didn’t protest, and Will became more concerned than ever. He didn’t like the idea that Lee was so passive about his treatment. This wasn’t the Lee Crane that he was used to dealing with. There was no fight here.

"Well, Skipper," he tried, "looks to me like you’ll be on light duty for at least another two weeks. You know how I feel about canes, and the boat."

"That’s not a problem, Will. The boat is out of here for three weeks."

"Then light duty for three weeks, Admiral."

"Fine, Will. That’s fine. When can I go home? And get out of Matty’s hair?"

"Whenever you want to go, Lee. There is no reason for you not to do the stairs, only once a day, but you can do it. You’ll be starting rehab tomorrow. If you give yourself a day or two after that, then I think that going home would be a good idea." He looked at Lee Crane thoughtfully, "And now that you are more mobile, you can go and see Caitlin at the house. Karen said that you’ve been calling every day, but that you haven’t been to see her since you’ve been here."

"There’s no reason, Will. She’s not there… She doesn’t know me. Why should I visit?"

Jamison looked carefully at Crane. And then, very softly he said, "Because she’s your wife. Because the love that the two of you share can get you through this. Because you need her, almost as much as she needs you."

Lee was quiet. He reached into the nightstand, and took out a plastic bag. He put it on his lap. "Robert gave me this. From the police. He said that you were there, while they were taking the report from him. They had to take Caitlin’s jewelry to run tests. Like they took her clothes. You did the PERK exam. She wasn’t raped. But you were able to get samples… of saliva… and did a DNA test. Did a verification with the A.S.D.L. confirm that it was Judd?"

"That’s right, Lee. We had confirmation from the lab, Judd served in the Army as a medic for two years, so his blood sample was on file." He saw the pain, and doubt in Crane’s eyes.

"How bad, Will? How badly did he hurt her? All I saw in the hospital, were the bandages, and her face…her poor face…Will…" Crane’s voice was stricken, and on the edge of breaking down…

"How badly she was hurt is a two-fold question and answer, Lee. Her physical wounds, the damage that I could see, and assess, and treat is one thing. Her mind, well, this is a something I’m not familiar with, Lee. I’ve treated all of you for many things over the years, but nothing like this. We are having a problem with three of the wounds healing. I may have to put her back in the Med Center, although I don’t want to do that." He paused and sighed, "And Lee, if we don’t see any improvement soon, then I think we have to consider other options, as far as her mental recovery is concerned. …"

"No way, Will! I know where you are heading with this," he said angrily. "there’s no way that my wife is going to a sanitarium. She is not mentally ill!"

Jamison laid a hand on Crane’s shoulder. "Lee, she is mentally ill. She believes that she is nine years old! She thinks that Harry is her father! She is ill!"

"No! She will come back, Will! She has to!!!!"

Will Jamison looked at the younger man that he knew so well. In all his years of treating Lee Crane, in all of the situations that he had been in and faced, Lee had never, never faced something like this. Very quietly, he asked him, "For whose sake, Lee? Hers… or yours?"

Crane’s expression was bleak…and his answer was barely audible to the Doctor, "All of ours, Will… All of ours… Karen and the Admiral can’t go on like this…It’s killing Karen to see her like this. And , yes, I need her…I need her in my life. I can’t foresee not having her next to me for the rest of my life… She…Caitlin makes me laugh…no one since Cathy was able to do that…and Robert, Will. She’s been a mother to him… she has to come back to us! She has to come back to me!"

"Then you are going to have to help her…start by visiting her, spending some time with her. Give her the opportunity to find her way back. Show her the way! "

"I don’t know if I can, Will. It hurts! It hurts too much! And I don’t know how much more pain I want to put up with.

"Lee, bringing Caitlin back is going to be painful…very painful for everyone involved. You have to know that!"

Mutely he nodded. "You’re right, of course. I’ll get over there this afternoon… I’ll call Karen…"

"Lee, don’t call, just go!"

"I’ll think about that, Will, I’ll think about it."

 

 

Karen Davis Nelson walked across the foyer, and opened the door. Startled, "Lee!"

"Karen, I’d like to see Caitlin."

She was surprised to see her son-in-law standing in the doorway. Recovering quickly, she continued, "Come in, don’t stand there!" Crane walked slowly into the large foyer, and waited as she closed the door and turned back to him.  "Of course! She may be sleeping now, the visits with Will always tire her out."

"I’m not surprised. He told me that he may have to hospitalize her because of some infections… after six weeks, this isn’t a good thing…"

"No it’s not…he is really concerned. About that and other things…" She linked her arm in his and began to walk slowly to the stairs, matching her steps to his awkward gait. "Has Will talked to you at all…"

"About a sanitarium? I told him absolutely not!"

"Lee, I feel the same way, but we have to think of Caitlin, not of ourselves."

"I am thinking of her! I won’t have her in a place like that! I’ll bring her home, once I’m well, and I’ll take care of her there!"

"And how are you going to do that and work too?"

"I’ll retire… I certainly have enough time in, here and in the Navy… We’ll be ok, and I can take care of Caitlin."

"Lee…"

"Karen, I’ve made up my mind! When the Admiral and the boat come back from this latest mission, I’ll get the paperwork started."

Karen shrugged and led the way up the stairs to Caitlin’s bedroom. She laid a hand on Crane’s arm.  "Let me go in and tell her that you’re here." She paused and smiled at him tiredly. "That bear that you sent her, she’s been keeping it with her all the time. And I’m afraid you are going to have to replace the blue robe. She won’t let anyone touch that!"

Lee nodded, and leaning heavily on the cane, waited for Karen to call him into the room…

 

 

Karen entered Caitlin’s room, and looked over towards her daughter. Caitlin was lying on the high pile of pillows, her eyes closed, her arm, wrapped in the blue robe, clutching the teddy bear tightly. Margaret, the nurse sat in a chair close by, book in hand, and watching the woman in the bed. Karen nodded to her, and said softly, "Why don’t you take a break? We have a visitor."

The nurse smiled and left the room… Karen went to the bedside, and sat on the bed, looking at her daughter’s face. Each time she came into the room, and waited for Caitlin to wake, she hoped that she would see the woman, instead of the child. She longed to have her daughter back as much as Lee did, even if it was for very different reasons.

She wanted Caitlin’s friendship, her laughter, her instinctive ability to handle the best and the worst of situations, and make it all work out for the best. She missed Caitlin terribly.

 

 

Caitlin was dreaming again… this time the dream wasn’t a bad one… the bad man wasn’t there. She was in a pretty place, and the sad man was there, and they were dancing, and she was dressed up like a princess… and he was in a uniform…like the one her Daddy wore… And they were laughing and smiling and it was a big room, and a lot of people, and she was having fun…and the bad man wasn’t anywhere to be seen…

She stretched lazily, and as she opened her eyes, she saw her mother sitting on the bed.

Karen smiled at her…"Having a nice dream, Sweets?"

"Mmnnhunh…I was at a party! And I looked pretty, like a princess."

Karen reached over and brushed a strand of hair from her forehead. "You always look like a princess when you dress up…Feeling any better, after doc’s visit?"

"It still hurts…I like him, but it always hurts when he comes."

"That’s not Doc’s fault. There is a bad infection, he’s trying to make it better."

"I know." She sat up. "I’m hungry!"

"I’ll go get you something…You have a visitor, though.  Do you want to see him?"

"Him?" her face darkened, and her eyes grew alarmed. Her body grew tense. "Him…?" she whispered.

Karen’s touch was gentle on her arm. "It’s Lee Crane, Caitlin."

She relaxed, but kept some of her wariness. "The sad man…who gave me the bear… He is nice…but he is so sad, how can we make him smile, Mommy?"

Karen sighed, "I wish I knew, Caitlin. Do you want to see him?"

"Yes, please…I like company!"

Karen stood and went to the door, and drew Lee in. He moved toward the bed, forcing a smile. Caitlin’s face had healed completely since he saw her last.

"My wife! And she doesn’t even know who I am! God!!! How I wish I could take her in my arms, and just hold her, and tell her how much I love her!!"  "Hello, Caitlin…would you mind if I sat here on the bed? My leg is hurting a bit, and I think I need to sit down."

"Is your leg getting any better?"

"A little, Doctor Jamison says a little at a time."

"I like Doc, but sometimes what he does hurts."

Lee laughed, "I know. Sometimes it does, but eventually it gets better."

"Do you get hurt a lot?"

Lee laughed again, "Doc and the Admiral certainly think so!"

"But you’re on that submarine…how do you get hurt on a submarine….?"

His face clouded, "There are a lot of ways to get hurt on a boat, Caitlin, but that goes with the territory of being a Captain!"

"Oh…" she smiled shyly at him, "I’ll bet that you are very brave!"

Lee grinned, "Some people would call it foolhardy!"

She looked at him, puzzled, "What does that mean?"

He thought for a minute and then answered, "Sometimes, when the boat or one of the men are in danger, I act first and think about it later."

"Oh…Mommy says I do that too, sometimes.  I’m glad that you are laughing today. You always seem so sad."

"Well, I’m sorry if that upset you. I’ll try harder to be happy when I come to visit you."

"Does that mean that you will come back after today?"

"If you’d like me to."

"Oh, yes, please?! I do get tired of staying in bed, but the doctor says ‘til my ‘fections get better, I have to stay in bed. And none of my friends come to visit me." She sighed.

"I’d like to think that I’m a friend."

"Oh, yes! A friend of Mommy and Daddy’s and me too!"

"And can a friend give you a present?"

She clapped her hands together in pleasure, "A present! Yes! I love presents!"

Lee reached into his pocket and took out a piece of jewelry. The Seaview charm that he had given Caitlin when she had helped him when he had been shot. That was almost 15 years ago… Caitlin had helped him… now maybe this could help her… he could only hope, and pray!

He held up the charm on the chain, and tried to ask her in a nonchalant voice, "Do you know what is on this?"

She looked at him, puzzled.  There were flashes in her consciousness… a smiling man with a soft voice talking to her, and putting a necklace around her neck,… another man, touching her with large hands, moving her necklace…. She shook her head to clear the visions, and looked at Lee again. He in turn was looking critically at her. He saw the questions and confusion in her eyes. But hearing, in his mind, Jamison’s urgings about a trigger, he continued forward.

"No, I don’t." She said softly. "Should I?"

He smiled at her, gently, "It’s my boat. The Seaview. Your mother said that you were asking about the boat, and I thought that you might like to have this."

She was hesitant about taking it from him, so he asked her, "Would you like me to put it on you?"

Karen had been standing, with Lee’s permission in the back of the room, near the door. She had had no idea what the Captain had in mind, but she also knew that the last thing in the world that Lee Crane would do, would be to knowingly hurt Caitlin. So she watched the interplay, and held her tongue.

