The officers looked on in horror. Five of their own, including two senior officers, had been in the building.
The most senior officer among the group started taking a headcount.
"Green?"
Nothing.
"Criss?"
Nothing.
"Pangretz?"
Still nothing.
"Mayo?"
"Nichols?"
"Holy shit," the officer said under his breath, "Nichols and Mayo were in the building!"
"Watson here," he said, calling the dispatcher; "I need bomb squad, ambulances, FD. Officers down! I repeat OFFICERS DOWN!"
"How many officers?"
"Five," Watson said.
"Who?"
"Criss; Pangretz; Green, R.; Mayo; Nichols, S.," Watson said, not believing his Academy buddy Steve Nichols was among the fallen.
"Assistance is en route, Officer Watson," the dispatcher said.
"Thank you."
Poor Nico and the kids, Watson thought. This is going to devastate them!
He had no idea how right he was, especially about his friend's newly widowed wife.
Natasha arrived home just as the bus was dropping the twins off at the house.
"Hey Mom!" Nikolai said; "You'll never guess what happened at school today!"
"Yeah, Mom," Vixen joined in; "I couldn't believe it myself."
Once they were all in the house, Natasha asked, "Okay, so what happened at school that you two are so anxious to tell me?"
Nikolai and Vixen looked at each other, then Vixen said, "We get to take the placement test for Georgetown Academy! They sent you an email in case we forgot to tell you, but how could we forget!"
"That's wonderful you guys!" Natasha said, giving her children a hug; "So you'll get to start high school a year early when you pass the placement exam! I'm so proud of you!"
"The placement test is a whole weekend thing, Mom," Nikolai said; "Right before spring break. We'll skip 8th grade and go straight to high school."
"Then you two have some studying to do, because I hear that exam is tough!" Natasha said. Then, "I have something to tell you guys."
"What?" asked Vixen. Nikolai only raised one eyebrow. Natasha noticed that both Nik and Sandrina did that when intrigued by something.
"You know how Darren has been bugging me about setting a date for the wedding, right?" The kids nodded and their mother continued; "I've decided on a date."
"Well, Mom, when is it? And does Darren know yet?" asked Vixen.
"Darren doesn't know yet, Vix," Natasha said; "You two are the first to know that I want to get married on July 4th."
"Independence day?" asked Nikolai.
"Why that day, Mom?" asked Vixen.
"I have my reasons," Natasha said; "It has to do with my past, and being separated from your Uncle Nik."
"Oh," the twins said together. Neither one of them had any idea what their mother could have meant by that. They knew that she and her brother had been separated as children, but not the real reason for that separation. And Natasha wanted it that way for now. maybe when they were older and understood more about the real world, and not the world their mother created for them, would Natasha say anything.
"Sandrina and Danica don't know about this yet, do they?" asked Nikolai.
"I said you two were the first," Natasha said; "I'll tell them when they get home from their classes this afternoon.
"You should tell Darren," Vixen said.
"Oh, believe me, Vixen, my girl," Natasha said; "He'll know soon enough."
Vixen saw her mother smile, and knew it was going to be soon.
It turned out that Mayo had survived what should have been certain death. She knew the other four officers were dead. The men who set off the bomb were dead. Why me? she asked herself as she crawled towards the outside of the building.
"I need to get to the staging area," she said to herself.
Once outside in the cool air of that Jaunary day, Giulietta Mayo tried to stand, and found she could not. "Help!" she cried out weakly. "I've been injured!"
She saw the paramedics coming through the parking lot. They asked for her name.
"Lt. Giulietta Mayo," she said; "I'm hurt, but four officers are dead inside that building!"
She was placed on a stretcher and put into an ambulance. She kept trying to talk, but the paramedics told her to save her strength. She had multiple fractures, a collapsed lung, and burns. But she was alive.
"Dio, ti prego, aiutami! (God, please help me!)" she muttered under her breath before she lost consciousness.
II
In San Francisco, Marsh had a bad feeling. Something didn't feel right to him.
It wasn't about the mission he and his team were on in the city. Marsh felt something awful was happening to Nicoletta.
He'd never felt anything like that ever in his life, except for one other time. It was when his grandfather was murdered. He ignored the feeling then.
