Epilogue: No Regrets

Five years later…

Yvette reorganized the bouquet as she knelt beside the cold gray slab of marble in the center plot of Cedar’s Rest Memorial gardens. It had been his plot since the day after her mother was interred. They’d always talked about having a family mausoleum but never got around to it…and now it was too late. Scott was buried beside his first love and would always be. It had been two years since he’d taken ill and three since his passing. After the first remission of his cancer, Yvette had hoped that she would have more time with him but once it returned on Christmas day, they were both positive it would be the disease that got him.

She ran her hand over the engravings and read them over and again in her head. Always on my mind, forever in my heart. Brett’s hand rested on her shoulder and she wiped away a tear as Autumn came to sit beside her. “You think Grandpa liked roses?” Autumn asked and placed a single orchid next to the grave beside the large vase.

“He was a boy, Autumn,” Austin replied, dropping dramatically at Yvette’s side. “And boys don’t like flowers.”

“That’s not true!” Autumn asserted. “Boys can like flowers! Can’t they, Mommy?”

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S7: Chapter 07: Bringing Down the House

The fiercely hot sun beamed down onto Brett’s neck and for the third time within the hour he found himself in need of a dry towel as he baked in the arid valley. “Remind me again whose idea it was to visit the desert in the dead of summer,” he groaned into his earpiece as he kept watch of the building across from him. It took some doing, but he had finally convinced his boss to let him bring his team to Egypt in search of Gerald Mercer. Although thanks to Scott, the official documents of his request has the team on an excursion to seek an expert in missile weaponry. Besides, Scott wasn’t too keen on letting Mercer think he got off free and clear after what he did to his family.

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S7: Chapter 05: Like Mother Like Daughter

“Mom? Mom it’s Brett, Yvette’s been shot.” Brett paced frantically inside of the reception area at the ER as he waited on news about his wife’s condition. Doctors, nurses and other medical staff flooded the large hallway running from one patient’s room to the next. The flurry of activity did very little to calm Brett’s frazzled nerves as he tried to keep his mind off of the worst possible outcomes.

“Oh my God Brett, is she ok?”

“I don’t know, no one’s telling me anything and it’s been hours! Look, I’m calling because I need you to take the twins. Scott’s with them now but I know he’d much rather be here for Yvette and I don’t want him to…”

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S7: Chapter 03: Paper Planes

** Author's note: Well now, here we are again! (Finally) This chapter took quite a bit of doing. Besides not being able to recolor (materializing materials bug) I had the hardest time finding the words. Well! This chapter is 16pgs long in MSWord with 158 images (not counting the Bonus section) and 10,290 word count. Calling it "epic" would be putting it mildly! So. I guess suffice it to say, the writer's block is over! Enjoy :) **

“Who puts a pizza place next to a bridal shop?” Lien asked as she, Mica and Yvette rounded the plaza towards the Heirloom Bridal Boutique. They’d been shopping since 7:00 a.m. going from one shop to the next in search of the perfect wedding attire for Bride, Groom and the wedding party. Heirloom would make store number eighteen by Yvette’s count. By the time they made it to Peacock Square at 3:00 p.m., all three women were nearly dead on their feet.

“Unless the pizza place was here first and the bridal shop came later; ruining weddings since the dawning of time,” Yvette joked as the trio headed inside.

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S6: Chapter 09: Dial ‘M’ for Murder

“An urgent call to 9-1-1 last night has alerted us to the latest victim. Rick Masters, night security guard for the Channel 7 Action news station says he heard a scream. He exited the backdoor of the building in time to see a man shove weathergirl Leona Stone into an early model pick-up truck and peel off the lot. Her keys were found on the ground beside her car indicating a struggle. Cigarette butts left in the area show that whoever grabbed her had been waiting a while. The lab is running the DNA through the system now to see if we get a hit,” Brett announced as everyone gathered in the conference room.

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S6: Chapter 08: Crossword

A cupcake and balloon was waiting on Dustin when he got in the next morning and everyone congratulated him on his recent nuptial news. “I didn’t get balloons on my birthday, geez. A guy’s gotta propose before he receives the royal treatment around here?”

“Oh this again?” Victor rolled his eyes as Dustin went into his ‘no cake, no banner’ rant about his birthday once more. He refused to let it go even though it happened over three years ago and he had the day off.

“Our sincerest condolences, Dusty,” Brett smiled and shook his hand.

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S6: Chapter 05: Tongue Tied

“Scott is that you?” Vivica asked from the kitchen as she checked on dinner. Wordlessly he walked towards her, pecked her cheek and reached into the fridge for a beer. “How was work Dear?” she asked, stirring the pot of spaghetti sauce.

“Uneventful, quiet as I like but that always means trouble’s brewing.” Scott replied and took a sip from the bottle in his hand.

“Oh you should have a little more optimism Scott! Things could be settling down a bit for now. Think of it as you doing your job successfully; the crime rate is dropping.”

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S6: Chapter 03: Snail Mail

“Dustin are you ok? Why so quiet,” Yvette asked nudging him with the tip of her shoe. He looked over his shoulder towards her, his finger still twirling the flap of the envelope in his pocket.

