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Date Posted: 14:08:42 03/24/03 Mon
Author: dqfan
Subject: A Journey Home - ch.1

A Journey Home
~by dqfan~

CHAPTER ONE

"Time's a wasting, Mountain Man…" Sophie's cheerful jab fell on deaf ears. Dropping her skiing equipment to the floor of Peter's office with a resounding thud, she walked toward the window where Peter was looking out aimlessly.

"Peter, we'll be late. The kids have finally gone for the Christmas holidays and you promised me we'd go skiing." Sophie poked him playfully in the shoulder. "Get a move on, slow poke!"

"I can't go…" Peter's sigh was heavy.

"What? Why? We had it all planned…" Sophie wasn't even trying to hide her disappointment, which just made Peter feel even worse.

"I know…I'm sorry, Soph." The regret in Peter's eyes was sincere and Sophie immediately stopped her whining, concerned that something was terribly wrong.

"Has something happened? Peter, what is it?" Sophie placed her hand gently over his, sensing his hesitancy.

Peter shook his head and Sophie was surprised to see a mixture of anger and frustration on his face. "Something's come up…something unavoidable…" he moaned. Peter was being purposefully vague.

"Unavoidable?" Sophie pressed.

"Yes…unavoidable…like the plague…" Peter snapped sharply, no longer disguising his displeasure.

"Peter…" Sophie was trying desperately to suppress her laughter now as she saw the color growing in his cheeks. "Whatever it is can't be that bad…"

Peter silently handed her an envelope, resigned to his fate. The envelope was navy blue with gold leaf trim - very formal and very intimidating. It was postmarked Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Sophie was even more curious. It appeared to be an invitation of some sort. What could be so bad about that, she wondered.

Peter was avoiding her gaze, focusing his sights downward, far too intent on the condition of his office carpet.

Taking his silence as a cue she should continue, Sophie removed the invitation. Reading it twice she was even more confused. It wasn't really an invitation exactly, more of a notification.

Reading aloud, Sophie announced, "The Women's Auxiliary League for the Preservation of Colorado Springs will hold an emergency meeting on December 21st at noon, sharp. Attendance is mandatory."

Peter was shaking his head even more strongly now. Thrusting his hands into his jacket pockets, he began pacing furiously.

Below the announcement Sophie noticed a brief handwritten note. "Peter, this is urgent! Come at once!" It was signed "Charity."

"The Women's Auxiliary League for the Preservation of Colorado Springs?" Sophie repeated the mouthful of a title aloud in a questioning voice.

"WALPOCS," Peter nodded in dire seriousness.

"WALPOCS?" Sophie raised her eyebrow slightly, intrigued beyond all words. "Peter, what can you possibly have to do with The Women's Auxiliary League for the Preservation of Colorado Springs?" she insisted, determined to get to the bottom of the matter.

Peter bit his bottom lip, closed his eyes and inhaled all of the available oxygen from the room, answering softly, "I'm the President…"

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

"Peter, be serious! You're not going to tell me that you're leaving for Colorado tonight because some Women's Historical Group is having a meeting…Peter?!"

Sophie wasn't getting anywhere. She'd joined Peter on his mad rush home to pack and was now watching helplessly while Peter jammed his clothes into a suitcase, his eye on the clock and his approaching flight.

"It's not just some group, Soph," Peter replied, stopping for a moment to catch his breath. "I've gotta catch my flight…"

"Five minutes, Peter. Give me the five-minute version. You've got five minutes, haven't you?" Sophie pleaded.

Peter's demeanor softened. He knew he was acting crazy and he knew Sophie deserved an explanation. He just wasn't sure that there was a five-minute version to this story…

Taking Sophie's hand, he pulled her down to sit beside him on the bed, next to his half-packed suitcase. "Okay, the five-minute version…" he smiled with a sigh.

"The Women's Auxiliary League for the Preservation of Colorado Springs," he began.

"WALPOCS," Sophie repeated for clarification.

Peter grinned broadly and nodded. "Well, there's been a Sully on the board of WALPOCS since the organization began in 1870."

"A Sully?" Sophie asked.

"My mother's family," Peter explained. "WALPOCS was founded by my Mom's great-grandmother, Dr. Michael Quinn."

"I thought you said Sully?" Sophie was totally confused.

"She kept her maiden name. From what I hear she was a little too progressive for her own good. A woman from Boston, practicing medicine on the frontier, keeping her maiden name and founding societies like WALPOCS in her spare time…" Peter chuckled at the family's stories he'd heard over the years.

"I like her already," Sophie beamed.

"Anyway, Michaela Quinn Sully established WALPOCS as her own little effort to preserve the land and heritage of Colorado Springs. The railroad, western expansion and the industrial revolution were all just beginning to have an effect on life back then and Michaela wanted to encourage women to keep history alive for all the generations to come."

"Noble cause." So far Sophie understood, but she had just one question: "But Peter, if it's a women's group…?"

Peter shook his head and rubbed his eyes with his hands, wincing at his predicament. "My mother was their last President. She loved the group and never missed a meeting. Gave quite a bundle to them, too, over the years. Dad used to say he made all his money just so those crazy women in Colorado could spend it!" Peter laughed, remembering his parents' banter. He had caused them both so much heartache and now that they were gone, he missed them dearly.

"When she died, the League passed a unanimous vote, authorizing one of her two sons to take over as President," Peter explained ruefully. "If you thought Mark and I fought over Dad's company, you should've seen us trying to force each other to take this stupid job…Got so bad, Dad was ready to choose for us but we thought we stood a better chance on our own."

"What did you do?" Sophie asked, almost afraid to hear, recalling Peter's story of the two boys' adventure in wet cement.

"We challenged each other to a 24 hour nine-ball tournament. Winner goes free, loser goes to Colorado," Peter shrugged with a smirk.

"And you lost?" Sophie was feeling sorry for poor Peter already.

"It was almost 6am. We'd been tied for most of the night. Then with not even a minute to go, I missed my last shot, corner pocket. It was an easy shot…I would have won…but a fire engine zoomed by and broke my concentration…I swore that day, Mark would never beat me at nine-ball again and he hasn't. But by then…"

"You were President of WALPOCS…" Sophie nodded sadly at Peter's tale of woe.

"Yup." There was really nothing more Peter could say…

"Well, I better go get packed," Sophie said brightly, filled with energy for the task ahead.

"You? Oh no, Soph, you don't have to come with…" Peter was feeling guilty enough about spoiling their holiday plans. Asking her to join him in his journey to resolve whatever crisis had befallen his hardy little group of historical heroines seemed too much to ask, even of a fiancee.

"Never seen a real live WALPOC before," Sophie laughed, giving him a kiss as she headed toward her trailer. "Wouldn't miss it!"

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