51: The Series

51: Monsters Chapter 4

John Lingerfelt was in his sitting room. He was in his favorite chair, watching the fire in the fireplace, sipping on his cup of tea. The storm raging overhead was filled with lightning, his house shaking with every clap of thunder. He looked out the window in time to see a bolt of lightning cut through the sky.

He had been thinking about his friend Agent Wren Gold for most of the morning. John and Wren had worked together for years on various assignments before Wren had been transferred to the military base in Missouri. They had first met many years ago in Montana when there had been an incident that they were both called to investigate. Wren had been stationed at the base when a situation had occurred, and John had been sent in to capture and contain what was causing the problems. They had become fast friends, and John had been thrilled when Wren finally agreed to relocate to Missouri, eventually taking over when John retired.

Now was the only time he had ever wished that Wren was not his friend. Wren had introduced John to his wife, Sheriff Lindsay Gold, and had asked for help after everything that had been housed on the base had escaped after an explosion. After meeting Lindsay, he knew that there was something very different about her.

Lindsay seemed to have a fantastic connection with many of the things she had made contact with after they had escaped from the facility on the base. When John spoke with her the first time, he noticed that she seemed to think differently than most. It was like every part of her brain worked at the same time. As soon as she was confronted with a problem, she had a solution before anyone else in the room realized the issue existed.

John felt guilty because he had been studying her without anyone’s knowledge. He wanted to know what her connection to the things that had escaped was and how it was possible. John had been studied when he was younger to find out why he did not age at the same rate as others, and he did not want Lindsay to go through what he had.

As he continued to watch the fire burn and sip his tea, he concluded he had to tell Wren that he had been studying Lindsay. He only hoped Wren understood what he was doing; he was doing it to help everyone. He stared at the phone sitting on the table beside him for some time before he picked it up and dialed the number.

“Agent Gold,” Wren answered at the other end of the line.

“Wren, my boy, how are you this fine stormy morning?” John asked him.

“I’m good. I am sitting in the dark in my beautiful wife’s office right now, which doesn’t seem that strange at this point. How are you doing, John? Is this a social call or business?” Wren asked.

“It is a bit of both, I am afraid. Would it be possible for you to come out to my home? There are some things that I would like to speak to you about,” John told him.

“I should be able to do that. The power failure here is from the storm, and the generator just kicked on. Randy is checking on something here in the department, but I don’t need to be here for that. I should be able to get there in about half an hour if that is good for you,” Wren told him.

“That would be perfect, my boy. Thank you, I will see you then,” John told him and hung up the phone.

John sat back in his chair again. He had not realized as he spoke to Wren he had moved to the edge of it. John had never been that nervous talking to him before. He just hoped that Wren would understand why he had been doing the things that he had been doing.

He picked up his teacup and walked into the kitchen. He put a fresh kettle on the stove and watched the storm through the kitchen window. He glanced at his watch to make sure of the time and took note of when Wren should be arriving. He turned and looked at the door that led to his basement and decided not to go down there until Wren was with him. John wanted to show him what he had been doing and prayed Wren would not be so angry that he would want nothing more to do with him.

John had lost track of time and was startled by the sound of the teakettle whistling on the stove. He had been thinking about how much Wren reminded him of his first son. It was not in his appearance, yet for some reason, John always thought of Lukas. It was the little things, like how Wren laughed and his kindness. He wondered what his son would have been like if he had lived to be Wren’s age. He felt a sudden pang of sadness and hoped that what he had done would not make him lose Wren as well.

As he set the kettle on the counter, the doorbell rang. When he walked to the front door and opened it, he was greeted by Wren, who was smiling at him.

“Come in, my boy. You look like you are soaked. What weather we are having for this time of year,” John said as he ushered Wren into the sitting room and took his coat. “Have a seat by the fire. Let me take care of the kettle so you can have some hot tea and warm yourself a little.”

Wren watched him hurry toward the kitchen as he sat down by the fireplace. He chose the chair across from the one he knew John always used. Almost before he was settled into the chair, John was back carrying a tray with the teapot, cups, and cookies.

