“I…” he trails off into silence.

“Ok, I will but I am going to have to meet you kids there and fly back separately as well.”

I can tell he is beginning to retreat inside himself a little so I gently give him a verbal nudge.

“Why?”

Theo answers for him.

“Watch lists. There’s no way he makes it through security in the US. From Canada, no big deal and he can make it there easier than Mexico these days. His only real issue doing it that way is the Canadian border and I know a few places…”

I hadn’t even considered that so I asked Theo “Well what about you? I mean you have a lot of the same background right?”

“Well yeah but its all about how exactly you are separated from service and technically I and likely Beau are still listed as active/reserve. Technically I could hop a military flight to get there but the hassle involved in making that happen would be… entertaining…” He grimaces.

“Ah, right then, clear as mud now!” I laugh at his expression. “South Low?”

“Its dry enough so yeah, that works, that way they can park in a secured lot and have close access. Skid should be on sentry about now…” Theo looks over at my sister “You coming?”

“You’re kidding right? You couldn’t keep me away!” She is almost vibrating with restrained eagerness.

“OK then.” He looks over to me. “We’ll drop you at East High on the way to the garage so nobody freaks.”

He knows I love/hate East High entry with its jump into a dark hole in the roof of a derelict building(Yes we shamelessly ripped that one off from the movie, you have to admit its something no sane person would do…). At least its not West Low, the tunnels there are so tight they are really hard for me to handle. Its not a matter of fitting through, Theo can go through with no issues. I ride the ragged edge of a claustrophobic freakout if I have to use it so I’ve really only been through there 6 times, just enough to make sure I had it down pat both ways.

Soon enough I’m running along the edge of a roofline and then launching myself into nothingness, feeling almost like I’m floating as I spreadeagle face up just in time to hit the net. As I’m climbing out a familiar hand reaches out to assist and I gratefully take it.

“You know you’re the only one who does it that way.”

I look over at the skinny mohawked kid that came to our little group early on with a question on my face.

Lenny quirks a grin and answers “Some of em run up and jump out, a few even do a flip like you did… but they all make some kind of noise when they do it. Not you. You are completely silent. No sound of running footsteps, not a squeak out of you the whole time… you even land in the net quietly. If you hadn’t let Sqiug see you on the way in I would have been totally surprised when you dropped out of the sky…”

I hadn’t really realized I’d done it that way, it was just instinct for me to be as unseen and unheard as I could manage. I knew I often surprised the sentries so I’d made a habit of making myself visible some way out so the High Watch would get a look at me and inform the appropriate sentry.

“Theo is coming in South Low with three newbs. They are my family so make sure Skid keeps her mouth shut.”

Lenny can’t decide whether to grin or try to be sympathetic because everyone knows by now what has occurred. I reach out and pull him to my side in a quick hug. “Len, its ok. More than ok… I’ll have to tell you about it later. Right now I have to get home and get things ready, OK?”

He grins and then the grin drops. “Skid’s not on South Low, she had to take Mel to the hospital. Her water broke. Mark took her slot and Dahl has the kitchen so its sorted on the rosters but we are all worried for her and none of us were gonna bother you.”

He knows what I’m going to ask. “About 4 hours ago. So far things are ok. Mahindra was on shift so she rammed everything through just like you had it planned. Vinnie is her doc.”

This hasn’t exactly been unexpected, she was only 2 weeks overdue after all. Still, it means I have to put a rush on things so I give Lenny another quick hug and a murmer of thanks before I turn and break into a flat out run over the uneven floorscape we found and then deliberately worsened both as a deterrent and as a place to safely(Well as safely as you can anyway) practice Parkour for the young or inexperienced.

The run gives me a chance to think and plan what I need to do. Theo is going to have to take over the ‘get acquainted’ tour while I go to the hospital to be with Mel. Dahl has been riding Mel’s apron strings since she first came to us after Theo freed her from the nasty little excuse for a man that had been pimping her out. That means she is completely capable of keeping the food up to our usual standards but it also means that she wants to be there for Mel just as badly as I do.