Unsure of herself, more images crowding her mind, Caitlin simply nodded ‘yes’ to Lee’s question. He shifted slightly on the edge of the bed, and leaned awkwardly toward Caitlin, his leg in the brace making his movements off-balance. He held the clasp and lock to the necklace in separate hands. She leaned forward to him, and he reached behind her neck, and fastened the necklace. He sat back, and she looked at the charm, and fingered it.

In a voice that none had heard in six weeks, she said "I know this!" looked at Lee, her mother, and her eyes went dark, and she fell back into the pillows. Karen was at the bedside in a shot; Lee was reaching for the phone.

"Caitlin!!!"

"Sweets!!"

"Will! Crane here, it’s Caitlin!"

 

 

When Caitlin opened her eyes, she looked at Karen with the eyes of an adult. The child had retreated to memory. She said simply to her, "He hurt me!"

"I know, Caitlin."

Caitlin looked around for a moment, and seeing Lee, questioned him, "Lee! You… you’re okay?" She pushed herself up on her elbows, and in a barely audible voice, "Robert…? Where is Robert? Where is this place?…What…."

Lee reached out and laid a hand on her shoulder. In a ragged voice, husky with emotion, he said to her, very quietly, "Caitlin, Jamie’s on his way over…just lie back and rest, Little Girl."

Hesitantly she reached for him, for his hand, and covered it with her own. She looked at Karen, who had silent tears streaming down her face. "Mom?"

Karen cleared her throat, "Yes…?"

"HN?"

"On the boat…"

She shuddered, visibly shaking with pent up emotions. She held Lee’s hand tightly. None of them spoke. None of them heard the doorbell, and no one moved when Will Jamison stood in the doorway.

Will could feel the emotions at loose in the room. He could almost reach out and touch them. Now that the first part of the crisis was beginning to be dealt with, there were a number of others that would have to be met, as the healing of all would now begin in earnest. He walked over to the bed, and stood at the foot of it. He smiled at Caitlin. "Welcome back, Caitlin. Care to tell your old sawbones how you are feeling?"

"Back, Will? Where have I been, I don’t remember… The last thing I remember is the house, and Robert…Oh, God…He saw… he saw Judd and…"

"Easy, Caitlin,…easy…let me give you a mild sedative…we can all talk about this when you are feeling up to it… right now, I think that rest is in order…" He reached into his black bag, and removed a hypodermic and a vial of medication. Quickly filling the vial, he moved to the side of the bed next to Karen, and took Caitlin’s arm, swiftly injecting the sedative.

"Lee?"

"Yes, Caitlin?"

"Stay with me?"

He smiled at his wife, "Of course, Little Girl, what ever you want."

She gripped his hand even more tightly than before. As she fell asleep, her grip did not loosen, and he sat on the edge of the bed, holding her hand as tightly as she was holding his in her sleep.

‘Caitlin has come back! My wife! My life!!!! …but…will she want to be with me…after all that’s happened…will she forgive me for letting it happen…?’A hand on his shoulder took his attention from Caitlin.

"Lee..?" Will Jamison wanted to elicit some kind of response from Crane. "Lee…?"

"Yes, Jamie?"

"There’s a long road ahead, but you’ve helped her take the first steps."

Crane sighed. "God, I hope so, Will…I hope so." He looked at Karen Nelson, "Do you mind if I stay here with her while she sleeps?"

"Of course not! Lee, she’s my daughter, but she is your wife! Harriman and I were trying to help, not…"

"I know, Karen. I’m glad that the two of you were here…I didn’t know what or even how…I still…"

"Lee, Caitlin loves you…you know that … you will have to rebuild on that. The foundations are strong…nothing can damage them… it’s just the structure that is in need of some renovations after the storm!"

"The only problem with that, Karen, is that the renovations may cost more than either one of us can afford!"

"I think that you’ll both be okay, Lee. I think that you both need time…just time."

"It took me so much time to find how I felt for her, I don’t want to lose anymore time with her… and look at what we’ve lost already!"

"Lee, I’m talking to you as your friend, right now, not as Caitlin’s mother. Don’t worry about what’s been lost! Worry about what you can recover! If you concentrate on the loss, and not what the future holds for the both of you, then you both will be lost, and you will lose what you have shared. Trust me, I understand that kind of loss better than you know. You know what it is to lose someone, Lee. Both of us have been there. Both of us recovered because of someone that came into our lives at a time that we needed them the most. One thing that I have learned with Harriman all these years is that I can’t look back. I don’t want to look back. I’ve learned from the past, and I moved on. There is too much in our future, in your future, together to get lost in this horrible incident. You have to deal with it, together, and go forward…go forward, Lee!"

"We have to do it together, Karen, and after all that Caitlin has been through, I don’t know, we don’t know what she will want."

"Trust me, my friend, she will want to be with you…Trust me…" She squeezed his shoulder, and left the room.

Will Jamison pulled a chair next to the bed, "Skipper, if you ‘re going to be sitting here, then you’d just as soon be comfortable. Let me give you a hand, and then I’ll be leaving…You can call me if Caitlin needs me."

As Lee stood and moved around, he held Caitlin’s hand tightly…In her sleep, her hand stayed tightly holding his. Lee settled into the chair, and Jamison left…

 

 

Caitlin was having dreams, more dreams than in a long time…she kept dreaming of that day, she kept seeing Lee being shot, the look in his eyes in their room, when Judd had revived him to watch. Watch what he had planned to do to her… She kept seeing Judd’s eyes as he hovered over her…the malicious evil in those eyes…She felt his hands on her body, pinching, squeezing, hurting…his mouth, invading hers, and then biting…And Robert….Robert’s face when he had found them…stopped Judd…

She woke, crying….She was still holding Lee’s hand, and as consciousness came closer, she gripped it more tightly. She forced herself awake, aware for the first time in a long time of her surroundings. Lee was sitting in the Queen Anne chair, watching her intently, and waiting for her to say something.

"Lee…?"

He smiled at her, immediately grateful that her return was permanent. He needed to talk to her, to be with her…he hoped that she would feel the same…

"Yes, Caitlin?" He answered.

"Tell me what’s happened since…since…" she shifted in the bed, not wanting to let go of his hand, but trying to get more comfortable, to look at him, and watch his face. She let out a small cry as pressure on the still infected breast caused bolts of lightening to shoot into her chest. Leaning on her hip caused the same kind of reaction, so she pushed and shoved a bit, and moved the pillows so she could at least turn her face towards his.

"After you were well enough, Will, Karen and the Admiral decided that you should come home here. Will’s been seeing you every day. You have a couple of infections that don’t seem to want to clear up. He’s been rather frustrated."

"Lee, what happened to me? I… I don’t remember anything after Robert came into the room, and tackled Judd. How long has it been, where have I…?" She looked at him more closely now, and saw the leg in the brace, and the cane by the side of the chair

"And you…what happened to you? I remember him putting you in the chair, and tying you up and bringing you around… and then you passed out…Your leg…? What happened? And Robert? What was he doing home? Where is he, … and Sean, and HN, and oh, Lord, I have so many questions!… And no answers…"

She looked at her husband, this man she had loved all of her adult life, and saw the sadness in his eyes, a sadness that she hadn’t seen for many, many years. He was thinner, again, and she was sure that he and Will Jamison were arguing about that. She had so many questions.

A flash of an image, of Lee lying on the floor in the Great Room, his leg bleeding, ran across her mind, and she cried out at the vividness of it.

She held his hand tighter, and noticed for the first time, the blue robe, Lee’s blue robe, wrapped around her arm. She looked at it puzzled.

"Your robe? What’s it doing here. Wrapped around my arm like this?" She took her hand from his and slowly began to unwind it.

"It looks like it’s been there for weeks! Poor robe!!! You’re going to have to get a new one!"

"Robert put it on you, after Judd ran out. You haven’t let it go, since…"

In a very quiet and timid voice, "Since when, Lee? How long and what or where have I been?"

"You were nine years old again. Before your father died. In fact, you thought the Admiral was your father."

"Oh!" She laid back into the pillows, and shook her head, regretfully. In a voice barely above a whisper, she asked him, "How long?"

"It’s been six weeks. I’ve been staying at Chip and Matty’s. The cast just came off the leg today. You’ve been here for most of that time."

"Did I know you?"

"No. But remember, I didn’t know you when you were nine." He smiled at her, a smile full of love and caring. "I didn’t meet you until you were seventeen, and ‘not impressed with men in uniforms!’"

His eyes suddenly grew lively at the memory, and Caitlin laughed, laughed hard, and followed it up with, "I think I later qualified that with something like…but I didn’t mean the man in it didn’t impress me!"

She smiled at him so warmly, that some of the fears that had been building up in his heart, dissipated with the smile. He let them go, mindful of the conversation he had had with Karen, and the words of his counselor, to let Caitlin lead the way for them… "How’s your leg?" she asked him cautiously.

"Healing…the femur was fractured by the bullet. Jamison had to do some repair work on the veins, and muscles. I have therapy daily…" He looked at her, unsure of how she would take the next bit of news. "I’ve also been seeing a counselor…for spouses of survivors of sexual assault." He ran his hand through his dark hair.

"Has it helped you?"

"I … really don’t know… He has helped me make a few decisions. And I’ve gone ahead with the renovations in the bedroom…I’m making a few other changes in the house, too."

She was quiet as he told her what was going on, and he hoped that it wouldn’t upset her.  She was reluctant to comment, knowing that they had planned to make the changes together, but also knowing that right now, she never wanted to set foot in the bedroom again. She shuddered, and began to shiver.

"Caitlin!"

"Hold me, Lee! Just hold me!"

He moved to the bed, awkwardly. Sitting on the side of the bed, he gathered her into his arms. She huddled there, shivering and crying. Her words came in a rush…

"Lee, it was horrible…you were hurt, so badly… and I didn’t know…and he was hurting. me….his hands, …his mouth, …" She shuddered as she shared the memories, feeling Judd’s hands and mouth on her body… "he was doing … things….saying … things… horrible things…about me …you… Mom… and he wouldn’t stop…and I couldn’t do anything… anything… and then, Robert, … Oh, Lee!… Poor Robert, what he saw… what he heard!!!! And after Robert….He hit Robert… and then he…he said…" she gulped air rapidly, "that …he’d be back!" She almost hissed the words. "That he would come back and finish what he started…"

He rocked her, gently, stroking her hair, and murmuring, softly "Hush, Little Girl…hush… It’s over… It’s over…hush…hush…"

He sat and held her until the shuddering stopped, and her breathing became more regular, as in sleep, and she relaxed in his arms. He continued to hold her, as she slept, allowing the tears of rage and frustration that he had held in tight control to be released.

‘Caitlin was back…she was here, with him…She had returned, and they would face this together, the two of them…together…and as she had helped him, he would help her!’

 

 

Several hours later, Karen knocked lightly on the door. When she received no answer, she softly opened the door, and peered in. She saw Lee seated on the bed, holding Caitlin in his arms. From the looks of it, he’d been holding her a long time. He was leaning back against the headboard, his head leaning back and appeared to be sleeping as well. However, as soon as he heard the floorboard creak, his head snapped forward, and he looked groggily at the door. As his eyes focused on Karen, he gave her a sheepish smile, and shrugged his shoulders slightly.