Something terrible was happening, or was about to happen, in Nicoletta's life.
If only I could go back to her, he thought, I could calm her, warn her, tell her everything will be okay.
Later that evening, when he got on his tablet to read the papers, he'd see his feeling about her would be right.
He wouldn't be able to fix it. He couldn't go to her. He would feel paralyzed with his desire to be with her, and be unable to.
Sweet Nicoletta, he thought, please don't be afraid.
"July 4th?!" Sandrina said excitedly when her aunt told her when her wedding would be; "That's awesome Aunt Tash!"
"Congratulations, Aunt Tash!" echoed Danica happily.
"Can I tell Dad and Mom?" asked Sandrina.
"Not yet," Natasha said; "I haven't had a chance to tell Darren yet!"
"Why not?" asked Danica.
"He's been in meetings all day, and he'll call when he gets a chance," Natasha said. "You guys just keep mum about this until I say it's okay."
Sandrina and Danica nodded. They wouldn't tell their families, but they talked about it between themselves in Sandrina's bedroom for hours.
"I wasn't sure I liked Darren at first, to be honest," Danica said; "But he's a good man and he and Aunt Tash are good for each other. He tempers her badass attitude. She keeps him honest."
"An honest man in Washington," Sandrina said, laughing, "imagine that!"
"I think your dad will be happy that Aunt Tash is happy, Sandy."
"Dad told me once that Aunt Tash wasn't the marrying kind," Sandrina said; "But she was the mothering, nurturing kind. That's why she went ahead and had kids anyway, without a husband. Darren had always liked her, and he waited for her to be ready for him. Even if that took forever."
"That is awesome anyway," Danica said. "Speaking of guys, how's Alex? We don't see a lot of him anymore."
"He's on special duty in North Carolina," Sandrina said; "He volunteered because that's where he's from. They had that big flood there a couple weeks ago, and he's part of the team that is helping with the rescue efforts. He calls me every couple of days or so. He's already making plans for us when he gets back."
"You like him more than a little bit, don't you, Sandy?"
"I do, Danica," Sandrina said; "And my family likes him, too. I hope that maybe something will come of this."
"Maybe we'll be walking two ladies down the aisle in July," Danica said.
"Right, Danica," Sandrina said; "I've known Alex all of four months... let's not get me married off to him so quickly! Sheesh, cousin, you're worse than Aaliyah in the romance department."
"Aaliyah is only eight, what does she know about romance?" asked Danica.
"She has older sisters, duh!"
"Oh, well yeah, I guess that's true..." said Danica. "I wish I could find a nice guy."
"He's out there, Danica," Sandrina said, taking her cousin's hand; "Patience, young math geek. Patience."
"Oh shut up!" laughed Danica.
To herself, she wondered, when's it going to be my turn?
Mayo was rushed into surgery to repair the damage from her injuries. Nearly six hours after she'd been found in the parking lot of the warehouse, she was in the recovery room at Loyola University Hospital.
She tried looking around the room to see if any of her fellow officers had somehow survived, but she couldn't move her neck far enough to see.
Dear God, she thought, I'm paralyzed!
A nurse watching over the patient noticed she was awake. "Lt. Mayo, you're at Loyola Hospital. You just got out of surgery."
Mayo couldn't speak with the tube down her throat, and she felt like she couldn't move any of her extremties. Her dark brown eyes just widened in shock.
"You've been given a nerve block to keep your body still during surgery," the nurse said, sensing Mayo's fear that she couldn't move; "It should wear off in about 24 hours. You're not paralyzed. Your family has been notified that you're here."
Mayo tried to speak. She wanted to ask about the other officers, but couldn't make herself be understood by the nurse. The nurse then left and a doctor and the police chaplin came in to see her.
"Lt. Mayo, I'm Dr. Kath," the doctor said; "I'm your surgeon. You got pretty banged up, but you're going to make it. You know Fr. Ryan, the police chaplain. He's going to talk to you for a few moments while I talk to your family. Nod if you understand."
She nodded and Dr. Kath left the room. That just left her alone with Fr. Ryan.
"Giulietta," he said softly, "the other officers didn't make it, my dear. When I leave here, I'm going to see Nico Nichols."
