Ghosts of the Past Ch. 15

Lynda, Barbara and Dawn all looked at each other helplessly as they tried to figure out what to tell Diana. Just then, Charles came around the corner in front of the nursery windows cradling a screaming Megan in his arms. He walked over to Diana with tears in his eyes and handed their daughter to her. "Here, pretty lady... our baby girl is going to be fine, but she needs her Mama at the moment."

Diana beamed at him as she took the baby, thinking his tears were from joy over the fact that Megan's lungs seemed to be improving rapidly. "Oh, Charles... she's sounds wonderful, doesn't she? I just knew she was a fighter... I hope this means she'll be able to sing like me!" Megan began to quiet again as Diana swayed her soothingly in her arms. "Now... where's Charlie? Where's our boy?" she asked her husband.

A wave of nausea washed over Diana when Charles broke down and began to cry. "Oh, my God..." Diana breathed. "Tell me nothing's happened to him!!!" she squeaked painfully as her throat constricted from fear.

Charles shook his head rapidly. "No..." he choked out. Then he took a deep breath and swallowed the lump in his throat. "I mean... no harm has come to him... that we know of..." he added hesitantly.

Diana frowned in confusion. "What do you mean... that you KNOW OF?!!!" she cried fearfully.

Charles gripped her shoulders to steady himself as well as her. "He's gone, Diana. Someone took our son... someone has taken Charlie from us!" he gritted painfully through his tears.

Diana went numb with fear. Her body going into shock was the only thing that prevented her from collapsing in panic. She stared blankly at her husband. "I should've known," she mumbled weakly. "It's Friday the thirteenth... they're either joyous... or horrible... and today we got both... Oh, my God, Charles... what are we going to do?!!!" she asked, her voice strained as panic started to set in.

At that moment, Pete Woods arrived and it didn't take him long to figure out that something was very wrong. Tom, Jon and Rick immediately told him what was going on. "Oh, my God..." he muttered worriedly. "The hospital employee, Mary Hogan... that's Edward Hood's mother! Her maiden name, Outlaw, was listed on Hood's birth certificate, which is why we could never find out any information on her. When her sister showed up last November to identify her nephew, make funeral arrangements and pick up her car, she advised us that Hood's mother was going by her married name, Hogan, even though she was divorced long ago."

Charles and Diana heard him and her panic worsened. "Oh GOD, Charles!!! You've got to find that woman and get our son away from her!!! She's a sick woman!!! She's the reason that sick bastard attacked me! And now she's got my son... Oh God... I don't feel so good..." she mumbled weakly as her legs started to collapse when she recalled the nightmare that had woken her up the previous morning...

Lynda rushed over and grabbed Megan from Diana; Charles caught his wife and picked her up in his arms as she collapsed into unconsciousness. He carried her back to her room and put her in her bed while the nurse summoned a doctor to come check on her. Tom and Lynda followed them to the room, Lynda still holding the whimpering Megan in her arms.

While the doctor checked Diana, Charles took Tom into the hallway outside her room. "I don't care what you have to do, who you have to go through... please, Tom... just go find my son and bring him back to us!" he pleaded painfully as tears filled his eyes again.

Tom grasped his shoulders. "Don't worry, partner... Charlie will be fine. We'll have him back before this night is over... I promise." Tom patted his friend's shoulders before he turned away to go join Pete, Jon and Rick. They were in the process of calling their precincts and the FBI office to assemble a team to descend upon the last known address of Mary Hogan...

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A couple hours later, Diana stirred in her hospital bed when she heard the distinct sounds of two babies crying. She frowned and slowly blinked her eyes open, wincing as the late evening sun was shining in the window across from her bed. She glanced around, recalling that she was still in the hospital and everything that had happened in the last fourteen hours or so...

"Charlie..." she murmured weakly when she saw her husband standing near the window with his back to her. "Where's my son?" she asked hoarsely, as Charles turned toward her.

"He's right here, pretty lady... And he's been anxiously waiting for his Mama to wake up! I think he's hungry..." Charles said softly as their son squirmed and whimpered in his arms.

Diana immediately sat up and held her arms out for her baby and hugged him to her and kissed his soft hair as she cried with joy and relief to see her beautiful boy again. And his Daddy was right... he was very hungry. She hissed and winced as Charlie latched onto her left breast and sucked greedily. She glanced up quickly when Charles chuckled softly and sat down next to her on the edge of the bed holding Megan in his arms.