Other than Theo, Mel and Dahl were the only two capable of keeping the entire kitchen going the way it needs to be. I shove that issue to the back of my mind to let my subconscious work it out and focus on speed. Final jump and roll, pop the top on the skylight and a quick descent of a rope ladder, carefully sealing the skylight behind me. Waiting for me at the bottom is my answer.

Carmen and Collette have been stabilizing the ladder from the bottom while I descended and they chorus a welcome at me. Gathering them into a hug I return their welcome, then pull back a little.

“Cindy in?”

They break into their distinctive round robin style of speaking, a little gappy because their other triplet isn’t with them.

“She’s in the-“ From Carmen.

“Kitchen with-“ from Collette

There is a minute pause as they both adjust to one of their number not being there then Carmen picks it back up.

“With Dahl making-“

“Plans for the week.” Collette finishes then they chorus at me again.

“We are going to take it over so Dahl can be there for Mel!”

I shake my head as I look at them. They might only be 14 but these girls are amazing in their own special way. I can’t help remembering how we encountered each other. In my minds eye I will never lose the image of a young looking face clearly terrified as the store security guard held on to her arm and dragged her to the office door. I’d been there to get something or other that Mel needed and I knew I had to do something.

I’d walked over to the guard and asked him what she’d stolen. He’d pointed at a couple of packages of lunchmeat. Before he could protest I’d picked them up and was in line with them at the register. He watched silently while I paid and walked back over to him Without another word I took hold of the girl’s other arm and gently drew her after me as I left the store. She shuffled along after, head down.

I’d set off walking and shortly noticed we were being followed, almost certainly some other kids she was with. A quick duck down an alleyway and a quiet wait in a hidden alcove later, two more thin forms were wriggling in my grasp while I pinned the other against the wall with my butt. I’d realized I had something a bit unusual on my hands as soon as I saw their faces. It had taken a while to get the whole story out of them and when I did it was heartrending.

Their mom had died in a car accident barely a month after their father died on deployment, they had no idea where. No one could find a living relative so they were being shunted into the foster care system and they were smart enough to realize it meant they would be broken up. They chose to run to the streets instead and had been here just a couple of weeks, finally getting hungry enough to risk shoplifting and getting caught on the first try.

A little more talking and the promise of a good hot meal with a safe place to sleep, no strings and they were cautiously following me through the tunnels. We hadn’t been in anywhere near as nice shape back then but we were already a very tightly knit group and there was no problem with adding to our number, we had enough food to spare.

Over the past 18 months they had bonded closely with the entire group but had a special fondness for Mel and for some reason, me as well. Theo teased me about how I was always taking in strays and I’d pointed out that at one point he was one of those strays. That could have turned into an argument but it wound up with him doing a horrible impression from ‘Lady and the Tramp’ and then to much more fun things…

While I’ve been stuck in my head they had already dragged me over to the kitchen tent where Dahl and I greeted with warm hugs. She went back to a whirlwind of instructions which Cindy was storing in her head while I sought out Barb.

The late middle aged woman had come to us when she fell on hard times after her unemployment insurance ran out and she couldn’t find any other work. She had nowhere to go when the bank repossessed her house and wound up in the street. She had been on her way to the bridge to jump off and had literally put her last penny into the open guitar case before walking away with tears running down her face.

Theo and I hadn’t met yet then so I left the other girls to sing and went to find out what I could do. Over coffee and pancakes I had gotten her story out of her and made her promise she’d come with us. She had tearfully agreed and since had been one of the pillars of our little community, in many ways serving as a bridge to some of the older homeless population.

Organizing the kitchen the way we did it now was largely her creation although thankfully the actual execution was carried out by others as her level of cooking skill consisted of nuking a prepared meal.

No worries, we all brought what we had to the whole and her organizational instincts were second to none. I never could understand why the corporate world had discarded such an absolute treasure. I mean sure she could get right under your skin but that was the Asperger’s and it wasn’t something she could really control.

I stroked the chime she hangs on her tent flap and waited for permission to enter.

“Why are you here?” she confronted me immediately, pulling aside the flap and stilling the chimes while her gaze darted back and forth between my face and the tablet she was holding.

I held my smile to my eyes knowing she wasn’t fond of facial expressions.

“I know you’ve got it organized, I just wanted to know if there was anything you needed and I have to wait a few more minutes before I can go anyway. My dad and sister and her husband are on their way in South Low right now.”

