| Subject: Re: Priority Mail 343 |
Author:
Nikita507
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Date Posted: Tuesday, November 22, 08:37:29pm
In reply to:
Nikita507
's message, "Priority Mail 338+" on Wednesday, November 16, 08:38:27pm
Laura scratched at her neck as she fretted at the table in the coffee shop. She glanced at the clock in this small coffee shop that stayed open all night in Memphis and swore that she should have just gone all the way back to St. Louis.
“He’ll be here,” Tom spoke as he placed his hand over her other hand and pulled the coffee away from her, because Laura didn’t need more caffeine. Laura looked at him and exhaled. “I can’t believe that you agree with me on this.”
“We have this meeting to get thru first… if it goes as we hope it will… your plan makes the most sense and doesn’t need Michael and Nikita,” Tom pointed out as he knew that the flight that Joshua had taken had landed a bit late due to the fog that was around the airport. He squeezed Laura’s hand. “You really thought about them.”
“More than they were thinking about themselves,” Laura retorted with a shake of her head. “We should have gone right to him. We could already have April with Michael and Nikita.”
“I think it was probably good that all of this happened the way it has,” Tom whispered gently. It had been awful being in the sideline for that power struggle that Michael and Nikita had against each other. Yet, they were going to be parents and they were going to have to figure out how to mesh their need to be in control sooner than later. This gave the two a taste of something they were going to have to deal with as soon as April became part of their lives. Tom exhaled as he thought of something. “We shouldn’t use April’s name with your father.”
“I know,” Laura fired back as she rubbed her forehead. She was tired. She couldn’t sleep earlier when Tom had taken a cat nap in the hotel. She had worried about if she was wrong about her father and how it would look if he didn’t do as she expected in front of Tom.
The door opened and Laura dropped her hand, a smile crossing her face as she couldn’t help her. “Dad!”
Joshua wrapped his arms around his daughter as she reached him quickly. He ordered a black coffee and retrieved it from the counter before joining the table. “Hello Tom.”
“Mr. Ferguson,” Tom spoke and Joshua shook his head. “Please… call me Joshua.”
Tom nodded his head up and down. Laura sighed and cleared her throat. “Now that we have all of that over again…”
“I know that we are here for something important,” Joshua interrupted his daughter as he leaned forward. “I take it that you need help with Todd Hunter.”
Laura sputtered and Tom glanced at her. She wanted this to go as she had rehearsed in her head and despite Tom’s warnings; she had really thought it would go that way. Tom nodded his head up and down. “We have identified the girl we believe is Michael’s and Nikita’s daughter.”
Joshua blinked his eyes and he looked at his daughter before turning back to Tom. “Must be pretty darn good proof if my daughter has brought me to walk in the streets of Memphis.”
“You said that you wanted to meet here!” Laura spoke loudly and the two men laughed. She hugged and crossed her arms. “Dad… this is serious.”
“It is serious,” Joshua agreed as he dropped the laughter. “But not as serious as you are making this to be. We are family and this isn’t a business meeting.”
“This could be Nikita’s life,” Laura rasped as she turned her head away, blinking back tears. She can’t understand how she came to care so much for Nikita after the way that it was Nikita who had somehow turned her life upside down. But the truth was, for the first time, Laura felt like she belonged doing what she was doing – even if it wasn’t on the white side of the black and white sides that Laura had believed the world to be.
“I can’t imagine how it was for her to be running that organization…” Joshua spoke after a few minutes and stopped short of saying anything more. “However, I don’t believe that Todd was briefed on such information. He is younger…”
“And even more paranoid,” Tom added and Joshua rolled his eyes. “Yes… you can say that we don’t exchange Christmas cards.”
“Salt Lake City,” Laura declared and Joshua blinked his eyes. “Really? I always thought that he would be somewhere that never would get snow… that’s interesting.”
“We know that he is still there,” Laura outlined as she leaned forward. “We need you to go meet him.”