“I made the cookies yesterday, but I warmed them for us,” John said as he sat the tray down.

“If you made them, then it won’t matter. They are still going to be delicious. Sit down, John. I didn’t come here for you to wait on me. Tell me what’s going on. You seem like something is bothering you,” Wren said to him.

“You are almost as perceptive as your lovely wife,” John said as he sat in his chair. “I need to tell you something, and I am unsure how to say it. I also worry that you will think ill of me when I tell you.”

“You’re my friend, and I don’t think that will change just because of something you tell me. What is it that has you so worried?” Wren asked.

John looked at the fire and closed his eyes before he spoke. “Wren, I have been studying Lindsay. I promise you that I want nothing bad to happen to her, but there is something very different about her. Lindsay is special, and I only want to know how special and why. Please understand I would never do to her what was done to me. I want to ensure that never happens if she truly is as special as I think she might be. I’m sorry,” John finished and looked up at Wren.

Wren sat quietly, looking at him. His forehead was creased, and he said nothing. Wren only stared at John. He took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. John had seen him do this before, and it was usually not a good sign.

“Wren, I truly am sorry. The last time she was here, she developed a severe headache, and that made me want to find answers even more. If nothing else, to make sure there is nothing wrong,” John told him with tears in his eyes.

Wren held up his hand for a moment and then asked, “Why would you do this and not tell either of us? How did you even do it without her knowing?”

“I did not want either of you to be alarmed by the fact of how different she may be. As for how I was able to collect a few of her hairs each time she was here when her hair was not up. The last time she was here, she was helping me in the kitchen and cut her finger, and that gave me a small blood sample,” John explained.

“Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable,” Wren said, shaking his head. “If you had told her what you wanted to do, she would have given you everything you needed. You did not need to sneak around behind our backs. You could have just told us the truth.”

“I did not want either of you to be alarmed or hurt. I remember what it was like to be studied like a laboratory animal. I do not ever want that to happen to Lindsay. I am sorry, and if you want nothing more to do with me, I understand. Please tell her I am sorry. I cannot help you with what is happening any further,” John said, no longer able to hold back tears.

“John, nothing that you are worried about is going to happen. She will never be studied like you were, and we will not leave and never see you again. I am angry because you should have just told us, but you are still my friend, and I believe you had the best of intentions by doing what you did. If you didn’t, you could have very easily done things to her while the two of you were here alone and never said a word about it,” Wren told him. His heart was breaking for his friend, and he had no idea what to do to make it better. “Let me see if Lindsay can come out here now. I think she needs to know about this.”

Wren sent a quick text message to his wife and hoped that she would answer and be able to meet with them. Thankfully, he got his answer, and it was the one he was hoping for. The power had come back on, and things were mostly back to normal. Randy trying to find the source of the overwhelming feeling of doom in her department, was the only exception, so she would be able to be there shortly.

“She will be here soon. She is leaving the chief deputy in charge while Randy is at the department,” Wren told him.

“Thank you, Wren. I’m sorry I did not ask earlier, but why is Randy at Lindsay’s department?” John asked quietly.

“That, in a way, is a funny story. For some reason, as soon as you walk into that building today, you have this overpowering sense of doom. Everyone gets the feeling that something is about to happen once in a while, but today, in that building, it is magnified a hundred times. You can feel your skin tighten, preparing for something that is about to happen as soon as you walk inside. Randy is there taking some readings to see if he can find out the cause,” Wren explained.

“If it were only Lindsay that had that feeling, I would say be prepared for something, but if it is happening to everyone, it must be some sort of external influence,” John told him.

“That was her thought when she called me. I thought maybe it was just her and the storms were causing something, but when I walked in, I felt it. It was like walking into a wall. It was rather disconcerting now that I think about it,” Wren said.

“How often does Lindsay have that feeling? Like something is going to happen,” John asked.

“All the time.”

“And how often is she right?”