Her own careful lack of expression robs her words of any real venom. “You know you’re a stupid little bitch to be taking him back, right?”

At that point I have just about everything I can do to keep from bursting out laughing. Coming from Barb that is the equivalent of a warm hug.

“It was necessary. Got a list?”

“Not for you. Bob and Mark are going to the market after their shifts end. Its all adjusted for the next month. Now go away and do what you need to.”

She shocks me by darting in for a quick sort of barely-hug, retreating behind her tent flap after the merest brush of contact between our clothes. That is the closest I’ve ever seen her come to touching another human being and in the middle of all this I have to take a moment to wonder how difficult that was for her to do.

My moment of reflection is brought to an end as I hear Theo’s familiar tread and note that I need to take a few moments to lubricate and clean his leg. It sounds like the achilles compensator is hanging a little bit. The thought reminds me that I need to change shoes, these sandals aren’t the right footgear for what I’m about to do.

I have just enough time to shuck the sandals and pull on a pair of skechers before he reaches the tent. We hug and I take a moment to just snuggle into his chest before I disengage and look up at his face. “I gotta go-“

He interrupts “I know, Mark told me, we talked on the way in and I’ll be along with the others in an hour or so. I’ll bring Dahl too because if I don’t she’ll hurt herself trying to keep up with you. I-“

This time its me who interrupts with a deep kiss. I pull away after an eternity and tell him I love him before turning and dashing for South High, his reply of mutual love a pleasant feel in my core. South High is almost all aerials and it demands full attention but it is the fastest way for me to reach the hospital and I am almost floating across rooftops and fire escapes and one long, long jump that takes me down 3 stories and across 4 lanes of fairly heavy traffic. The landing on that one hurts, there isn’t any way to preposition even a mat and you really have to watch the timing.

I almost never make that last jump, it only takes 5 more minutes to descend the fire stairs on the last building and cross the street normally. Today I didn’t even think about that, I just launched. Impact, roll, jump again, half twist and I come down into a 3 point half crouch right between the elevator doors. Beside me, waiting for a car, is an older gentleman clutching the hand of a young girl who looks on the verge of tears.

As the door dings open I hear a little voice pipe up. “Are you the angel that’s coming to get my mommy?”

That one yanks me right out of myself and into the now. The older gentleman that I assume is her grandfather is on the edge of tears himself at this point but there is a clear hazel pair of eyes locked onto mine as I kneel to talk to her after getting that silent glance of assent.

“No honey, I’m no angel. Why do you think an angel is coming for your mommy?”

“Isn’t this where people go to wait for the angels? Its where Daddy came and the angels took him to heaven here.”

I have to think fast on this one. I might not have any faith myself but I try to frame my response within the framework she gave me.

“Sometimes angels do come for people here. Most times the angels tell them it isn’t their time yet and they can come to heaven later. The people here work with the angels except when they want to take someone to heaven early and then they fight them to give that person their full time. Even if there was an angel here for your mommy the people here wouldn’t let them take her until it is her time. You understand?”

I can see her working that one through in her head. Finally she nods. “Okay.”

At that moment the doors open and I flee the elevator car, brushing past people getting on.

I’m still on the fourth floor but that isn’t an issue for me. I use the corner of the elevator shaft and the handholds on the outside of the garage wall to descend the outside of the building, beating the elevator down with time to spare and then I’m around the side of the building and walking in a different entry. I really don’t want to run into that little girl again…

I know Mel will be on the 9th floor so I run up the empty stairs and take a moment to compose myself before stepping out of the stairwell into organized chaos. I stop at the nurses’ desk to see where Mel is and it takes a moment for the harried looking nurse behind the counter to look up from what he’s doing. I watch his eyes widen as he catches my hair and then the up and down eyeflick that tells me this is definitely a straight guy because his gaze doesn’t quite make it all the way back up to my face at first.

I tap a nail on the counter ever so slightly and his gaze jumps back to my face.

“You’re looking for Melinda Bell?”

Okay, gotta admire his recovery just the tiniest bit… “How’d ya guess?”

I can’t resist poking a little bit.