Joshua shook his head slightly from side to side. “Oh, Laura… that approach is too direct…”
“It’s less direct than what Michael wants… while Nikita was going to just have Michael claim their daughter… we have the extremes right now, Joshua,” Tom inserted between the conversation between the father and daughter. Joshua picked up his coffee and considered the statement while sipping. “Him claiming the child makes sense… Todd wouldn’t find anything odd…”
“It was making Nikita sick,” Laura fired back as she shook her head. She turned to glare at Tom with the next point. “And Michael said he couldn’t do that to Nikita. That she has to be able to be the girl’s mother.”
Joshua loved watching the interaction between his daughter and Tom. She wasn’t going to come out and say it, but Joshua knew that there was absolutely something more growing between the two. He was surprised since he knew that Tom was from the side of the theological world that Laura wanted to deny didn’t exist, but then she was spending more and more on that side. Like father, like daughter.
“I have a couple wards that I keep in touch that are in Salt Lake City… they are actually over age now but I keep in touch… the one is military actually…” Joshua looked at Tom. “If those keeping tabs want to have another body helping out.”
“We’d appreciate that,” Tom nodded his head. Laura dropped her mouth but could tell that Tom meant it for some reason. It took her a couple more moments to realize that just one more body could make it easier to blend in and not get made. If Todd Hunter made them right now, he could hide again.
“I also can get out there,” Joshua replied and Laura smiled. “Great… we have a flight in the morning...”
“We?” Joshua started to shake his head negatively from side to side. “Oh, no… I have to do this myself.”
“You don’t know Nikita… you don’t know Michael,” Laura announced as she leaned forward. “We go too.”
“I have to get him to understand the world that Nikita was in that caused her to send her daughter away… it’s best that I do that man-to-man… and to take the steps necessary in case he tries to go under with that,” Joshua defended his decision. “I take it that the girl… what’s her name?”
“We’d rather not say that right now,” Tom squeezed Laura’s hand as she almost said April’s name. “You have to understand.”
“That’s smart,” Joshua smiled brightly. He of course was testing Tom and his daughter. “You are watching her too.”
“We won’t confirm or deny,” Laura replied as she picked up on what Tom would want her to say.
“Either way,” Joshua placed the coffee down. “You can come in the afternoon flight.”
“What?” Laura stammered and Joshua pulled out the boarding passes from his coat. “He will either be half way underground by the time you get there… or he will be willing to talk to the both of you.”
Tom narrowed his eyes. Had Joshua known where he was all along? “Maybe it should be Michael and Nikita…”
“I don’t think so,” Joshua shook his head negatively this time. “Todd doesn’t like emotional drama. It sounds like both of them are amidst a lot of drama upheaval… so we should make the plans.”
Laura looked at Tom. “Nikita thinks we are going to be bringing him to them tomorrow,” Laura warned and Tom patted Laura’s hand. “That was never going to happen. Nikita might say that she didn’t know that… but deep down she knew that.”
“She has to know that,” Joshua nodded his head up and down. “Saying that she wanted Todd to be brought here started all of this into action… it was actually fairly smart… even if she doesn’t realize that was what she had setup to do.”
Laura shook her head. “This wasn’t a plan… she has been physically sick thinking that she was just going to have to be a stepmother….”
“It doesn’t matter,” Joshua pointed out to her daughter. “Sometimes doing what your instinct tells you to do once you have been in that kind of world leads you in the right direction even if you aren’t thinking about it.”
“She is going to hate this,” Laura warned and Tom looked at Joshua. He always knew that there was no way that Todd was going to be going to Nikita tomorrow. “It gives her and Michael more time to prepare themselves, Laura.”
“I’m not telling them,” Laura crossed her arms over her chest. Tom chuckled as he looked at her. “We aren’t telling them anything.”
“What?”
“For now,” Joshua picked up. “You both are off-grid…”
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