Well, we are back home once again and relaxing. Although, around here I’m not really sure we ever relax fully. But we do try to relax anyway. Though we were up against two gangs we came out of the fight with only one death, which was right at the beginning. It would have been better if I could say there were no deaths at all, but that is not the case this time.

But, I guess it could have been much worse, and no one was wounded, which is also very nice. Of course there is the matter with Matt, but they didn’t have him long enough to brainwash him. And really, they picked the wrong man to try and brainwash. He knows all about such methods and how to fight it. They had spent most of their time trying to extract information from Matt about us. But all the information he gave them was false.

All leaders are given false information to give out to our enemies if we are captured. And we are taught to give it at regular intervals to make it look more realistic as well. And, we managed to keep Cricket safe, bringing her back home with us. She is just ecstatic about everything and everyone here and was helping out with cooking and cleaning right away. She loves being away from city life and she is getting along well with all the girls.

She does prefer to hide when our guys come around, but that is to be expected. She did come out and meet them all, however, and was very nice around them, but she didn’t stay long and went off to play with the kids. But I am sure that in time she will be okay around the guys. She has begun counseling sessions with Galyna already and she wanted Jennifer and I to be there too, at least at the beginning.

She wants us to know what she went through growing up so we would understand why she doesn’t trust men. Hearing her stories has made Jennifer and I want to go back and deal with her family. It doesn’t seem right that her parents are out of prison after only 15 months. Cricket was overwhelmed when she saw our kids come running out to meet Jennifer and I, saying how much they missed us and loved us.

Samantha was there to greet us as well, but she wasn’t as excited as the kids. But Jennifer told her it was essential that I go along on this one, citing unusual circumstances. I was necessary for advice on such a case, and they did make sure I wasn’t involved physically, I was only there for advice. Plus they figured I would be very helpful with Cricket, since we didn’t know her age at the time. Even Alizea didn’t know how old Cricket was, she only said that Cricket was quite young.

So we planned for the possibility that Cricket could be in her mid teens. And since children seem to like me very quickly, they felt I should be there. Kat and Jennifer also pleaded with Samantha to take me off recovery so I could be reinstated as Leader 1. Kat preferred to stay with her Wildcats and Jennifer preferred to stay as my primary bodyguard, plus she wanted to spend more time with our children. She said that included me too. I’m not quite sure what she meant by that.

Samantha thought for a little while, but then she consented. But she said if any signs of side effects or other health problems show up, then she would put me back on recovery. Cricket will be getting a new identity, one which will make her my younger sister, and she asked me to pick out her new name. I can see where I might get into some trouble with that one. I suggested that we should pick out a new name together, but she insisted that I do it on my own.

Now she is excited to see what name I will pick for her. Sigh. Jennifer won’t help me with this because Cricket wanted me to pick it out. Aasta said the same thing. Dawn said she was waiting breathlessly to see what I will pick. I’m not sure, but I think she was being sarcastic. Rock laughed and walked away. Aari said it didn’t really matter, she will like whatever I pick because it will obviously be a name that I like so she will automatically like it too, it will be special to her.

I’m not so sure about that one, but at least he gave me an answer. Sigh. On a different note, Baldwin has bought us a new chateau which is much larger than our old one. We needed it. We had really outgrown our last chateau, it was starting to get rather crowded. The kitchen in the new chateau is twice as big, and so is the library, two rooms that we use a lot. There is also a large dining room, another essential room for us.

The chateau is 3 and a half stories tall and has two towers that are each 6 stories. We need to put in bullet proof glass windows on the first two levels, which will have to be done by Baldwin’s company. But anything else we can do ourselves, which is good. We will be watching Baldwin’s workers carefully though, seems we can never trust anyone except ourselves.

Baldwin and the guys will be moving into our old chateau since they too need a larger place to live. With some minor renovations we will end up with 45 bedrooms in our new chateau. Everyone is excited since next week is when we move into our new chateau. Well, I wonder what our next case will be like? I have given up on hoping for something simple, it never works out simple. Sigh.

The End. A new case will begin soon.

©2024 Steve McLeod.