Caitlin moved against him and sheltered herself more deeply into his arms. He looked more content then he had in six weeks. Karen smiled back, and nodded, closing the door.

Lee shifted on the bed, and tried to make himself and Caitlin more comfortable. If only he could help her stay safe…if only…

He would never forget the look in her eyes, when she was tied to the bed. That look of both absolute fear and total resolve…she was terrified, but she was also determined… he knew now, that the reason that she had gone ‘away’ was to protect what they shared… she wasn’t going to let what happened to her, happened to them, harm that. So she had ‘gone away’ to a safe place so that it would be protected… She loved him with all her being, he knew that …

Caitlin was dreaming…there were colors and sounds…and then there was that face…with the silver hair, and the gray-green eyes, and that voice, that silky smooth evil voice, and he was telling her that he would be back… He would return and finish what he had started… He was touching her, hurting her, and promising… promising that he would be back!!!

She woke with a low moan … Lee had his arms wrapped protectively around her… She remembered the night so long ago, when he had been unable to use his hands, his arms, and how she had led him out of the abyss he was in.

Instinctively, she knew she was now in a similar place, put there by a man just as evil as the one that had so brutally shot Lee… And yet in a way her place was worse…much worse.  Dr. Gamma had wanted to get back at Admiral Nelson. He wanted to cause the Admiral untoward pain by letting Lee die in an awful way. That was bad enough, but this man, this man had sought to destroy her soul… and by destroying her, destroy her mother as well. He hadn’t succeeded, but she knew that if she didn’t fight it, fight this terror in her soul, that she would fall into that abyss, and no one, no one at all would be able to help her!

The warm, strong arms of her husband, that now enfolded her were comforting and loving, yet she knew that he was in pain as she was. She knew him well, almost too well for his own good. And she knew that they had a long road to pursue, together. Lee’s biggest problem would be his guilt, his self-doubt, because of what happened. She knew that he did not doubt the love that they shared, but that he did doubt himself! She sighed, and his hold on her tightened.

"I didn’t know that you were awake!" he whispered.

She reached up and touched his face, gently and tentatively. Then she drew her hand back. She started to sit up, and moved herself to his side. He kept his arm lightly draped across her shoulder. She leaned into him, finding a feeling of safety and warmth that she had not felt since the attack. At the thought of that day, she tensed, and Lee felt the tension.

"Little Girl…?" he asked.

"Lee, I’m sorry. I think of that day and …"

"I understand… this has been a lot for you today… I’d better leave, and let you rest. I’m going back to Chip’s…Since our house is being worked on, I can’t stay there…"

"No! Stay here…please? The other guest room… I want you nearby… I just don’t …"

"It’s okay, Caitlin, I understand. I’ll talk to Karen, and Matty. As long as Karen can put up with me, … it’s whatever you want, Little Girl. Whatever you want."

He stood up slowly, working the kinks out of his stiff joints, and he smiled ruefully at her, "I really am getting too old for sleeping like this, Caitlin."

She grinned back at him. "Never too old, Lee…never!"

He shook his head, and looked down at her, as she settled herself on the bed. He reached for the cane, next to the chair, "I’ll be back in a while. And we’ll talk, and make some plans…?"

"Lee…?"

"Yes?"

"Lee, I love you!"

"And I love you, Caitlin…"

He brushed her forehead with a light kiss, and she held herself in tight control, trying not to shudder when he kissed her. Judd had kissed her like that, and then he had bitten, or pinched or…worse. He wanted her to fear every time that Lee touched her…he wanted her to dread the thing that she and Lee rejoiced in, their love and their lovemaking… by doing what he had done to her, he wanted her to reject her husband, physically and in every other way. ‘She wasn’t going to let him win!!!’

Tentatively, she reached for Lee and holding tightly to his hand, slowly guided his lips to hers… She kissed him lightly, and then just as quickly pulled away… She took several deep breaths and smiled shyly at him. He brushed her hair lightly and returned her smile.

"Just rest, Little Girl…I’ll be back soon… very soon…"

She shrugged down into the pillows with a contented sigh, and fell quickly into a deep sleep, calmer and more at ease than in the month and a half since the attack. Somewhere, in her mind she knew that they were going to get through this….

Lee left the bedroom, and made his way down the stairs to the foyer. Karen heard him on the stairs, and had come out of the Living Room. She walked to his side, and linked her arm in his, guiding him to the Living Room, and the Queen Anne wing chair. He sat heavily, his leg beginning to pain him.

"Karen, can you and the Admiral accommodate another guest? Caitlin wants me to stay here… If you can’t, I’ll continue to stay at Chip and Matty’s and just come and stay with her for the day…"

"Of course you can stay here… Harriman would want it as well as I do… You know that anything that Caitlin wants, he gives to her… She’s the daughter of his heart as much as Sean’s the son of his body … Let me have a day to get the room ready, and settle a few other things, and let me talk to Matty, and we’ll get you moved in here."

"Thank you, Karen."  He sighed, suddenly very tired, yet again.

Karen noted his weariness, and asked him, "Do you want to go back up and lie down for a while? I can straighten up the room now."

He laughed softly, "No, thank you…I’m going to go back to Chip and Matty’s and then the therapist comes at 1300, and I see the counselor at 1500. And then these bones will take a rest! Would you tell Caitlin that I will be back here around 1800?"

He rose and went to the door, Karen gave him a look… he grinned back at her.

"No, I’m not driving…Ski is here on shore duty. The Admiral assigned him to me, once I was released from the hospital… seems that the O.O.M. thought that I needed help, and Ski volunteered! Don’t know what gets into him, Karen, even after all these years, he seems to think I need a keeper!"

With a quiet grin and a slightly raised eyebrow, she simply replied, "Well?"

He shook his head, and left the room, and then the house. He slowly made his way to the car. As he came down the walk, Ski got out of the car, and got the door for him.

"Let’s go back to the Morton’s, Ski."

"Aye, Skipper!"

 

 

Lee had a surprise waiting for him at the Morton house. Robert had come in from San Diego for a visit with his father. It was the first time, since the attack on Lee and Caitlin that he had been able to get away from his berth at the Prometheus. He was delighted with his posting, and the newest boat in the Navy was proving to be a real challenge.

During the last month, however, his thoughts had been on his father and step-mother. When he had left for San Diego, Caitlin was still hiding in a nine-year old’s persona, and he had no idea how long she was going to remain that way. He was concerned about his father, who had been through so much, and now this. Robert wondered how much one person could take. But he also knew that Lee Crane was a strong man. He admired his father more than any man, he knew or had read about. He had a 24-hour leave to spend time with Lee and he intended to make the most of it.

R.C. was sitting in the Morton’s Great Room when Lee arrived. He was involved in a pointed discussion with Catherine Morton about the future on Nuclear Submarines. At sixteen, the Morton’s youngest child was, indeed, the one with the most scientific mind. Again, on seeing this at a young age, Nelson had taken her under his wing, and fed her all the science that her mind could absorb. She was far ahead of her peers when it came to scientific knowledge. R.C. appreciated the discussions he often had with her, of all the children of the Senior Staff she was the one that he found the most in common with. She held a special place in his heart since she had looked up at him shortly after she was born, and stolen his heart. The two of them shared a psychic tie, that neither one was able to understand, but they always shared a special closeness.

Both of them looked up as Lee entered the house. Catherine smiled and rose, went to Lee and kissed him lightly on the cheek. "Hi, Uncle Lee! Look who came to visit!"

"Dad, how are you doing?" R.C. stood and went to his father, embracing him with a strong hug. Softly, he asked him, "How’s Caitlin?"

"Let me sit down, and we’ll talk." Wordlessly, Catherine slipped from the room, leaving the Crane men to talk alone. Lee sat in a large, chesterfield type chair, while R.C. sat on the couch, on the edge. Lee sighed, and looked at his son. "Caitlin is …is better…She … she came back to us today."

"Back…She’s okay then?"

"Jamie says that she is going to be okay…the reasons that she ‘went away’ have to be worked out, and she and I have a lot to work on, but Jamie says that it’s the first and biggest step… She’s on the road to recovery… that’s all that he can say. She may have to go into the Med Center again, because of a couple of infections that she still has, but we have a beginning."

Robert looked carefully at his father. Lee had a look of total exhaustion that worried him. He knew that things had been hard on his father, and he hadn’t wanted to create more burdens, but he had questions that had bothered him, since the attack, and he wanted, no, he needed answers! He took a deep breath and asked his father in a quiet voice, "Dad, who is this man? Who is Judd?  Why did he shoot you and attack Caitlin like….like that? I heard him say things to her, after he hit me, when I was on the floor…Who is he?"

In a voice just as quiet, fighting for control of all the emotions that had flowed through his being in the last weeks, Lee answered Robert’s question with one of his own.

"Robert, what did he say to Caitlin?"

"I told Chin, and the SBPD. Didn’t they tell you?"

"They didn’t tell, and I didn’t know that he said anything. Caitlin certainly couldn’t tell us anything. What did Judd say?"

"Dad, I don’t know if I should tell you…."

"Tell me!!!"

"All right, Dad…He said ‘I’m afraid I will have to leave this unfinished between us, my dear. But I will wait for another opportunity… I will have my time with you. It may be some time, but I will have you again…completely.’ Then he moved around a bit, and said ‘Tell your dear mother I said ‘thank you’ for the opportunity to get to know you so well… and tell your husband that I said that you are very good!!’ …I’m sorry, Dad."

Lee was very quiet as he digested what that animal had said to his wife. Very, very quietly he said to his son, "His hatred of all of us goes back a long time…It began long before the Admiral and Karen were married, after she had come to the Institute to start up the DWD team. You all know the story of how they fell in love, but we all decided to keep some of the story from you children. It wasn’t necessary for you to know the whole story growing up. And then, you and I were kidnapped by him last year, and we found out more of a story we thought was long over."

"Are you going to tell me the whole story?"

Lee nodded solemnly. "Of course. You are certainly old enough now, and you have been his victim as well… you deserve to hear it all from the start." He sat back in the chair, "and I guess now is as good a time as any." He closed his eyes, and was quiet for a few minutes, gathering his thoughts, as Robert waited patiently. He drew a deep breath, and began…

"When Karen was hurt badly during a dive in the Azores, something happened to her. She couldn’t dive anymore. She and the Admiral had a huge blowout, and she left, the institute, the team, everything. Then the Admiral was kidnapped by the First American Militia. Karen called in a favor from a ‘friend’ in the 'Firm'."

"Michael Briggs," Robert said flatly.

"Yes," Lee replied. "She got her hands on a piece of equipment to use to rescue him, and Chip and I, and her copilot went with her. We found him." Lee looked sadly at his son, "He had been badly beaten, … he was in very bad shape, barely aware of what was going on. To put it politely, Karen saw the Admiral’s condition, and lost it. She took out the entire compound and killed the General… General William Ashcroft Judd." He stopped in his tale to let the story sink in.