"No!" Giulietta tried to say. I want to be the one who tells Nico Steve didn't make it! He had a premonition about his death, and it's up to me to tell her. He was my partner after all!
"I know you and Nico are friends, and you probably want to be the one who tells her Steve is now in God's hands," Fr. Ryan said in his slight Scottish brogue; "But you need to rest now, child. You will need your strength to mend."
The priest said prayers with Giulietta and gave her several blessings. She was soon alone again, wondering why she was the only officer to survive the ambush. I'd die a thousand deaths so that Nico wouldn't have to hear Fr. Ryan tell her that Steve was dead, she thought.
She felt tears in her eyes. Per favore, Dio, prendimi adesso!
Please, God, take me now!
III
Finding nothing those first few days in San Francisco, Marsh was getting frustrated. But, the city was huge and he knew it would take some time to pinpoint where Summers and her family were. His men had yet to check the Marina district, the most likely place that the family would be, according to the visitors Marsh had at the motel in Chicago.
But now, all he wanted was dinner, time to read the papers on his tablet, and some sleep.
Not whores and drugs, he thought. Maybe Nicoletta has had an influence on me.
Thinking of her, the first paper he brought up on his tablet was the Chicago Times-Tribune. The story on the front page grabbed his attention immediately.
Five Officers Caught in Ambush, Four Die
Marsh read the story, hoping not to read Nicoletta's name in the article. Instead, this is what he saw:
...Five Chicago officers were in the warehouse at the time of the explosion, according to a police spokeswoman. Of the five, only Lt. Giulietta Mayo, 37, survived. She was taken to Loyola University Hospital where she was in surgery at press time. The four officers who lost their lives were:
Simon Pangretz, 34, of Cicero;
Roger Green, 32, of Chicago;
Micah Criss, 29, of Belvidere;
Steven Nichols, 35, of Chicago;
In addition to the four officers, there were six other individuals in the building. Only one, Jorge Ybarra-Garcia, 45, had been identified...
Marsh read, and re-read the article, not believing what he was seeing. Nicoletta's husband's name was Steve! He thought he was going to be sick.
"My poor darling Nicoletta!" he cried out; "I'd give anything to be there now to comfort you!"
All of a sudden, maybe it wasn't a good idea to go after Julia Summers and her family, he thought.
Nico was on pins and needles all day. She'd heard about the explosion at the warehouse, and she knew that Steve's unit was in charge of the investigation into illegal activity there. When Steve wasn't home at his regular time, she knew there were two reasons for it; one was that he had to work late. The other she didn't want to think about.
But when her daughter Kit saw the police chaplain come up the walkway leading to their front door, Nico's heart sank.
She knew that a visit from Fr. Ryan only meant one thing, and one thing only.
Steve was never coming home.
"Mom?" Kit asked, her voice quivering; "Dad's in trouble, isn't he?"
Nico said nothing, but the look on her face spoke volumes.
"Get your brothers and bring them to the living room, Kit."
"Yes, ma'am," the girl said and left the room. Not two seconds later, there was a knock on the door. Two seconds after that, all three of Nico's children were in the living room.
"Nico, my child," Fr. Ryan said; "I think you know why I'm here, don't you?"
"Yes, Father, I know. But tell us anyway," Nico said.
Before the chaplain could say anything, Steven (named for his maternal grandfather and not his father) said, "Dad's dead, isn't he, Father?"
Fr. Ryan only looked at the dark haired boy, his twin sister, and their younger brother, and said, "Yes, Steven. Your father was killed in the line of duty. I am so sorry I had to come over to tell you this."
In Nico's mind, she was screaming, "NO! NO! IT CAN'T BE TRUE!"
Aloud, she said, "Thank you for coming over, Father. We'll make the appropriate arrangements."
After the chaplain had left, Nico sat down on the couch with her children as they cried. After a while, they went to their bedrooms to mourn in private.
Nico looked out the window in the living room, hoping against hope that Steve's car would turn the corner and arrive in their driveway. She shed no tears. There would be time for that later. She had to make arrangements for Steve to be buried, plan the funeral, prepare the children for life without their father.
The only thing that went through Nicoletta's mind was, this is all my fault.
"Your many messages asked me to call as soon as I was out of my meetings, Tash," Darren said; "What's so important that it needed that many messages?"