“Yeah, Vette, I’m fine. Just thinking about something that’s all.”

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S5: Chapter 10: Peek-A-Boo

Yvette’s eyes had just closed when an alarm sounded in the hallway just outside her door. Through the small crack she noticed a handful of security guards running down the corridor as well as a doctor and nurse. “I wonder what that’s all about,” she thought aloud and pulled herself from the warmth of her blankets.

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S5: Chapter 09: Labor Strike

“Are you seeing this?” Dustin asked turning on the news. Channel 7 was covering a protest down in front of City Hall concerning the recent decrease in local businesses, loss of small business competition, jobs and the hike in unemployment.

“What’s happening?” Ryan asked stopping beside him and watching the raid unfold.

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S5: Chapter 08: My Sacrifice

Yvette was having trouble sleeping the last few nights. She stayed by Scott’s bedside as long as possible talking him through it as the doctor told her it was helping to improve his condition which wasn’t as fatal as they had originally believed. Scott pushed away from Cameron as he felt the blade burning into his skin and thankfully suppressed the amount of damage he did to his body.

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S5: Chapter 07: The Missing Link

“We need Yvette for this mission,” Scott sighed and dropped a large dossier on the desk.

“Yvette? My Yvette? My six months pregnant Yvette?”

“Unless you know another. Cameron Goldman, Englishman, known drug smuggler and gun enthusiast. To catch you up, CIA Excursion Mission Red Hawk involved a lot of money, a lot of weapons and a lot of arrests. Yvette and her team were knee deep in the shit and pulled this off successfully with minimal risk and a few deaths. Anyway, Goldman made contact with a Turkish arms dealer and offered to supply his army for a reasonable price; Yvette brokered the deal and her team took them all out. The CIA had a plant in the Turk’s army that helped orchestrate the takedown and both he and Yvette were ‘arrested’ for their parts in the crime.”

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S5: Chapter 05: Better off FED

“Come on batter hit it out of the park!” Scott yelled at Ryan as he stepped up to the plate preparing for his swing. “You better get a homer or else you’re on desk duty for a week!”

His threat was met with a light chuckle from Sharpe until he turned and noticed his boss wasn’t smiling with him. “Well shit!” Turning his gaze back towards the pitcher, Ryan lifted his bat and prepared himself for the slider he saw the CIA agent using as the first pitch for every hitter that took position. Lowering his cap to blot out the sun from his eyes, he scanned the bases and the positions of the men on the field, he was ready.

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S5: Chapter 01: Homecoming

“Hello Princess,” Ethan grinned and stepped closer. “Welcome home.”

“You son of a bitch!” She jumped towards him only to feel the tight knots of the ropes wrench the flesh of her wrists and jerk her back into the chair hard. Toppling over she fell against the cement ground. A pained groan puffed from her lips and she shook her head to settle the stars that now circled around her eyes. Moving quickly, Ethan leaned forward and pulled her upright once more.

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S4: Chapter 10: The PuppetMaster

“Hey what’s going on?” Ryan asked watching the team gear up and get ready to head out.

“Red alert, someone spotted our missing girl entering a building in the red-light district by force. She was seen in the company of three rather large men and they were armed,” Dustin reported as he strapped an extra magazine to his hip.

“Who called it in?” He dropped his cup of coffee on the table and caught the automatic Vic tossed towards him as he too got in gear.

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S4: Chapter 09: Out of the Shadows

-- July 18, 1998 --

“Daddy!  Daddy!” Yvette yelled rushing into the front door of the cabin flying straight passed her mother standing in the kitchen preparing a dinner salad.

“Yvie, where are your manners?” Katrina asked peering over her shoulder at the little girl bouncing through the house towards the living room.

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S4: Chapter 08: On Edge

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S4: Chapter 06: Strip Teased

Yvette and Brett got to the scene just behind Victor and watched as Dustin pulled up as well. “What’s going on?” he asked joining the others just behind the barricade of yellow police tape.

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S4: Chapter 05: Everyday Heroes

**Author's note: For those who have not yet read The Phenomenal Larry Stunning by Aeon, please be advised Comic Con has come to Bridgeport and Dustin Kimura will be attending. During this event certain questions are asked of the author that may reveal spoilers. Read at your own risk.**

“I don’t know about this Yvette,” Brett reread the letter and dropped it to the counter beside her arm. “It could be a set up or any number of things.”

“It’s in my mother’s handwriting Brett! She mentions things only she and I would know. Calls me by the nickname she gave me and look, the story passages she included are from my favorite stories; ones she and Scott read to me when I was little. It’s real, it’s from her!”

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S4: Chapter 04: Ghosts

– May 24, 2002 – 

“Dear God we ask you to heal the broken in their hearts and bind up their wounds. Mercifully look upon those who are at this time bereaved. Be near them in their sorrow, and let their sorrow draw them nearer unto you. Now that earthly joys and comfort fail, may the things unseen and eternal grow more real, more present, more full of meaning and power. Let your strength sustain their weakness; and your peace fill their minds with perfect trust in you; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.”

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