“Well lets see, this tall hot chick with purple hair taking it a foot higher and dressed like that? You’re the only one of those I’ve seen today… or ever!” He chuckles at me. “9208, right down the hall there. Your sister is doing just fine and Dr Massetti is in there with her now.”

I glance at his name tag before turning to walk down the hall and tossing a “Thanks Phillip!” over my shoulder. A knock on the door and Skid’s voice tells me to come in. The curtain is pulled for privacy and I step into the small space that remains. Skid pops her head out from behind the curtain and then launches herself at me, giving me a hug that could best be described as extremely energetic.

“Mel’s been asking for you but I didn’t want to call you but I knew you would come as soon as you could and I came with her and Mark took my spot and the doctor was asking some questions and I told him I didn’t know but you did and you would be here as fast as you could and here you are so he can find out what he needs to know and there’s papers to sign and I’m so scared for Mel…” she breaks off into tears and I hold her for a moment while I digest that infodump.

“Ok hun, I’m here now so let me see Mel for a minute and talk to the doctor and we’ll get everything sorted with the papers. You stick with me at least until Theo gets here with Dahl and the others.” I’m gently prying her arms from around my neck and stroking her head.

Her mind is just as quick as her mouth. “You took South High all the way didn’t you?”

I’ve never lied to her and I’m not about to start now.

“I did take the elevator down 5 floors at the garage…”

She snerks at me. “Yeah you can’t get away with that one, I know the garage is 9 floors! When are you gonna let me try it?”

“Not until I’m sure you can do it. You miss that one and you’ll be lucky to just break a few bones. Even if you nail it right you’re still gonna get some nasty gouges from the gravel when you land. Then there’s another dismount but you can’t roll on that one or you might roll right under a moving car. For now you have to dismount at the office building and take the stairs down, ok?”

I get a grudging nod of assent.

“Now go clean your face off and next time use waterproof mascara, ok?” I hand her a makeup remover wipe from my pack and she sulks off. Not for the first time I wonder what the hell I’m doing being a surrogate mom to all these kids and then, like every time I wonder, I know it is because I have to do it. There isn’t any choice for me, any more than they have choices.

I pulled the curtain aside just enough to allow me into the enclosed area of the room. Mel greets me with a tearful hug that becomes a painful clench. She lets me go after a moment.

“Sorry, contraction. I heard you out there. I can’t believe you did that! You are one seriously scary girl, you know?”

She looks over at Dr Massetti. “Vincenzo, tell her she’s crazy!”

He shrugs, throwing in a quirk of one prodigious eyebrow. “Again? I told her she was crazy the first time I stitched her up and she didn’t argue the point. Crazy or not, I will agree she’s scary!”

Vinnie and I go back to my earliest days on the street. I’d managed to get my hand caught on the top of a chain link fence and it had torn a hole just under my pinky almost to the bone and big enough to stick my thumb into. He had been very kind and glued me up, then sent me out with instructions on care. Two days later I was back having torn it open again in the process of defending myself and this time he used actual stitches along with the glue.

Since then he and a few others had become my best way to get medical care for someone who needed it. Some doctors seemed to have no shred of human compassion and would refuse treatment to an indigent person with no money. Sometimes it would be an administrator who tried to refuse treatment. Whoever or whatever was the culprit there was still a solid majority core of the hospital staff who would do whatever they could to get someone care when needed even though most of them were afraid of losing their jobs.

Vinnie was one of the few that didn’t need to care about job loss since it wouldn’t really impact his financial status much. Besides, it wasn’t very likely they would fire him, he was one of those doctors hospitals compete to attract and his presence brought a great deal of money to them that would otherwise have gone to other hospitals in the region.

He turns a basilisk glare on me. “I know what that last jump is and if I ever catch you doing it again I swear I will get Theo to spank you!”

“Not brave enough to try it yourself?”

“That would be stupid, not brave and I have no desire to hurt myself trying to teach a young lady a lesson she should already know!” He adds a scowl to the glare. “Now turn around and let me see your back.”

“I’m good doc, I had my pack on and its got some decent padding. Besides I totally nailed the dismount. A little too well actually…” Of course this means I have to tell the story of the elevator encounter which has them both laughing until I get to the part about taking the outside route the rest of the way down.