"Meet me at The Bistro on K Street and I'll tell you all about it, Darren," Natasha said; "I don't want to say anything about it on the phone. This is an in-person kind of thing."
"Oh, so you're being cryptic, are you?" said Darren, smiling. "I guess I'll have to get my ass to The Bistro on K Street to find out the big secret."
"That might work," Natasha said. "I'll see you in, say, an hour?"
"An hour it is, my darling," Darren said, and closed out the call.
I wonder what she's got up her sleeve, he thought. Does it have to do with the assignment Jacob Ross sent her on this morning?
Darren didn't care that Natasha took the odd assignment from her old trainer in Arlington. He just wanted to know about it. Ross was hesitant to share his intel with CIA, but because it was the Director's fiancee who was going on this assignment, the Director had to know about it.
Years before, Darren had Natasha's complete background investigated. He knew everything about her that his agents could find out about her. He knew about her past as a hooker, as a member of the Disturbed Ones BlackOps team... he even knew who donated the sperm that made her twins a reality.
All with Natasha's full knowledge. There were still some gaps in her past that she could not explain, and asked Darren, who was the Assistant Director at the time, to investigate further. What he found out was that Dan Donegan pretty much had done all of the work when he investigated a similar request from Natasha, then known as Vixen Vincent, when she was in her twenties. Darren found all the same information Donegan did, and then some.
But now, his beautiful bride to be wanted to meet him for dinner to talk to him about something she felt was important. If it was important to Tash, Darren thought, it's important to me as well.
He gathered his belongings and headed out the door. He would be very pleased with what Natasha wanted to talk to him about.
IV
Nico didn't sleep. She sat in bed most of the night thinking about the last month of her life.
Had someone told her at Christmas that she'd fall in love with another man, and that her husband would die in the line of duty, Nico Nichols might not have believed them.
Now it's all she thought about.
This is all my fault, she thought over and over; had I not developed such strong feelings for Eddie, maybe Steve would still be alive. Maybe I might not be questioning my committment to the police department; maybe I wouldn't have to make plans to bury the man who saved me from an abusive relationship fourteen years ago.
It's not Eddie's fault; It's not Steve's fault; It's my fault that I let everyone down, Nico said to herself. By the time she fell into an exhausted sleep at dawn, she had convinced herself that her indiscretions led to Steve's death.
That morning, her children found her still sleeping as they got up to go to school.
"I don't know about you two," Steven said; "But I really don't feel like going to school today."
"I don't either," agreed Cole.
"Mom has to call us out though," Kit said. "We can't just not go."
Just then, a knock on the door. Kit went to answer it to reveal her great-grandmother on the other side.
"Bisnonna!" Kit said, and started to cry.
"I heard about your dad, Kathryn," Stefanie Travetti said; "Where's your mom?"
"She's still asleep," Cole said; "I think she was up all night."
"See if she'll get up and talk to me, Nicolas," said Stefanie; "I know you're all hurting and in shock. I've been there, too."
Cole went to his mother's bedroom to tell her that Bisnonna Stefanie was there.
Five minutes later, a very groggy Nico appeared in the kitchen. At first, her grandmother thought she had taken a sedative to help her sleep, but Nico explained that she fell asleep not three hours before.
"I'll look after the children, Nicoletta," Stefanie said; "They're not going to school today, are they?"
"Of course not, Nonna," Nico said; "I need to call them out for the rest of the week at least."
"You take care of that, and I'll watch over the kids. Then go back to bed and we'll talk when you feel refreshed."
Nico looked at her grandmother for a second longer than Stefanie thought was necessary, because she then said, "Nico! Call the school, dear."
Nico came out of her microsleep and said, "Right;" then called the schools to say the kids weren't going to be there for the rest of the week due to a death in the family.
Stefanie couldn't help but wonder what was going on with her oldest grandchild. This goes far beyond being in shock that her husband is dead, she thought; far beyond not sleeping; there's something else going on in Nico's head she needs to get off her chest.
And she had no idea at that point how right she was.
Marsh woke up feeling dread. All he dreamt about was Nicoletta.
He arrived at the house he'd only heard about. It was strangely quiet.
There's no one here, he thought. They must be at the funeral.