“Every time. Every freaking time. Lindsay feels like something is going to happen, and it does. It is good as far as what her job is, but there are days that I wish she could just relax. Instead, she gets that feeling, and then her department calls because something happened.”

Wren leaned his head back, took another deep breath, and let it out even more slowly than the last time. “John, Lindsay has been having a lot of headaches, none of them so severe as to impair her, but they are there. She hid the fact she had tests run to find out the cause until after they were done. They all came back fine, and the headaches are the after-effects of getting hurt and the lack of sleep, but she hid that from me. What if Lindsay was having headaches because something serious was wrong? She could have been sitting in the doctor’s office and been told she had a brain tumor and only weeks to live, and she would have been alone.”

“That is simple, my boy. She did the one thing she is best at, she protected. Wren, she was protecting you. She knew you would worry about her and did not want that. She also knew if she had told you, you would have had everyone who works for her watching her every move, and we both know that she was correct. You have married a brilliant and insightful woman. That is dangerous in itself, but she is also a police officer. That makes her even more dangerous, at least for you, because you live with her,” John said with a smile. “She is an extraordinary and remarkable lady.”

“You are right about all of that. Lindsay would give her life to protect a total stranger. A little of that is training, but most of it is just heart and soul, and I have never met anyone else like her. John, promise me if you ever find anything out about her that could hurt her, you will tell me. I do not care if she has sworn you to secrecy; please tell me. You will do that, won’t you?” Wren asked.

“I will. I do not want anything to happen to Lindsay, either. I have never met anyone quite like her, and I doubt that I ever will again,” John told him, trying to reassure him. Just as he began to say something else, the doorbell rang. “That would be your beautiful bride, so we had best both regain our composure.”

John stood and walked to the door. When he opened the door, he saw Lindsay standing on the porch. Her hair was damp from the rain, her cheeks pink from the cold in the air, and she was smiling as always.

“Hi, John,” she said as soon as the door opened.

“Come in, my dear, and get warm and dry. Join your husband by the fire and have some tea with us,” John said as he closed the door behind her.

They walked into the sitting room together as Lindsay removed her uniform coat. “Do you mind if I hang my coat on the back of my chair in case I get a call and have to run out of here?” she asked.

“Of course not, dear. Treat my home as if it were your own,” John answered her.

“Hi, sweetie. Have you and John had a nice visit?” Lindsay asked Wren as she put her coat on the back of the chair where she was going to sit.

Wren did not answer. He stood and stepped to her, hugging and kissing Lindsay more forcefully than she had expected. “I love you,” was all he said to her as he let her go and took her hand.

“Are you alright? What’s wrong?” Lindsay asked. His response to seeing her and his tone of voice worried and confused her.

“I’m fine; nothing is wrong. We have just been talking, and I realized a few things while we did. Sit down. We need to tell you something,” Wren told her, still holding her hand.

John began after Lindsay had sat down, “Lindsay, I want to say that I am sorry to you for what I have done.”

“Why are you sorry? You haven’t done anything to me that you need to apologize for,” Lindsay told him, a little confused. She glanced at Wren and saw his gaze shift from her to the floor as soon as she looked at him. “What exactly is going on? I almost feel like this is an intervention, but since my only bad habits are orange soda and chocolate, I’m pretty sure that is not what is happening.”

“I have been studying you. I wanted to know why you have the connections you do with what has been happening. I am sorry,” John blurted out.

“Why are you sorry? I want to know that, too. Why didn’t you tell me what you were doing? I would have helped you. I have had some tests run since I became sheriff because of the headaches. Would those results help answer any of your questions?” Lindsay fired at him.

“You mean you are not angry with me?” John asked with surprise.

“I am, but only because you didn’t say anything about what you were doing. John, I don’t know you as well as Wren, but I do know that you would not do anything malicious to me. If you are doing this, you have a reason, and it is a good one. My only other question is, what did you do to my husband? He seems to be a little emotional at the moment,” Lindsay said, looking at Wren and smiling.