Robert was sitting in numbed silence. Karen Davis Nelson had killed someone!! Coldly and deliberately!!! Because of her love for the Admiral. Because of love, Karen had killed!!!!  Robert thought of the loving, caring nurturing woman he knew as an ‘Aunt’ and surrogate grandmother. He could not make the two images merge.

Lee continued, "Before she came to us, she had earned the handle, Ice Queen. That day was the first time I saw her like that. It was the only day, until the attack on Caitlin. If she hadn’t killed the General, Chip and I would have, have no doubt about that. But she beat us to the punch. We didn’t know that Judd had a son. None of us did, except, apparently Michael Briggs. Not until you and I were kidnapped. I knew then, when we found out about him, that there was trouble ahead. But nothing like this…nothing like this…" Lee’s voice drifted off, his gaze far away.

"I’m sorry, Robert. I never thought that someone like that would try to come after us, after our families. I never wanted you in any kind of jeopardy. And I never…never wanted, never thought that Caitlin would be at risk… I really have failed the two of you, completely."

R.C. moved to his father’s side. "Dad, you aren’t to blame for this. How could you, how could anyone have known that something like this was going to happen? After all that all of you, Admiral Nelson, Uncle Chip, you have faced, and dealt with, how could you have known, Dad? Obviously this man is a madman, like his father before him…"

He stood and began to pace the room, in a manner not unlike Lee’s. He ran his hand through his curly dark hair. "There has to be some way to stop him from coming back…stop him from following through on his threat!"

"The only ‘right’ way is a legal way. We have heightened security here on the grounds. We’ve gone ahead and pressed for warrants in the civilian sector for his arrest. From what we now know, he’s fled the country. There doesn’t seem to be a thing that we can do… all of his company accounts had been transferred to Swiss accounts, and his business interests here in the States are frozen. The kicker is that none of the companies are in his name… they belong to the First American Militia, and he is listed as CEO, not owner… so… well I guess that you can figure this out!"

"We can’t touch him, or his companies, without the First American Militia getting totally involved."

"That’s about the size of it… His companies that were part of the Institute’s funding have closed down…He’s trying to make it difficult for the Admiral to keep it running, but we’ve had at least ten new companies, and institutions come on board, so I don’t think the funding will be the problem… That’s all that I have to tell you, Robert. At least, for now. … How long are you home for?"

"Just a 24 hour leave, Dad. I told the my CO that I had some family business to take care of." He grinned. "I’m taking care of it. Where’s the boat, Dad?"

"Charting mission…She’ll be out for three weeks. Where are you staying? You can’t stay at the house. I’m having work done, and its been pretty ripped up. When Caitlin comes home…"

R.C. touched his father’s arm. "She’ll be home soon, Dad. If she’s the Caitlin I know, and we both love. She’s a lot like Karen, but in a different way, if that makes any sense. She’ll come home. She loves you."

A memory flashed across his mind’s eye, a memory of a day, long ago, when a frightened boy left his apartment, and his father’s company, because of his father’s anger at himself and everyone else. Robert Crane had been terrified at the anger and despair that he had seen in his father. Caitlin Davis had taken him to her apartment, and calmed him down, and talked to him. Caitlin had explained to him how frustrated his father was with his injuries, and how much his father was hurting. Caitlin had let him cry, and had comforted him like a mother would. Caitlin had spoken soft, soothing words. Caitlin had helped him get through a very difficult time.

Had helped him, and his father as well…that was when Caitlin had finally told his father how much and how long she had loved him. She told R.C. that she was going to let Lee know how she felt. What a difference that had made in their lives… Caitlin had to be okay! She had to be!! He looked over at his father, who was again deep in thought and brooding, and was saddened. So much pain, to so many people because of one man’s sick ideas and drive for vengeance. When would this man stop?

"Dad?"

Lee looked up. "Yes, Robert?"

"Catherine said I can bunk here tonight. I’ll use Alex’s room. Matty said it was okay when she called her." Lee nodded abstractedly. R.C. called his father again. "Dad?!"

"Oh, yes, Robert?"

"I…I’d like to see Caitlin. I need to see her…" He paused. "I’ve been seeing a counselor myself… I needed help… I was …having nightmares…"

Lee sat up and looked at his son. He could see the concern and confusion in the green eyes, still so like his late mother’s, and he sighed to himself… ‘His eyes are so like Cathy’s…I couldn’t protect her, either…’

"I’m sure that you can see her, but why not call Jamie, to be sure… Robert, I am so sorry that I didn’t protect your mother…Chip told me that you asked him about her accident… It was my fault! I didn’t protect her! I almost lost the both of you that time.!! God spared you! But Cathy…"

"Dad that was so long ago… I didn’t know Mom. Only through you…but you didn’t know that you gave me a mother, when you let Caitlin become part of our lives… You gave me a mother in Caitlin. And when the two of you finally got together, well, you know what I felt, how I still feel…Caitlin is my mother… what this man did, what he tried to do to her… I owe him for this. For hurting my mother! But I have to make sure that she is okay, that she will be okay…then I’ll go from there."

"Robert, not revenge! That’s not the ‘right’ thing! Justice, Robert, not revenge!"

"Call it what you will, Dad…I will get him, for Caitlin, and for you!… I’ll ask Jamie if I can see Caitlin. Why don’t you rest for a while? "

Lee’s response was tinged with some disappointment. "Not now, Robert. The therapist will be here in 15 minutes." He looked R.C. dead in the eye, "And my counselor will be here at 1500."

Robert looked surprised. He hadn’t expected his father to be seeing someone about the attack. In all of his life, Lee had fought any kind of ‘help’ tooth and nail, so his seeking help surprised Robert.

Lee grinned slightly. "Jamie insisted, and for once I agreed with him. Poor man almost had an apoplectic fit. Never expected me to agree!" He looked closely at his son, and could see the surprise being replaced by genuine pleasure. "Proved to him that you can teach an old sea dog new tricks!…" More soberly, "It has helped."

"I know how it can help, Dad. It’s a good thing, … even for Crane men."

A lopsided grin launched itself across his face, and Lee savored the smile on his son’s face. ‘Our son is quite a fine, young man.’ Caitlin had told him that, the day that Robert had left for the Academy. She had been correct as usual. His son…their son… was a fine young man, and he was growing into a fine officer as well.

Hopefully he would be wiser than his father, Lee mused, and would not get involved in all of the things that Lee had been involved in, in his own career. Lee shook his head slightly. If he knew his son as well as he thought he did, well…

R.C. stood. "Dad, I’m going over to the Nelson’s. I’ll check with Karen, and then Jamie if Karen thinks it’s necessary. I’ll be back in a while." Lee nodded and Robert Crane left the Morton’s to go to the Nelson home.

 

 

Robert rang the bell to the Nelson’s.

In a few minutes, the door was answered, and Karen Davis Nelson answered the door. She was momentarily surprised to see the young Lieutenant. When she found her voice, she said quietly, "R.C.! Come in, please."

Young Crane looked at Karen in a new light. She looked ageless, to him, the same as she had in all of his furthest memories of her. And she had been in his life, like Caitlin, for all of his life, becoming more and more prominent in his life, as she had become more a part of Admiral Nelson’s life. He called her Aunt, out of respect, and he loved her dearly. He thought of all that his father had told him, and he still could not reconcile the story that Lee told with the graceful, smiling woman that stood before him.

Karen saw the look in his eyes, and knew. ‘He knows. Lee finally told him!’

He stepped into the foyer, and reached out to kiss and hug her. "How are you, Aunt Karen."

She slid her arm into one of his, and they walked to the kitchen. "I’m better, R.C., . . .better today then in weeks."

He nodded seriously, placing his hat on the counter, as she turned. "Coffee?"

"Yes, please."

"Black, no sugar, right?"

"Yes… How’s Caitlin? Dad said that she came ‘back’ today."

Karen turned to him, handed him a mug of coffee, took her own and sat opposite him. "Yes, she did. Will says that it’s a good beginning… You look well, R.C…How is the Prometheus?"

"She’s some boat, Aunt Karen. A beauty! Not the Seaview, but a beauty. I’ve pulled duty as her Engineering Officer. Bobby O’Brien is going to have to give me some tips when he can. He was a plankowner on the boat just like Uncle Chip. Maybe he can give me some tips for ins and outs with the CO."

"Bobby will be happy to help as soon as the boat gets back, I’m sure."

"Yeah, Dad told me…three-week charting mission… Dad told me a few other things too!"

"Really?"

"Yes, about Judd, and the Admiral… and you."

"And…?"

"I would have done the same thing! No questions asked!"

The tension that Karen was feeling, when she realized that Robert Crane knew about the First American Militia, and the general, released. She visibly relaxed. Softly she said to him, "It was a long time ago, R.C. A very long time ago. And I never thought that my actions on that day would have caused so much heartache and pain all these years later… First, you and Lee are kidnapped., and then this, Lee and Caitlin… my poor Caitlin… I’m sorry, R.C."

Robert reached for her hands and took them in his. "Like I told Dad, Aunt Karen, you aren’t to blame, any more than he is. You did what you had to do at that moment, to save the Admiral, and destroy the compound. The ‘right’ thing. That man was an abomination, out to destroy the things that we hold dear. No one could have known that anything like this would have taken place. And now, we have to move on… we’ll determine a way to prevent any further problems from him."

Karen looked at R.C. carefully. He was talking like he was already involved in finding the man…’not the FIRM! Or ONI!!’ "R.C., "she questioned cautiously, "you haven’t gone and…"

"I was approached by your ‘friend’ Michael Briggs before graduation, and I turned him down. But ONI is another story. Let’s just say that my father doesn’t know and I don’t want him to. I’m going to get to the bottom of this, if I can, my way." He looked at Karen and she saw the deep pain in his eyes, and heard the anger and pain in his voice, "He hurt my father and my mother, and tried to hurt all of the people I hold most dear. I will see that he gets justice. One way or another."

Karen looked hard at R.C. and saw a resolve in his eyes, that at once was familiar, and yet, also, something new, born of this whole incident with Judd. When he had been a small child, and he made up his mind, the strong will that he had could not change his mind. Karen saw that now, backed up with adult knowledge and resolve.

"I’d like to see Caitlin, if you think it would be all right."

"I think it will be, R.C. Just one caution, please?"

"Anything…"

"She doesn’t know… about the General. I’ve never told her."

He quirked an eyebrow in surprise, but managed to keep his voice calm. "I see. Then we both have secrets that we don’t want others to know. I don’t want Dad to know about ONI. I’ll tell him when the time comes."

She smiled regretfully, "R.C., secrets are what got us into this in the first place. But," she laid a hand on his arm, "Don’t worry. I won’t tell him. Caitlin is in the room…"

"At the end of the landing. Next to Sean’s!" he laughed, "I know the way!"