Then he rubbed the top of their boy's head softly and admonished, "Hey, son... take it easy on your Mama! She's had a rough day..." They looked up at each other and smiled when Charlie paused in his frantic sucking to take a deep breath and sigh, and then resumed eating at a more leisurely pace. After Charlie was finally sated, Diana took Megan to her other breast and they were overjoyed to see that her appetite had also improved along with her lung capacity.

While the babies were feeding, Charles explained to Diana how easily Pete, Tom, Jon and Rick had found Mary Hogan's residence and that the police and FBI had arrived when they thought no one was there. But within five minutes while they were looking around outside, they heard the sound of a baby crying coming from inside the house. Tom had broken into the house and found Charlie still wrapped up in his blanket from the hospital and lying in a box in the living room.

Tom had left immediately to return with Charlie to the hospital while Pete, Jon and Rick stayed to wait with the rest to see if Mary Hogan would return, which she did about a half hour later. She was arrested on the spot for abduction, but they were all sure that she would probably never stand trial... Any decent lawyer would be able to prove to the court that the woman was mentally unstable and incompetent to stand trial...

Charles didn't tell Diana just how insane she was... The woman had sworn up and down that the child was HER son Eddie; she had a breakdown and started screaming that she was going to kill the evil bitch that had stolen her son from her again... A half dozen police and FBI agents had to physically subdue her in order to get her into a vehicle to be transported to the county jail. The last they'd heard, the jail officials had already put in a call to the state mental health authorities for her to be evaluated and transferred to a place better equipped to handle her...

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Thanksgiving 1957 was celebrated at Lisa and Robert Clark's mansion in Bel Air that they had bought just after they married in September when a judge granted her request for an early annulment from Donald Price after he'd listened to her story. FBI Assistant Director Peter Woods and his wife Mary were also present as Lisa was most grateful for his recommendation to the courts that none of Lisa's assets be seized as part of Harold Green's penalties for his crimes, since Lisa had been the one to report her father's involvement to begin with.

There were fourteen adults gathered around the large table in their formal dining room, with a high chair next to Larry and Maria Wilson for eight-month old Lily, and Tom and Lynda Seldon had five-month old Brad in a baby seat while they took turns feeding him baby food. Luckily, all the younger babies had been fed earlier and were napping at the moment under the watchful eye of Lisa's trusted nanny who'd practically raised her after her mother died.

Charles and Diana and all their friends were, again, amazed to realize how much they had to be thankful for just over the past year... So much potential sadness and tragedy had all worked out in their favors, and everyone was mindful of that as Robert stood to offer a quick "Prayer of Thanksgiving" to God on behalf of all of them.

Halfway through their meal, nanny Peggy entered the dining room carrying a squalling Megan in her arms. Tom and Lynda were amused to see the sad look that came over little Brad's face as he looked toward the crying baby. Then he looked up toward his father and started crying himself. Tom picked up his infant son and tried to comfort him, wondering why Bradley would always get so upset to see Megan crying.

He thought it strange that Megan was the ONLY one of the other babies that would make Brad cry when she did... He vaguely wondered if it had to do with the very real possibility that they shared the same DNA... Tom shook his head.It doesn't matter... Charles is and always will be Megan's Daddy... he thought as he watched his partner and best friend get up to take his crying daughter from the nanny.

Charles walked around swaying her gently and talking to her until Megan calmed down and drifted off to sleep again. Then he kissed her forehead gently and looked up straight into Tom's eyes as he held his son Brad, who was watching Megan intently. Charles smiled gratefully at his best friend as he handed his sleeping daughter back to the nanny.

Diana and Lynda exchanged knowing looks as they watched their husbands, both of them smiling as they realized their husbands had genuinely reached an understanding that both of them readily accepted. They truly accepted that each of them had done their part in creating a miracle... Despite the uncertainty of the situation, that understanding only served to cement their friendship, their trust in one another and their loyalty to each other, which would serve them well in their partnership over the years to come...

Thankfully, the years did not bring any further ghosts from anyone's past to haunt them. However, Charles and Diana Richards and Tom and Lynda Seldon would learn eighteen years later that there was a price to pay for past miracles...

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Author's Note: Again... I'm going to leave it up to the readers as to whether I should bother with the next story... And if you do want me to continue... a little more encouragement would be nice in the form of positive votes. And those of you who hate my stories... then just don't bother to read them or at least stop clicking on them just to vote negatively! I'd never do that to anyone's stories no matter how awful I thought they were... And if you're not even another author... then SHAME ON YOU!!! YOU'RE A FUCKING COWARD!!!

If you have gripes, then send them to me anonymously, but stop it with the fucking negative votes... And I say this on behalf of any of the other authors out there who feel the same way...