Her Warm Welcome Home

Jane: I never thought I’d be in Seattle again, but six months in and everything was still going better than I expected. I don’t know why but I was paranoid that the minute I stepped into the city my father would know it was me and take me away. But I found an apartment that was gorgeous, and had been striving at my job! Mystro Incorporated, was owned and ran by Mitch Rowland and Ayden Mykel, two of the best minds this world has ever seen, according to the tabloids. They weren’t wrong though, Mitch and Ayden had always had a knack for creating amazing things with technology since they were teenagers. Back before my life turned upside down I had been right there with them. Watching transfixed as they would take random parts and of machinery and turn it into something amazing. My heart swelled with pride at all they had accomplished these past eight years since I’d been gone and then broke. I hated leaving them behind, my two best friends since grade school. It had been the first day of school and we were in first grade, a boy named Jake was picking on me on the playground about my hair and how tangled it was, my curly hair has always been hard to tame and that day it was a wild frizzy mess! He had just pushed me down when I heard someone yell out, next thing I knew Jake was on the ground beside me with his arm twisted behind his back and Ayden pinning him down. “Apologize!” He yelled at the bully “I I’m s-sorry” he stuttered, “Not to me! To her!” Ayden roared as Mitch held out his hand to help me up, my eyes as big as saucers as I realized what had happened. Jake gave me a glare over his shoulder which had Ayden tightening his grip on the kids arm, wincing Jake let out a pitiful “sorry”, “It’s okay!” I rushed out “I’m okay” as I saw Ayden about to punch the kid for the horrible apology but I didn’t want one of my rescuers getting in trouble for me and if Jake left with a black eye I knew that’s exactly what Ayden would get, trouble. Ayden looked me over before letting the kid go, Jake ran faster than anyone I had seen run before and I tried not to laugh at the way he scurried. I looked at Ayden and Mitch realizing I was still holding Mitch’s hand as Ayden grabbed my other one to inspect it, “Are you hurt?” He asked, I shook my head no as I stared at the ground my shyness coming out now that the shock had worn off. I snatched my hands away from both of them as I crossed my arms and mumbled a small “thank you” “No need to thank us, you’re with us now, and we’ll always protect you” Mitch said making my eyes lift to them Ayden shook his head in agreement. Ever since then we had been inseparable. Until my world fell apart. Sighing at the past, I grabbed my jacket and my purse and headed out the door of my apartment. As I locked the door I got a message alert that my uber was outside and ready. I needed a car soon, I hated getting in strangers vehicles, even though I knew it was mostly safe, you never knew everyone’s true intentions and that was something I knew too damn well! Luckily my anxiety filled brain was wrong and I made it to work without incident. I walked into the building and pulled out my badge to show it to the guard, once he was satisfied that all was in order I went to my cubicle and started getting ready for the day. Not long after I had logged in did I hear a loud “Stormie!” from behind making me jump ten feet high. “Woah there!” My manager Bryan said as I turned around trying to hold my heart in my chest. “Good morning Bryan” I said with a polite smile. “ A bit jumpy this morning Stormie?” I let out a small laugh. “Just caught off guard, what’s up Bryan?” He smiled “ Right! Do you have those reports on the sales from last month ready yet? We have a meeting in an hour and I need the copy.” “Yes sir, I can send them to your email right away!” I said. My job was easy, I just had to run and show how the sales productions increased or decreased each month but I wasn’t expecting to do too much yet with me only getting hired two months ago. “Great! Also Christine is going on Maternity leave next week so we’re going to let you pick up her work while she’s out, you’ll have to stay late but if you do a good job we can see about giving you some more responsibility.” I beamed “Yes sir! I’d love that!” “Perfect!” He said smiling at me “I’ll have her come show you the ropes in a couple of hours then!” He started to leave but then turned to me once more “Keep up the good work Stormie, I have high hopes for you.” He said with a wink and left. I smiled to myself, if I did it right I could learn a lot from here and I planned to work my ass off to do it! I looked down at the name on my badge and sighed, Stormie Ashriver, wasn’t my real name but the one I chose when my mom and I went into witness protection. My real name was Jane Storm, I had always loved my name so when it had came to changing it I had picked the closest thing I could think of which was Stormie. I couldn’t wait for the day the cops finally took my dad to trial and we could be free to take my mother’s company back from him. It had been eight years since he had beat me so black and blue that my mother had finally snapped and took me away while he went on a business trip in California. She had called up an old friend named Roger who was in the FBI, and told him all about my father’s shady business dealings. Roger then helped us stage our own deaths, mom was adamant that if my father thought we were still out there he would never stop looking for us. We left everything behind and fled to Illinois with nothing but our new names and the clothes on our backs. Now I was back in Washington much to my mother’s chagrin, but Mystro was the only place I could learn what I needed to in order to fix what my father had corrupted. I guess it didn’t help that my guys were the owners and I selfishly missed them so bad that I was willing to take the risk. Even though I doubted they would remember me, let alone recognize me. Yes we were sixteen when I left but eight years was a long time and they had much more important things to do than remember a girl they thought was dead. With that sad thought I got to work, two hours later Christine came to my desk and started showing me how to pull and run her reports, it seemed fairly simple and she was so nice about everything! We even talked a little about her baby boy that she was to have any day now. This was her and her husbands first baby and they were beyond excited! As she finished showing me a report that had to run at exactly six o’clock every evening we said our goodbyes and headed our separate ways. I floated home on the days news and events and was feeling pretty optimistic and hopeful that this was the turn of events my mom and I needed to get our lives back! I sipped my glass of wine on the balcony of my apartment and watched the city go by, I smiled to myself then whispered “welcome home Jane”