He bolted up the stairs and down the short hallway to the bedroom, knocking and then entering.

Caitlin Crane was sitting up in the bed, reading. Or rather, holding a book. She was staring out the window, when she looked up at the knock on the door. She tensed, but in a tightly controlled voice, called out, "Come!"

He opened the door slowly, and stood in the doorway. The both of them were unsure, seeing the other. Robert had seen her in a way that no son should see a mother, and she was supremely humiliated.

He did not want to make her uncomfortable, but he wanted her to know how he felt about her, and how much he cared, how much he loved her, like the mother she was to him.

Her throat was constricted, and she could not speak. She motioned him in and to the chair next to the bed. He entered, and gazed at her critically. The bruises had healed. Her face was her own, again, not discolored and swollen like he had last seen her. He sat, and looked at her, waiting for her to speak first. She didn’t, she just reached for his hand. He took it and sat there for a long time, just holding her hand. Finally, she said quietly, "Thank you, R.C."

Understanding what this cost her, he responded just as quietly, "You’re welcome, …Mom."

She looked at him, startled, and deeply moved. She squeezed his hand more tightly. "R.C…"

"Yes?"

"I … I don’t… I can’t…"

"It’s all right. I just wanted to see for myself that you were on the mend. I told Dad that I was coming, and that I wanted to talk to you, to tell you a few things. I told Dad, you are my mother in every way but one, and that one isn’t the important one. You helped Gran raise me, since I was a baby. I know you as well as any son knows his mother, and perhaps better. You were my friend first, my ‘sitter’, who loved and nourished my heart and soul. You became my mother by choice, and I have never regretted one day of it. When I saw Judd… trying to… trying to rape you… when I saw how he had beaten you, had hurt you… I wanted to kill him! I still do! You are kind, gentle and loving! You are my mother!"

His voice choked. "Caitlin, I wanted to kill him! He was hurting my mother!" he was holding her hand in his, and trembling.

She looked at him, the young man that had been a small baby when she had first known him. She loved him like a son. She was humiliated that he had seen her as he did, when he rescued her. Yet, if he had not arrived when he did, … she knew what he had saved her from. He had to know as well. He was the child of her heart, and she knew how he was hurting. She didn’t want him to seek revenge for this. That there was a reason that Judd had attacked her, Lee knew. Her mother knew… they would tell her. But there could be no revenge… that wasn’t the way that things were done here. They would, instead, seek justice. She reached out to Robert, and kneeling, he put his head on her shoulder, as he had as a child, and he cried, for her, for his father, for himself. And Caitlin held him until the tears stopped, murmuring soft words, and she cried with him, and for him….for the child that was, and the man that he had come to be, hardened now, by events that he had no control of…

 

 

Lee Crane sat in the chair beside Caitlin's bed later that evening and watched her sleep. He had moved his bags into the Nelson's guest room next door to hers because of she wanted him near her. Hopefully the day would soon come when she would come back to him totally. Her asking him to stay next door to her was a start. As he watched her, he thought back on all that had happened...and cursed himself for not being able to protect her from Judd. Yet, he also realized that he had not been able to protect himself and Robert the year before from that madman. Perhaps the Admiral was right...insanity does give someone a strange advantage.

Caitlin stirred and turned toward him, her eyes opening slightly. When she saw him sitting there, she smiled. Rising slightly up on one arm, she looked at him.

"Hi...how long you been sitting there?"

"Long enough, Little Girl. This old sailor can't take much more in this chair. How about moving over and letting me stretch out a bit?"

"Sure...hold on." Caitlin moved over a bit and made room for him on the bed. As Lee stretched his legs out on the bed, gingerly moving the leg in the brace, she placed pillows behind his back so he'd be comfortable. Then once he had leaned back, she cuddled up next to him, laying her head on his chest as his arm wrapped around her shoulder. It made her feel safe...protected.

"Besides, you're not so old...sailor." She smiled at him, almost shyly

"Oh, really? Think so, huh . . ." Lee chuckled a bit. Maybe one day soon, I'll prove it to you once again.

"I know so, Lee," she quietly replied. Lying there with him gave her a serenity she hadn't known in a while. Then raising up a bit, she looked at his face, studying it. And just as suddenly, she asked, "Lee, why did Judd attack me? Why did he say what he did about Mom? How was he connected to HN's kidnapping years ago?"

Crane shifted his weight, suddenly uncomfortable with her questions. He hadn't had any problems with telling Robert, but this was different. How could he tell her that it was because of something her own mother did? He became strangely quiet...suddenly very morose. Caitlin sensed his mood change and she sat up, crossing her legs under her. Again she questioned him.

"Lee, you didn't answer me. Why did Judd attack us? Who is he?"

"Ummm, Caitlin...I think . . ."

"Lee, he talked about Mom as if he knew her...hated her for some reason. Why? What did she ever do to him?"

Sitting up, Lee swung his legs down to the floor, moving the injured leg carefully, and bowed his head slightly. It had always been agreed that only those directly involved with that fateful day would ever know. He'd had to tell Robert because he was the one that had fought off Judd and called the authorities. He had seen what that monster had done to him and to his step-mother...he deserved the truth. Caitlin deserved the truth too, but she needed to hear it from her mother, not from him. How could he tell her that he couldn't tell her, that Karen was the one to answer her questions.

"Caitlin...I think you need to talk to Karen about it. She can best answer your questions concerning the kidnapping. After all, she was the one that went in and got the Admiral out."

"Yeah, but you and Chip were with her. I know that. Remember . . .You called me in Blacksburg trying to find her. You were all wound out because she'd took off and wouldn't answer her cell phone," she responded, taking his hand in hers. "You and Chip were both there. You know what went on. Please...please tell me. Why does this man hate us so much?" she pleaded with him.

He stood up and faced her. He wanted to answer her...wanted to tell her but knew it was not his place. That was for Karen to do. And judging from Caitlin's tone...he didn't envy her the task. "Caitlin...the answers to your questions...are ones I can't really answer. That's for your mother to do. She has the answers. Now...I need to go unpack my things. I'll be back in a bit. Why don't you rest?"

"Dammit, Lee...I'm tired of resting. I want to know why that man did what he did to us. To me. Why won't you tell me???" She had gotten up on the side of the bed and sat facing him defiantly. The tone of her voice was that she wasn't going to be put off. She was demanding answers to questions he didn't want to answer.

Taking a more severe tone with her than he really intended, he replied, "Caitlin, the answers to your questions are harder than what you think. There's a...history...that we share with Judd. It's not a nice one, either. However, it's one that your mother can best give you far better than I. Now . . ." his tone softened a bit as he leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. "...I need to unpack my things. I'll be back in a little while. Just do me a favor, okay?"

She was annoyed...at him for not answering her questions and at his insistence that she talk to her mother regarding those answers. Caitlin had always felt that there was far more behind HN's kidnapping than what she was ever told. However, she had been brought up not to question some types of things unless she had a damn good reason. Neither Karen nor Harriman Nelson had discussed the aftermath of that incident and she knew not to ask questions. Yet, things had suddenly happened that made it impossible for her to go without answers. She had to know. If Lee wouldn't tell her, then she would have to go to her mother.

Looking up at him, she scrunched up her face and asked, "What?"

Crane faked a look of hurt feelings. "All I was going to ask was that you keep a spot warm for me here. That's all...I swear."

The look on his face was priceless. She couldn't help but smile at the deliberately down turned mouth and sad eyes. Add to the fact he was rubbing his leg, as if he were in heavy pain. She knew he was faking it...but the fact that he was doing it for her...made her smile.

"Oh...all right. But I warn you...I will get the answers to my questions...even if I have to go to Mom to get them."

Crane smiled down at his wife. "I know, Little Girl...I know." He turned to go to the door, leaning heavily on the cane, and as he opened it, he told her, "I'll be back in a little bit. Get some rest, okay?"

She smiled and nodded, laying back on the pillows. ‘I'll find out. One way or another, I'll find out!’

As Lee Crane left Caitlin's room, Lee knew that he had to talk to Karen. He realized that the only way that Caitlin would be able to come entirely to grips with the horror that they had been through, would be for Karen to tell Caitlin the reason behind the attack on the two of them, and his and Robert’s kidnapping .

Going to the adjoining guest room, he unpacked his bag and then headed downstairs to find her. Hearing sounds in the kitchen, he walked in and found her making a pot of coffee. So, settling himself into one of the oak chairs, he stretched his legs out to keep them from cramping, rubbing his thigh in the leg brace, as his wounded leg reminded him, not too subtly that it was not yet healed!

"Want a cup of coffee, Lee? I just made a fresh pot," she offered.

"Sure. Might as well," he agreed, accepting the cup from her.

"Karen, we've got to talk." He looked up at her as she poured the fragrant brew into his cup and then offered him the cream and sugar. Taking a sip of coffee, he smiled, "Let me guess...Southern Pecan?"

As she poured, she cocked an eyebrow and smiled. "But of course, suh. What else would I serve in these house?"

Lee chuckled just a bit and responded, "Somehow...I shouldn't expect anything else from a southerner."

"Ahhh...but Virginians are neither northern nor southern, suh. We are simply…Virginians. And there is simply no need for anything else to be said," she grinned at him.

"I stand corrected," he capitulated and returned her grin.

"You're more than forgiven, suh. Yankee men...whatever will I do with you both?" she gently retorted, smiling at him. Then turning to the more serious side, "How is she?"

Crane took a sip of the coffee and then got right to the issue. "She's asking questions, Karen. Ones I feel you need to answer. Ones about Judd and his relationship to us."

She poured a cup of the coffee for herself and joined him at the table. "I always knew this day would come...I just hoped...that I'd never have to tell her." She looked at Lee and continued, "I know you told R.C. and you were right to, Lee. Considering that the boy found his mother in that state and what that monster was doing . . ." Karen shuttered as she remembered the events of the past month. "You have no idea how sorry I am...that I'm responsible for all of this."

"Karen, you're not responsible. He is. He's the one responsible. You did what had to be done that day," Lee assured her. He took his hand and covered hers. "If you hadn't gone back, God only knows what havoc he would have reeked on everyone. He was mad, Karen. Insane. We all know he fully intended to kill the Admiral. He never had any intention of letting him go. No...Karen...you did the right thing. If you hadn't...either Chip or I would have. It's like I told Robert...you just beat us to the punch."

"But look what 'doing the right thing' has gotten us, Lee. You and R.C. were kidnapped and left in a boat to die…because of me… Caitlin attacked and nearly raped …because of me. . . you were shot. All because of me!!!! All because of what I did." Her anguish was evident. Crossing over to the sink, she grasped it then wheeled around to face him. "How in God's name do I tell her that her mother is the reason that Judd tried to rape her? How do I tell Caitlin that it was because of me that you and R.C. were hurt? How do I tell her that I deliberately killed someone… How??"