“I did nothing to him but talk and let him figure out how lucky he is to have you, my dear. I have known him for many years, and you have been very good for him. I think it took him until today to figure out how good you truly are for him,” John said, smiling at her and then at Wren.

“OK, so what do you need from me to continue with your research? Just tell me what I can do, and I will do it,” Lindsay told John.

“You aren’t mad at him at all, are you?” Wren asked Lindsay with a slight laugh.

“No, of course not. Are you kidding? I have always been different and never knew why. His research might be able to give me some answers. To me, that is a wonderful opportunity,” Lindsay excitedly told Wren.

“See, I told you that you should have told her about it from the start,” Wren said to John.

John asked Lindsay, “My dear, are you still planning on coming here tomorrow to work on things with me?”

“I think we both are. Aren’t we, Wren?” Lindsay asked.

“We are unless you want her to come by herself. It will also depend on when my mother’s flight gets in. Lindsay might be coming alone if I drive to or from the airport in St Louis,” Wren answered.

“No, you are both always welcome here. If you do not mind, I will write down what I would like to do and let you see it tomorrow. If there is anything that you do not want to do, then we will not do it. If it is possible, I would like to see the test result of what you have had done in the past months. There might be something that will help us that your doctor sees as normal, but that isn’t,” John told her.

“I will call my doctor and see if they can be emailed to me today so you can look at everything tomorrow. Would that help you know what else you need to do?” Lindsay asked.

“That would be wonderful. Thank you for not being angry with me,” John said to her again with relief in his tone.

“Thank you for trying to help me, even if you didn’t tell me you were going to do it. I need to apologize to you because I have to get back to my department. Something is causing everyone to be on edge there. My biggest concern today has been if my dispatcher is going to kill her brother, who is one of the deputies. Well, that and Randy is now there at the mercy of Little Bob, Viktor, and Cat, so my concern is shifting to whether he locks himself in a room and won’t come out,” Lindsay said with a deep sigh.

Wren laughed. “There is always that possibility if Cat bothers him too much. You might walk into your office and find him curled up under your desk, sucking his thumb. He is wonderful in the lab but does not do well out in the field or around people in general,” he said as he stood up and took Lindsay’s hand, helping her to her feet.

“It wouldn’t be the first time that has happened to someone in my office. I found Little Bob under my desk once when all of his wife’s sisters came to visit and brought all of their daughters. I think he slept in the department for a week that time,” Lindsay said, laughing.

“I am sorry, but I am confused. Who is Little Bob?” John asked.

“Little Bob is Bob Smith, my chief deputy. He is married and has four daughters plus his mother-in-law living in his house. His wife has a total of five sisters, and I think at the time they combined had around ten girls in addition to the adults and his own girls,” Lindsay told John as Wren laughed.

“So that I understand, there were seven adult women and fourteen girls plus him in his house at one time. How big is his house?” John asked.

“It isn’t that large. It has five bedrooms and three bathrooms, but for that many people, it isn’t nearly enough,” Lindsay answered.

“What my dear wife isn’t telling you is that the poor guy is so henpecked that he brings coffee to her in the morning. The head dispatcher, Cat, once mentioned that she wanted chocolate, and he went out and got a hot fudge sundae for her and Lindsay,” Wren told John, still laughing. “Little Bob is also one of the first people I talk to if something is wrong with this one, and I want to make sure she is OK.” Wren leaned over, put his arm around Lindsay’s shoulders, and kissed her on the head.

Lindsay picked up her coat and began to put it on.

“I’m sorry; I do have to go, John. We will see you tomorrow,” Lindsay told him.

“Of course, my dear,” John replied.

John walked them to the door and watched them run to their cars. The storm had eased since they had first arrived. The lightning had stopped, and there was only the occasional distant rumble of thunder. He felt it was a fitting end to their visit. He had put himself through a lot over the fear and worry of what would happen when Lindsay and Wren found out what he had done. That fear was gone now. Lindsay's response completely surprised him, and he could not have been happier.