For disclaimers, notes, ratings, ect. see Part 1

Chapter Five

Thursday, December 18, 1997

4247 Maplewood Dr

8:30 PM
"I'm going to have that music running through my head all night," Lee
said as they pulled into the driveway. "Just how many times did we
have to rehearse that party scene anyway?"

"At least four, I think," Amanda stifled a yawn with the back of her
hand. "But at least you get to wear one of your regular suits-no tights."

"Thank God for that," Lee said. "That blue dress you were wearing
looked fabulous, Amanda. Then again, you look fabulous in any dress."

"Flatterer," Amanda said with a grin, as Lee took his wife's hand and
softly kissed it.

"Are we home?" Jenna asked, rubbing her eyes and sitting up from
where she'd been lying down in the back seat.

"Yeah," Lee said, looking at the house for the first time. The gate
was ajar, but that was nothing new-Jenna was always forgetting to shut
it. The Christmas lights were on and he could see that the front door
was slightly open. It didn't take a genius to see that something was
very wrong.

"Lee," Amanda said, her eyes meeting his.

"Jenna listen to me," Lee said. "I want you to stay in the car while
your mom and I go and check something in the house, okay?"

"Why?" Jenna said. "Can't I just come in?"

"Sweetheart not right now," Amanda said. "Your father and I need to
check on something." "

Check on what?" Jenna said.

"It's-" Lee struggled for something that would satisfy his daughter.
"It's your present."

"My present?" Jenna said.

"Sweetheart, you know how you get a present from us on Christmas Eve,"
Amanda said. "And then you get the Santa presents on Christmas Day?
We just need to check to see if Grandma's wrapped it so it'll be a big
surprise. So you just lay down in the back seat and we'll check and be
back before you know it. Okay?"

There was a long silence. "Okay," Jenna said finally.

Lee and Amanda got out of the car. Lee pressed his keychain, locking
the Ford Taurus' doors and windows. "She should be safe in there while we check things out," he said,
unzipping his jacket and taking his gun out of the holster. They
approached the house.

"Thank goodness Mother had a date tonight," Amanda whispered. Lee
nodded in agreement.

As they drew closer Lee could see the splintered wood around the
doorjamb, indicating that it had been forced or pried open with
something. Standing to one side of the door he nudged it open with his
foot, waiting for a moment. When nothing happened, he stepped inside,
gun at the ready, with Amanda following.

"Oh my gosh," Amanda said, looking around. The family room had been
completely trashed. The Christmas tree had been toppled, wrapping
paper torn off the few presents which had already been wrapped. Sofa
cushions had been scattered and one of the sofa pillows was slashed
open, spilling foam and beads all over the carpet. A large black
cross was spray painted on the wall.

"Amanda, stay here, I'll check the rest of the house," Lee said.

SMK SMK SMK SMK

When Lee came back, Amanda was down on her hands and knees on the
carpet, sifting through the mess on the floor. An open garbage bag
lay beside her, and Amanda was busy throwing away pieces of broken
Christmas balls.

"You know, it's really not that bad," she said, looking up at him.
"Most of the ornaments aren't broken, the presents aren't damaged, and
once we get the tree up again it'll look almost normal. Except for the
wall, of course."

"The rest of the house is fine," Lee said, kneeling beside his wife
and placing a comforting hand on her shoulder." It looks like whoever
it was took off through the back door when they saw us coming. They
didn't have time to do any real damage."

"Well that's something anyway," Amanda said, leaning the side of her
face against her husband's hand. "Any idea who did this?"

"Not exactly who," Lee said, "But I have a pretty good idea of who
ordered it done. I found this by the back door." He handed Amanda a
pamphlet.

"PAMS?" She said, leafing through the small booklet. "That explains
the cross on the wall at least. Does this mean our cover's blown?"

"I doubt it," Lee said. "Even if they're still holding Agent Mitford
and they've managed to make her talk there's no way she could know
we're working on the case."

"It might have something to do with the confrontation outside the
center the other day," Amanda said.

"That's what I'm thinking too," Lee said. "The good old Reverend
probably had Nimrod check up on me, find out who I was and where we
live. This is his idea of payback."

"You're Jenna's hero because of what you did to him, you know," Amanda
said. "She's been talking about it all day." Her expression became
serious. "Lee, we're going to have enough trouble explaining this to
my Mother, but what are we going to do about Jenna? She can't see this."

"No she can't," Lee agreed, taking his cell phone out of his pocket.
"I'm going to call Francine-she can send a team over to help us take
care of this and I'm sure she wouldn't mind having Jenna over as a
guest for a night or two."

"I'll go pack a bag for her," Amanda said.

SMK SMK SMK SMK

"Dance faster, Jenna!" Mr. Hunter called out to Jenna from the wings.
"You're falling behind!"

Jenna looked out at the audience, at all the people sitting there. It
must be opening night-but how had that happened? She didn't even
remember having a dress rehearsal.

"Faster!" Mr. Hunter screamed. Jenna tried to do what he said, but
she felt so hot and achy. Everything was whirling around so fast, the
colors all melting and blending together, and then everything went
black as she fell-

Friday, December 19, 1997

3:30 AM

Jenna sat up with a gasp. For a minute she wasn't sure where she was,
but then she remembered-Francine's apartment. She was sleeping in the
living room, on the sofa that turned into a bed. The blankets were all
bunched up around her and her hair was damp and sticking to her forehead.

"Only a dream," Jenna whispered. One thing about the dream was real,
though. Despite the chill of the apartment she felt very hot-and achy
too. Sharp pains shot along her lower legs-something that always
happened whenever Jenna had a fever. Mom would always put hot
compresses on her legs when this happened, but right now Mom wasn't
here. Jenna thought about calling her parents, but if she did that
they'd make her stay home and she'd miss the ballet.

I can't be sick now, Jenna thought to herself. Did Francine have any
medicine? There was a medicine cabinet in the bathroom, Jenna knew.
Maybe if she took something she'd feel better. Jenna got out of bed.

Biting her lip at the pain in her legs, she
shuffled down the hallway. Jenna realized that despite feeling so hot
she was also shivering. Francine's room was right across the hallway.
Jenna could hear the sound of soft snoring coming from the room. She
had to be extra-quiet, Jenna realized-if Francine woke up right now
that would be the end of it. Softly she closed the bathroom door and
turned on the light. There was a stool in front of the sink. Jenna
stood on that and pulled on the medicine cabinet door, sighing in
relief when it opened with a soft click. There was a whole row of
stuff on the bottom shelf-some kind of vitamins, Pepto Bismol, Alka
Seltzer and grown-up Tylenol, which Mom said was dangerous for kids.
Jenna was about ready to give up when she spotted it-a bottle of
Children's Chewable Tylenol that must have been left over here during
one of her other stays. Perfect! Jenna opened the bottle and took
out two, chewing them and making a face-the commercials always made
you think that this stuff would taste good, but really it tasted
awful.

The instructions on the bottle said every 4 to 6 hours. Jenna
put the top back on the bottle and put it in her pajama pocket in case
she needed it later. Carefully she closed the medicine cabinet back
up, stepped down off the stool and turned off the light. When Jenna
opened the bathroom door, Francine's voice just about caused her heart
to jump into her throat.

"Everything okay, Jenna?" Francine said, her voice sounding groggy
and slightly slurred.

"I just had to go to the bathroom," Jenna lied.

"Okay," Francine said. "G'nite."

"Goodnight," Jenna said.

The Tylenol was already working-the cramps in
her legs were starting to go away a little. As she crawled into the
bed and drifted back to sleep, her last thought was that everything
might be okay after all.

TBC