"You have to believe me that it wasn't any easier for me to tell Robert either, but you've got to, Karen. She deserves to know. She's asking me and I've been putting her off. But she has a right to know, considering what happened."

Karen Davis Nelson sat back down and faced him, the look of helplessness as well as exasperation evident on her face. Then slowly, tears formed at the corners of her eyes. Unknowingly, she had grasped a knife on the table and then declared, "If I ever get that bastard in front of me, Lee, I'll kill him. I swear before God Almighty...I'll kill him."

With quiet strength, Lee softly replied, "No...you won't, Karen...as much as you want to...as much as we all want to...you nor I nor the Admiral...will. We won't sink to his level. What he did...to her...to Robert … and me...will be dealt with by the proper authorities. But to deliberately go after him...for revenge...is as wrong. Revenge is what he’s doing…"

She was silent for a few moments, contemplating what he had said. She knew he was right. Karen also knew that Judd would indeed be dealt with. Whether it was by her or by other means. He would be dealt with. Suddenly looking down, she realized she had the knife in her hand and released it. Looking over at him, she weakly smiled.

"You're right, of course, Lee. He will be dealt with. One way or the other. And yes, I'll handle the questions she has. You're right there, too. She has a right to know. I just pray she'll understand."

"She will, Karen. If I know her, she will. She’s your daughter, remember? . . ." he commented reflectively as he sipped his coffee.

 

 

When Robert returned to San Diego and the Prometheus, he was feeling better than he had in a long time. He knew, as his parents, and family did, that he had a long way to go, but he also felt that he had made a major move forward, and that he and all of them were taking positive steps toward recovery… If only he could get his hands on William Judd. He’d have to see Michael Taylor at ONI on that one…

 

 

Some days later…

Karen Nelson sat solemnly out on the deck just off the living room watching the huge orange sun set slowly behind the endless blue sky. Her eyes had not left the clear horizon since she had sat down....her mind filled with so many thoughts...so many painful memories. Glancing back at the living room, she saw Caitlin with Lee.

‘My God! Please help me explain to her. She shouldn't have had to go through this. Not because of me...not because of what I did so long ago!’

She looked away, unable to watch them, wanting to give them the privacy they so deserved. Lee had told her that Caitlin was asking questions...ones he wouldn't answer, saying only that she needed to ask Karen for the answers. She faintly heard the French doors open and then softly click closed. A slight scraping sound indicated that a chair was being pulled up next to her.

"Lee had to leave for a bit...he wanted to go over to the house to check on the renovations," her daughter explained, pulling up the chair closer to the railing. Then, just as her mother had done, she leaned back and placed her feet up against one of the rails.

Karen didn't reply...almost afraid that engaging her daughter in any conversation would ultimately lead to the dreaded explanation. For the second time in her life, Karen Davis Nelson was petrified. She wanted to explain...needed to explain...but was afraid that her daughter wasn't really ready to hear the reason why this man, this monster, had attacked her...nearly raped her in front of her own husband. She didn't really understand it herself...but then again, how do you explain insanity?

"Mom," Caitlin said softly. "...Mom, I need to ask you something. Lee said you could explain something to me. He wouldn't answer some questions about Ashcroft."

Her mother drew in a deep breath. ‘God, Please give me strength! Please help her to understand!’

"What kind of questions, Sweets?"

Caitlin shifted her weight in the chair and brought her legs up under her. Hesitating a few minutes, as if to compose her exact thoughts, she finally asked the most direct question she could, "Mom, why did Ashcroft do...do what he did to me? Why?" Her voice almost broke as she looked out at the endless horizon. "Why did he say what he did about you?"

She turned in her chair to face Karen, yet her mother refused to look at her.

Karen got up from her chair and went to the railing, grasping the top and holding on tightly. Her head dropped as the tears she had fought to hold back began to fall slowly down. Turning around, she finally found the strength to face her daughter. "Please forgive me, Sweets. What happened to you...and to Lee...is because of something I did a long time ago."

"I don't understand, Mom...how could anything you did be responsible for that 'person' trying to rape me?"

Caitlin was confused. It was more than obvious to her that her own mother was in an inordinate amount of emotional pain. Watching her...seeing her cry and ask for forgiveness...was completely out of character.

Karen sat back down and moved her chair to directly face her daughter. Taking both hands in hers, Karen took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. "Do you remember a time years ago when Harriman and I had that BIG argument when I refused to dive? It was after my accident in the Azores and not long after I'd come back. You went to him 'cause you were concerned about me...that I wasn't really 'back', I think is how you put it to him? I panicked right before a dive, Harriman pulled me from the team and I left the Institute to go up to Hawke's cabin at Big Bear. Anyway, Harry was kidnapped by a militia group called the First American Militia." She searched Caitlin's face for some sort of reaction to the explanation.

"Of course I remember, Mom. HN took you up to the Prescott Inn that Christmas...I also remember getting calls from Lee right after the kidnapping about where you were. They were trying to find you to tell you...but I don't understand what that's got to do with . . ." she replied, puzzled at the association between what happened 20 years ago to what had happened to her in the past month.

"Caitlin, you never really knew the full story about what went on when Harriman was kidnapped. We....Harry and I . . .and Lee and Chip...decided that there was no reason for you to know. In fact, there's only a handful of people that DO know what went on the day we rescued him," Karen explained. "You remember Michael Briggs, don't you?"

"Sure I do...who could forget him?" she replied, remembering fondly the man in the white suit who had shown a very vulnerable sad little girl as much love as he was able to. "But I don't understand what he's got to do with it."

Karen leaned back in her chair and directed her gaze toward the open sea. She'd never been so truly afraid in all her life. Her actions that fateful day had come back to haunt her and her family...to hurt those she loved so dearly.

"Caitlin," she began slowly and deliberately. "The day we rescued Harry, I had gone to Michael to get a very special piece of equipment, a special helicopter, his section had. Lee and Chip went with me to get him out of the military compound where he was being held. The leader of the militia, an ex-Marine general, intended to kill Harriman in order to make a point. He had demanded that the entire United States government resign so that he and other militia leaders and followers could take their place. Sweets, this man was a monster...he beat Harriman to a pulp...would have killed him but he needed him to make a damn videotape for presentation to the government to show he was serious."

Karen hesitated a bit, then continued, "When Lee, Chip, and I went in to rescue him...they put him in the 'chopper beside me..." Her voice cracked with emotion as she remembered that fateful day. The memories of his condition flooded into her mind and made her wince in pain. "Caitlin...you didn't see what they'd done to him...he didn't know where he was...he was barely conscious . . ."

Caitlin Crane watched as her mother again got up and leaned up against the railing. Whatever had gone on that day apparently was bad enough that her mother was having an extremely difficult time relating the incident. She remembered being told about the kidnapping...Lee was frantically trying to find Karen...but the full details was something that no one, including Lee, had ever told her. She had figured that there wasn't too much to it...after all, she'd been a junior at Virginia Tech at the time and HN's recuperation had been while she was away at school.

"Mom, I only remember a little of the events...after all, I was at Tech at the time. But what's this got to do . . ."

"Caitlin...when I saw what that 'man' had done to Harriman...to the man I loved so much...I lost it. I completely lost my senses. We were on the way out to go home...and I lost it. I turned that 'chopper around and went back to the compound and destroyed it." Karen's eyes clouded over...she was remembering the fires...the smoke...and the General. Her expression changed...hardened as she told her what happened. "The General, as he was called, confronted us and tried to kill Harriman. I warned him to put his gun down. Three times I told him...he wouldn't...he fired directly at us...at Harriman.... tried to kill him. So I fired off a few rounds from the chain guns mounted on the 'chopper." Her voice trailed off, too painful to continue. Then somehow, she found her voice again. "He dropped where he stood. It wasn't until after Harriman was in the hospital a few weeks that I found out who the 'General' really was. Michael found out through his usual way...he broke security rules to tell me."

"I don't understand, Mom...who was this man...and how is he connected here?" Caitlin was losing a bit of patience with her mother. "Mom, what aren't you telling me? You know, I do have a right to know everything. That bastard tried to rape me and he shot Lee. Who is he?"

Karen looked away from the glare of her daughter's eyes.

Ironic. I've been called the 'Ice Queen' but I can't look at her and tell her who he is. Oh God, Caitlin, please forgive me...Please forgive me. It's my fault...all my fault.

Then, suddenly, as if a switch had been flipped, she faced her with no emotion...no expression.

"Caitlin, the General's name was William Ashcroft Judd. The man who attacked you and Lee is William Ashcroft Judd, Junior.... the son of the man I killed over twenty years ago. He's also the same man who kidnapped Lee and R.C. over year ago."

Her daughter was stunned. First her mother had admitted that she had deliberated killed someone...and now that the person who had attacked her was the same man who had tried previously to kill her husband and son as well. The reality wasn't really sinking in.

"But why, Mom? Why? What have we done to Ashcroft...I mean Judd . . ."

Karen couldn't look at her own daughter because of the tears filling her eyes. "Because of me, Caitlin...because of what I did that day. He wants revenge...on all of us for what I did! I killed his father and he's out to destroy me and anyone that I love. You, Harriman, Sean, Lee, R.C.,...everyone connected in any way, shape, form, or fashion with me. He's got the money, the hate, the resources."

"But that's insane, Mom...I remember hearing things about what had happened to HN when he was kidnapped. One of Tommy Chin's people told me he was beat up pretty bad when you brought him in."

Slowly, though, what Karen had said was beginning to take hold. Her own mother had coldly and deliberately killed someone for that very act. Flashes of memory came to her...an afternoon before Sean was born and a meeting with a man named McKenna. Her mother's coldness and reaction to him as well as her words. She had threatened this big man...to keep away from her and her family. Now she finally knew what her own mother really meant that day. Oh, God! The look of horror must have been evident in Caitlin's eyes as they widened when she looked at her mother.

"Mom . . ." she slowly began, "...you deliberately killed that man because of what he did to HN?"

"Yes, Sweets, I did," she unemotionally replied. "The General was a madman...he had to be stopped. No one...except for Michael, that is...knew he had a son who wasn't in the compound that day. Apparently, 'Junior' came back after I'd...finished...and found a few people alive. They must have told him what happened. He waited all these years.... plotted...accumulated wealth and power...until he felt he was ready to come after us...after me."

Caitlin got up and walked to the other end of the deck and grasped the railing. Wheeling around to face her mother, she shouted, "That bastard hurt us because of what you did to his father? He tried to rape me, Mom...in front of Lee...on our bed. He shot Lee." The tears flowed as her face reddened with rage. "Why didn't you tell me about this when Lee and R.C. was kidnapped? You knew then. Why didn't you tell me, Mom? Why???"

Karen Nelson suddenly collapsed in the chair. She felt so old, so tired. She buried her face in her hands and cried violently. Caitlin stood defiantly at the other end, watching her mother. How could she do this to her own daughter? Why hadn’t she told her?