Eddie got out of the car and looked at the house. It was a modest single family home in a quiet neighborhood. He had no trouble picturing Nicoletta and her family here.
Out of the side yard, he saw a man about 35 with greying close cropped hair. He was wearing a lieutenant's uniform of the Chicago Police Department, including the iconic hat with the checkerboard band.
Eddie felt a little frightened at first, then realized that the man could not see him.
"Are you Steve?" he asked.
The officer said nothing. It was as if he never heard Eddie speak. But he just looked in Eddie's direction anyway, as if to say something.
Eddie walked to the front door and knocked on it, not expecting anyone to answer.
Instead, a girl about 14 answered and asked politely, "Are you here for the wake?"
"Yes," Eddie said for lack of anything else to say.
"I'm Kit, please come in," the girl said.
Once inside the house, he saw it was devoid of furnishings. In the center of the living room was a casket. He turned to the girl to ask a question, but she had disappeared.
He was the only one in the house, it seemed. That is, until a woman about 70 came down the stairs.
"Welcome," she said; "I'm Nicoletta's grandmother. I'm used to this. I've buried a husband, three of my four children, and a grandchild. May I ask your name?"
"Edward," Eddie said; "Edward Marshall. I'm a friend of Nicoletta's."
"I see," Nicoletta's grandmother said; "Please, come into the kitchen."
Eddie followed the attractive older woman into the kitchen, where he was met by the same man he'd seen in the yard.
"You're Edward," the man said; "I'm glad you're here."
"How do you know who I am?" Eddie asked. Nothing scared him, but he was starting to feel a little freaked out.
"I've been watching you, Mr. Marshall," the man said; "I'm Steve. I just wanted to meet the man who stole my wife's heart."
"But aren't you...dead?"
"Oh, yeah, I forgot about that," Steve said; "I am dead, aren't I?"
Eddie said nothing. Steve continued;
"Since I'm dead, I might need someone to take care of my family. Why should I consider you, Mr. Marshall? You haven't always lived such an exemplary life, have you?"
"Because Nicoletta is my friend, and I care about her well being," Eddie said.
"Nicoletta is your friend?" Steve sneered at him; "You stole her from me with your oily charm! You should be the one in that casket in the living room, not me! Would you be willing to trade your miserable life for mine, Mr. Marshall?"
"No!" Eddie cried out; "You're already dead!"
"But if you agree to take my place, then I can have my wife back!"
"No! I won't do it! I'll take care of Nicoletta, but I won't trade my life for yours!"
"You're going to live to regret this, Mr. Marshall," Steve said, laughing maniacally. Eddie then heard Nicoletta's grandmother, her daughter, and his own grandfather join in the laughter.
"Where's Nicoletta?" Eddie asked.
The teenage girl named Kit led Eddie back to the living room where the casket was. It was now open.
Inside was Nicoletta.
"NO!" Marsh cried out in his sleep. The sound of his own voice woke him up. He felt his heart racing so fast, he thought it would beat out of his chest.
I have to get to Nicoletta somehow, Marsh thought.
Twenty five hundred miles away, Nico had awakened screaming from a similar dream. Her grandmother ran down the hall to see if Nico was okay.
"What happened, Nico?" Stefanie asked.
"Bad dream..." Nico said, panting as if she'd running from something. "Terrible, frightening...Nonna... I have to tell you something!"
"Not now, Nicoletta," Stefanie said. "You've just lost your husband, and your thoughts are all jumbled up. When everything calms down, then we'll talk. I promise. I'll be here a while. There's nothing in my little house on the Southside that needs my immediate attention. You and your children need me more than my plants do right now."
"Nonna," Nico said; "I have something to confess..."
"Not now, Nico," Stefanie said; "If you still want to tell me later, I'll listen. But now, you need to have a clear head to make funeral arrangements. Right now, you need rest. Maybe the nightmare was just your body's way of telling you that you need sleep. I've got everything under control."
Nico wanted to cry. Her Nonna always knew what to say. "Thank you, Nonna," she said. "I owe you big."
"No, Nico," Stefanie said; "you don't. I've lost a husband, too. I know what you're going through. We'll talk later, okay?"
"Okay," Nico said as she lay back down.
I don't want to see Eddie in a casket this time, God, okay? Nico thought.
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