Fortunately I am saved by the bell… or rather by the contraction. Melinda moans and I can see a vein throbbing in her temple. This one seems to take longer than the last and I can see beads of sweat popping out on her face from the strain.

She pants for a moment as it ends. “Oh fuck that hurts…” before she lies back against the pillow in exhaustion. I feel so helpless watching her in agony but in some strange way I am jealous. I would give just about anything to be in her position, about to give birth to a child carried under my heart.

He ducks under the sheets tented over her lower half and checks things for a moment. “9 centimeters, almost there!” he encourages Melinda. She groans at him in response and breaks into rapid-fire Sicilian which I can’t even quite assimilate much less understand. He replies in kind and they go back and forth until a nurse pokes her head through the curtain.

“Vince I need you for a moment.” He follows her out of the room and there is a barely heard murmer of conversation as another nurse comes in to take his place. Melinda grabs at my hand to get my attention.

“Listen, you need to know… You have all my powers of attorney on file but I also named you as my next of kin. If something happens to me I trust you to raise my child as if they were your own.” She pauses for a moment.

“Trust isn’t all of it, although I do trust you… but more, I want you to be the one who is mother to my child if I cannot be there to do it myself. And Theo of course, he will be a wonderful father!”

I can’t quite wrap my brain around that one. Theo and I have talked about adopting but it was always something that would be in the future, in a few years. The idea that it might be a lot closer than that was actually scary as hell!

“I… you…. we – “ was all I could get out of my mouth as I stare at her.

“Yes, you. I agree with her, if that helps.” Vinnie’s voice comes from just behind me. “When, not if, the time comes you and Theo will be excellent parents. I can’t imagine a child either of you raised being less than capable in pretty much any environment. Put you both together? Who knows but I look forward to seeing the lucky kids grow up!”

Another contraction draws a grimace of pain from Mel and her knuckles turn white where she has grabbed the rails and squeezed with all her strength. That kicks my brain back into gear, forcing me to focus on being there for her. Again this contraction seems longer and stronger than the one before.

When it finally ends she is panting, looking completely spent as she falls back against the pillow. There is a small towel on the… whatever they call that food tray thingie they use in hospitals… I use it to mop her forehead and wipe the sweat from her face.

“Thank you.” she says as she regains her breath.

“I haven’t done anything…”

“I know a lot of people who would disagree with you on that one. A fair number of us wouldn’t be alive without you and most of the rest wouldn’t be anything more than just alive. Theo wouldn’t be alive. All of us owe you more than can ever be repaid.”

She squashes my attempted interruption. “I know, pay it forward. As true as this is hun, you have to allow others to do for you sometimes. We want to pay it forward and back. The two things can be at the same time. You know sometimes you hurt others by not accepting their attempt to pay you back, including your man?”

“Wait, I…” I can’t finish the thought as another intrudes. “I hurt Theo?”

Even as I protest I realize she is right, I have seen that ‘kicked puppy’ look in his eyes when I rebuff an offer of assistance or a simple kindness. I’m so focused on being self reliant that it gets in the way of my relationships with people, I know that. Knowing isn’t the same as knowing how to not do it though.

“Shit… I’m sorry…” escapes from me with a sigh.

“And now you’re apologizing. Stop that!” She grabs my chin and forces me to look at her. “You have nothing to apologize for. Your mother named you true, you are an angel. The thing is, you have an equal now to stand beside you and support you and you have to learn to accept that support. “

“I…” I have to take a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I don’t know how to do that…”

“Yes you do. Florinda and Clarice back you singing and Theo too. You might sing lead but without the harmony they give the whole would be less. It works the other way around when one of them sings lead, you support them and it makes them better. It’s the same thing.”

“I never thought of it that way.” It really does help. Being able to interact with people on a deep level has always eluded me and I think this may be one of the big reasons for that. This gives me someplace to start working on fixing at least one of the ways in which I am broken.

Our conversation is interrupted by another contraction, this one much worse for Melinda as I can see the sweat popping out on her face again and she is still straining until finally she falls back exhausted again.

I know it hasn’t been long but it feels like it has been an eternity and I realize that I really do need support right now. I really need Theo…