Finding the strength somehow, the mother looked up into the accusing, hurt eyes of her child. The pain...the pain that was so thick in the cool air you could cut it with a knife...If there had been any possible way to take the pain away from her child, she would have gladly given her life to do it.

"Caitlin, Harriman and I decided long ago, as did Lee and Chip and Matty, not to discuss the incident of what I'd done. Lee and Chip were with me that day. I flew the 'chopper, Lee and Chip went in and got him out. When we got back...after I'd killed the General...we thought it was over and done with. No one knew about the son. Michael didn't tell me until Lee and R.C. were . . ."

"You should have told me then, Mom. I had a right to know! I almost lost them both!"

"I know that...and you're right.... but we . . ."

"There's no we in this, Mom! You should have told me."

Karen recognized the accusatory tone in her daughter's voice. She had every right to be angry...every right to be hurt, especially after what that monster had done to her. But at the same time, Karen knew that this was what Judd wanted...to create a schism between the family...to tear them away from one another.

Stopping herself from saying anything further, she stayed quiet for a few moments. Finally, she got up and walked over to her oldest child, her daughter. Reaching out and taking her hand in hers, she tightened her grip when Caitlin tried to pull away. Positioning herself directly in front of Caitlin, she tried to control her voice as she spoke.

"You're right, Caitlin...I was wrong...We were wrong...to keep the information from you. After Lee and R.C., I should have told you. Harriman and I never had any idea he would get this violent against you children."

"I'm not a child, Mom . . ."

"I know you're not, Sweets. The point is, until now, you, Sean, R.C., Alex...all of you...were kept away from it. That's the way we preferred to handle it. At the time the initial incident happened, Harriman and I weren't married, you were still in college...and Sean," she said and slightly chuckled, "Well, Sean wasn't even thought of."

Karen let go of her daughter's hand and leaned back against the railing. "Caitlin, Sean still doesn't know. R.C. does...Lee's told him. In fact, Lee came to me a day or so ago and he told me you'd been asking questions about Judd. We both agreed that I should be the one to tell you, just as he was the one to tell R.C."

"When are you going to tell Sean, Mom? When this madman does something else to us? He deserves to know."

Karen sighed heavily and sat down in front of her daughter. "You're right, Caitlin...he does deserve to know the full story. I suspect, however, that he may know more than we think. Remember, your little brother was on the boat the day Harriman and the crew found Lee and R.C. in that boat. He was there in Harry's cabin when Michael called in with the information. Now...how much his father’s told him, I don't know...but Harriman and I always agreed that I'd be the one to tell him."

"Well, you'd better tell him, Mom, before Judd does something else. You had no right to keep this from me, especially after what happened before. And you know how Sean is...he'll keep after you 'til you tell him."

Karen's eyes were suddenly diverted to the window at the door. Standing there was Harriman Nelson, in his dress blues, watching and listening to what was going on out on the deck. She didn't know how long he'd been standing there, but she suspected it had been long enough to overhear a good portion of the conversation.

Nelson also knew that this was a time between mother and daughter and not for him. As much as he loved Caitlin, as deep as the bond had become between them, this was something that was between the two women only.

"Caitlin, his father and I will handle that. Don't worry." She glanced up again and realized that Nelson was now gone, leaving them alone. Getting up again, she stepped toward her daughter and reached out for her.

"Sweets, the one thing we can't do, is let Judd win. If we...you and I, Sean and Harriman, Lee and R.C., stand together...not let that bastard drive a wedge between us...then he can't win. That's what he wants, Caitlin...to turn us against each other...to destroy the family that we are. He's insane, Caitlin...and there's a twisted logic behind what he's trying to do to us."

Caitlin at first resisted her mother's attempts to hold her, but soon relented. As Karen's arms cradled her as she had done when she was a child, the tears came down. "He hurt me, Mom...he hurt me."

"I know, honey...I know...it's all right now...he won't ever hurt you again now that you know. I promise you...he won't ever hurt you again." Karen held her tightly and looked up as the sun slowly slipped below the horizon.

You bastard. You want me? Come after me, you sonofabitch. You'll live to regret this....I swear to you. I don't care how long it takes...or where you go. I'll find you, you goddamn bastard. You're going to get the privilege of meeting the 'Ice Queen' personally.

 

 

Three weeks later, Lee nervously waited in the foyer at the Nelson’s. He was still using the cane, but the brace was gone from his leg, and he was feeling better. Frank and Will had both promised that if he continued to improve, he’d be back on full duty on the boat when she sailed again in a week. He hoped that that would be the case. Jamison was giving Caitlin a final physical and then she was being released from Medical care. She had decided to go home with him today.

Home…God, I hope that we are making the right decision! Home! I’ve never been this nervous about anything before…the wedding was easy compared to this… The Wedding! That almost didn’t happen the way it was supposed to!…Caitlin had been such a beautiful bride. Unconventional! But then our entire relationship has been unconventional! We love one another…we love one another more than anything in the world! We will manage this, too… I keep telling myself this is just another hurdle…Like I had to face with the boat and my cabin, after the shooting…God, that was the hardest thing I had ever done…, at least until now!! Going back to my cabin…Like going home now!! Chip and the Admiral were there for me, then, and Caitlin. We will do this, together, and be there for one another…We will…!"

Will Jamison came down the stairs, with Caitlin and Karen. Caitlin’s infections had healed, and Will had no further reasons to keep her under his care. They both were seeing counselors, to help them deal with the attack. They had to go home, together, if they were to continue with their lives…

Jamie was smiling and talking animatedly with both women. Both were relaxed and happy looking, Caitlin was laughing. ‘Laughter! Something the both of them had to do more of! There had been enough of tears!’

Caitlin looked into the foyer and smiled at her husband. In the last weeks, she had become more and more relaxed in his company. There was still some tension, but they were becoming more at ease with one other once again. They were finding their way back to what they had shared. Hopefully by going home, they would move further together. Caitlin had been to the house twice, and had seen all of the renovations that Lee was making. Together with Karen, she had chosen paper and furniture for the rooms, and had become involved… their counselors had been pleased with her interest. It showed that she was moving on, and was willing to change.

She reached the foot of the stairs, and went to Lee’s side. He automatically slid an arm around her shoulders and she leaned into his side, an old habit that returned with comfortable ease. She looked up at him, and smiled. Jamison stood beside Karen, grinning at the couple.

"Looks like your wife is ready to go home, Lee. I’ve released her from my care!"

He looked down at his wife’s smiling face. "Shall we go, Little Girl?"

"Yes, my love… let’s go home…"

Lee looked at Karen and Jamison, and nodded. "Ski’s waiting for us outside. He’ll drive us over."

"Caitlin…?" Karen questioned her daughter.

"I’ll call later, Mom."

Karen smiled at her daughter and son-in-law, as they left and closed the door. She turned to face Jamison and her façade of surety disappeared. She looked nervous and drawn. "Will, is she…? Will they be okay?"

"Karen, I can’t guarantee anything. I believe that they will be. This is another major hurdle for the two of them." He looked at her and smiled. "They have to do this, Karen. Alone. We can’t do it for them. All we can do is to be there when they need us. The rest is in other hands…Their’s and Divine Providence, whoever that may be…"

 

 

Kowalski pulled the car into the driveway of the Skipper’s home. He had been with Crane for the last three weeks, since the Admiral had been out of the cast. This would be the last time he would be doing the driving for the ‘old man’, for Crane was able to drive his own car now, and had told him to go back to the boat, now that she was back. Part of the seaman was relieved, and part was slightly chagrined. He had rather enjoyed the assignment of driving the Skipper these last three weeks. If the truth be told, he really liked the man, and respected him…would do anything for him, as the Skipper had done for him, on a number of occasions. This last ‘problem’ that had occurred was the worst thing that could happen to anyone, and the idea that it had happened to the Captain and his Lady had Kowalski and every man on the boat ready to find Judd and kill him. He shook his head, and got out of the car, reaching for the door to open it for the Skipper. As he climbed out of the car, Crane smiled and looked at the sailor. "Thanks, Ski."

Kowalski moved to the other door, and opened it for Caitlin. "Let me help you, ma’am."

She smiled at him, "Ski, thank you for all the help that you’ve given Lee these last weeks… I’m glad that you were here to help."

"My pleasure, Ma’am. You know, the Skipper, well, he’s the best! There isn’t anything that anyone on the boat wouldn’t do for him. And well, when he needs help, we help. The Seaview takes care of her own… and everyone that’s important to them, if you know what I mean."

Caitlin nodded, and waited for Lee to join her at the door… Kowalski got back behind the wheel of the car, and slowly backed out of the drive, acknowledging the small wave of Caitlin’s with one of his own.

Caitlin stood at the front door of the house, unconsciously gripping Lee’s arm. He placed his hand over hers, and the tension decreased slightly. Lee keyed in a code to the new security box by the door, and the door released, and he opened it with his key. He walked into the foyer and felt her hesitate slightly at the entryway. He waited and after a few seconds, he gently touched her arm, and she slowly followed him into the foyer. She looked around, pleased at the changes that had been made to the small space.

It made the return easier. She had a flash of a face, and flowers on the floor, but the floor was different now, and she took a deep breath and moved into the Great Room. The rug was gone, replaced by hardwood floors, deep brown and gleaming in their newness. The furniture was also new, the beige contemporary sofa and chairs replaced by soft orange high backed couch and matching chairs, a warm brown and orange area rug under the coffee table in the middle of the room. Lee had even replaced the curtains on the deck doors with light, sheer panels of orange and brown. All in all, the room was warm and inviting and held no evidence of what had begun here.

He touched her arm again, and asked her, "Would you like to go upstairs, or like to wait here for a while?"

She made a wry face, and said, "Let’s go up now, before I lose my nerve!"

Her husband took her hand in his, and they walked to the stairway. Both stood at the foot of the stairs, looking up with faces full of apprehension. Both knew that they had to take this step, and they also knew that it was not going to be easy. With measured tread, they began to walk up the stairs together. Lee had the cane over one arm and had his other hand locked into a grip with Caitlin’s. As they approached the landing, their steps slowed even further. Caitlin felt like an elephant was sitting on her chest, making it difficult to breathe. There was a loud humming in her ears, and she saw the upper hallway beginning to tunnel into a pinpoint.

Panic attack!!!! No, not now!!! I can’t let this happen!!!! Caitlin, get a grip on yourself!’

She took several deep breaths, and clutching Lee’s hand more tightly, took the last step to the hallway. She stood there and gazed around. The hall had been painted a muted yellow, with soft green accents along the chair rail. The rug was also gone from here, and the floor was also gleaming hardwood. She smiled at the care that Lee had taken with her choices of color, and style, and she knew that Karen had had a big part in this transformation as well.

She took two steps toward the bedroom and stopped. Looking at Lee, she said very quietly, "I love you. Whatever the outcome of this, I want you to know that I love you! With my whole being. And I have always, and will always continue to love you, Lee Crane!"

He bent over slightly, and kissed her, tentatively, as the tension of the moment made her rigid, and unyielding. Then, she began to relax, and she began to kiss him in return, a gently, inquisitive kiss, that left room for much more, and no doubt of the way that she felt. She stopped the kiss and gently tugged on his arm, almost shyly. She nodded her head toward the door of the bedroom, and moved toward it, her arm locked in his.

She stood in the doorway, and looked around the room. Lee felt her body trembling, and slid his arm from her grip, to wrap it around her shoulders. She looked up at him gratefully, and stepped further into the room. The major changes that they had planned had been carefully completed. It was a very different room from the one that she had been in weeks ago. The wall had been moved back, and the room made larger by several feet, the large closet they did not use yielding a great deal more space, once it was gone. The room was done in soft rose on the lower wall, and a lightly flecked rose, beige and mint green floral wallpaper above a chair-rail border. The furniture was late colonial style, red cherry that was still shining in its newness. A huge, king-sized four-poster bed stood next to the doors to the deck. The bedding was mint green with rose and beige accents. The woodwork had been stained a dark red brown, the rug was a mint green, and there were new chairs, large, comfortable overstuffed chairs, covered in velvet, in rich rose.

Caitlin could not take her eyes off of the bed.

Jumbled images and feelings trapped her in the doorway. The bed was different; the room looked different, the furniture and placement was all different! But what had happened in this room! Judd’s face, looming over her and laughing…his hands, hurting… the things he was saying! It had happened here! She slumped against the doorframe, and felt strong hands reach out to stop her from falling. Those same hands guided her to a nearby chair, and she sat, hard. Her mind was trying to assimilate all the emotions that were raging around her.

Lee let her be, he didn’t talk to her, or try to pull her from her thoughts. He knew what she was feeling. He had been to the same place himself…

Caitlin felt like she was being pulled downward into a swirling vortex. It was dark and frightening, and in the center was Judd’s face, and she could hear his voice, taunting her, promising her .. ‘I will have my time with you, completely!!" and laughing again!

She was struggling in her mind to fight this feeling… she knew if she gave into the fear, that this time all would be lost. No, you bastard. You won’t win. Not now! Not ever! She wasn’t going to lose! He wasn’t going to win…She was a Davis! Davis women didn’t give up! She gradually pushed his face out of her mid, relegating him to another place. She pushed the thoughts and memories down, and away. She would deal with them, one at a time. She was here, their room, with her husband. They were together… Judd would not win! She wouldn’t let him.

Lee watched her as she struggled internally, his heart hurting for her. He knew the pain she was having… he wanted to help, but he also knew that she needed to do all of this herself. When she needed him, he would be there for her, like those that loved and cared for him had been there for him, when he needed them.

The glazed look slowly passed from Caitlin’s eyes, and she began to focus on the room, and the man that was kneeling beside her. Her hand reached for his face, and gently ran over his features with it. She looked at him, slowly smiling, and he took her hand, and kissed it. She stiffened momentarily and then relaxed.

"Little Girl?" he questioned softly.

"Yes, my love, I’m here, and I am okay. I … we will be okay." She reached out for him, with both hands outstretched, and he responded by standing, and gently pulling her to her feet, and gathering her into his arms.

They stood together in the room, he just holding her, she just clinging to him and drawing on his strength. After an eternity passed, she moved slightly away from him.

"Lee..?"

"Yes…"

"I think I’d like to go downstairs, now." He nodded silently, took her hand, and walked to the head of the stairs. They slowly descended the stairs, and went into the Great Room, where they sat on one of the couches, together.

"I like these couches, Lee," she said, a mischievous look on her face. They were sitting with his arm tucked around her shoulders, and she was curled into his arm.

"And why would that be, Little Girl?"

"Because they are so big…big enough to sleep on…" She sighed sleepily, "...and right now, I’m very tired." She pulled her feet up onto the couch, and curled up, dropping her head into his lap. He put one hand on her shoulder, and with the other, gently stroked her blonde hair.

"Then sleep, Little Girl...sleep," he told her softly, and waited until she drifted off to sleep.

 

 

Caitlin woke several hours later. The first thing she realized was that Lee was no longer there. Her head lay on a very soft pillow, and she was covered with a light blanket. The curtains in the window from the deck were blowing in the light breeze. Lee was sitting in a chair on the deck, his long legs resting on a bench, staring out towards the water. He was holding a glass of wine, and there were many candles burning in the setting dusk.

Caitlin slowly rose, and went, not out onto the deck, but to the stairs, and quickly went to their room. With a bit of hesitation, she went into the room, and to the closet. Looking carefully, she took an orange sundress from its hanger, and went into the bath. She took a quick shower, dressed quickly and went downstairs.

Lee was standing at the rail, staring out at the sea. She walked up behind him, and slid her hands around his waist., leaning her head against him. He moved around, and caught her in an arm, and held her close.

"Have a nice rest?" he asked, as he softly caressed her shoulders.

"Mmm, yes, a nice nap. And thank you."

"For…?"

"Letting me sleep like that…for holding me now…for being so understanding, and loving through all of this…" she put her finger on his lips before he could say anything to him. "And no...you are not at fault, any more than my mother, or the Admiral, or Michael Briggs, or anyone else is. William Judd’s a madman without any conscience, and he’s driven by a sense of revenge. He will ultimately fail because revenge is his only motivation for living…take that away and he has nothing at all. On the other hand, we have...all of us here...we have something that is so strong that nothing can defeat us…sounds corny I know, but we have love. All of us. You and me. HN and Mom. Robert, Sean…everyone here… its our guiding force. It makes us all do the ‘right thing’ all the time, no matter what the circumstances. And with that behind us, we will get through all of this and go on."

She finished and stood quietly in his embrace. He looked at her, in the soft light of the dusk, and appreciated how lucky he was to have her, and how fortunate they were to have one another. He held her closer, and said to her quietly, "How did you ever get so very wise, Little Girl? Your wisdom puts this old sailor to shame."

"Never old, my love, never…." She took his hand in hers, "Can your leg take a walk on the beach? I’d like to go there…I need to…"

"If we take it slowly, I think I can manage it. The cane is mainly so that I don’t loose my balance if it decides to give out on me! And honestly, it hasn’t done that in the last few days."

She grinned at him, "Then let’s go… the ocean looks so peaceful tonight!…Lee, the candles are beautiful… the house is beautiful…thank you again."

He laughed slightly, "This may sound corny, too, but you are more than welcome…anything in the world for you, Caitlin. Anything that I can give you…" His voice became more serious, " . . .and you do have to know how sorry I am that you have had to go through all of this… I ‘m not going to assign fault or blame… I just want you to know that I’m sorry!"

"I know, my love… I do know!… Come, let’s go…"

They walked, hand in hand, down to the beach. They moved at an easy pace along the surf line, letting the water lap at their feet. The water was warm and night was just as warm and peaceful. They came to a small jetty about a half mile from the house, and sat on sand, Lee leaning against the boulders, Caitlin sitting in the crook of his arm, leaning her head against his chest. They said nothing for the longest time, as the light faded, and the night began to darken.

Caitlin turned to her husband, and raised her face to his…She kissed him, warmly, wrapping her arms about his neck… As her lips met his, he wrapped his arms around her tiny waist. He returned her kiss with equal warmth, and when the kiss ended, she shifted slightly, and looked him deeply in the eyes.

"Lee, make love to me."

He held her close and asked, "Here?… Now? Are you sure?"

"Yes, my love, very, very sure…It’s time… I want you to…"

He didn’t answer, but instead, lowered his head to her shoulder, gently pushing aside the shoulder of the sundress, and kissing her with care. She shivered slightly at his kiss, but gave herself over to the thrill of his lips on her skin.

He was pleasantly surprised to find that under the dress, she wore no undergarments, and he let his hand lightly move over the swell of her breasts. Her sharp intake of breath caused him to pause, and he looked again at her face.

"I love you, Little Girl," he said softly.

"I know… Please, don’t stop!"

He slid a hand into the dress, and gently drew his thumb across the tip of one nipple, then the other. Her initial tension gradually passed as he simply, gently caressed her with his long, strong fingers. She helped him by unbuttoning the buttons on her dress, until it was completely open, and then she stood, and slid it off. He rose, and held her to him, and she began to release the buttons on his shirt.

He was kissing her harder now, his hands sliding over her body, gently stroking her, arousing her in a way that she thought she would not be able to feel again. She moaned, a soft sound, of pure pleasure, and his kiss became deeper, and his hands more demanding.

She drew his shirt off his shoulders, and one at a time, he slid his arms out of the sleeves. The touch of her flesh to his was electric. It spurred her to move her hands to his waist, and work the belt, button, and zipper of his pants open until she could slide them, along with his briefs off his hips and down to the sand. He stepped out of them, and pulled her back to him. Her body molded itself to his, as they stood on the beach, hands and lips cautiously rediscovering one another.

Lee bent a knee, holding Caitlin tightly, and eased her to the sand. She lay back, and held her arms open to him, urging him to take her, there and then. Lee knelt above her.

With a great deal of gentleness, he moved toward her. She spread her legs, to welcome his entrance, and he lay with her, first caressing her nub of pleasure, making sure she was ready for him, and then he entered her. His entry was slow, and careful, and she moved her hips to enable him the deepest penetration possible. His strokes were slow, and steady, and she felt a mounting warmth begin to wash over her, as his speed increased, with his rising passion. His hands were on her breasts, fondling them, with tender, continuous strokes. His mouth was tracing soft kisses over her face, her neck and shoulders.

She was totally involved in the feelings that she was experiencing, the total way that he was loving her, bringing her to her peak so sensitively, caring for her! With a slow carefulness he brought her to the edge of fulfillment, and just as carefully pushed her over the edge. Her world exploded in waves of warmth, and light, and she shuddered, cried out, and was still, her breathing heavy. Once he saw that she was satisfied, he allowed himself to travel to the same place, and a bright red ball of coruscating light erupted in his mind and body. Collapsing on the sand next to her, he pulled her close, and held her tightly. Time passed, and she moved against him.

"Thank you, my love… thank you…"

His answer was a warm kiss, and a gentle caress… Souls had healed, and minds and hearts had progressed to places familiar, and well known.   Recovery was continuing, and lives would go on, some things different, some better than before.

 

 

Epilogue…

William Ashcroft Judd looked around the spacious ornate sitting room. He had planned well for this eventuality. The South American Jungle was a wonderful place to hide, and to build his forces for a better day.

He would get the Davis bitch! He would get her at some point. Careful planning… Young Crane had been a wild card. He wasn’t supposed to come home when he did. It should have been the next day…Well, he had hurt them. Hurt them all… He hadn’t finished with Caitlin…he would have her one day… and young Crane...well, he owed him a debt…for stopping him… he would get them all…one day!!

He would have his revenge!!!!

 

 

 

 

  

                                                                                   

 

 

 

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Michael Coldsmith Briggs, III appears courtesy of Belisarius Productions and Universal Studios.