While You Sleep

Then I started laughing. Nothing that I'd planned had gone right, why should that? It's always darkest before it gets totally black. The street that I'd just turned onto was blocked by something. It shouldn't have been a dead end street. None of the streets around here seemed to be. I looked behind me to try to back out of it and noticed that the three trucks that were following me had already reached the street. Men were spilling out of them already.

Then lights came on in front of me. What I'd thought was a dead end wasn't. It was the biggest APC I'd ever seen. As the lights came on, I recognized Agent May on the APC. And Prince Gregor was there as well.

"Agent Hammond, there is no escape," said May. "Prince Gregor and I are here to bring you in safely. This has all been one huge misunderstanding. Get out of the car and throw down your weapons. I swear that you will not be hurt." There were at least twenty soldiers behind me and at least half of that number ahead of me. The huge APC couldn't be moved by hitting it with the Mustang, it was simply too massive and the guys in the trucks behind me had wedged the trucks into the street. I'd also have to go through an almost impenetrable barrage of bullets to get there. This looks like the end, I thought.

I got out of the car gingerly, still holding my Sig in my good right hand and looked at them.

"Bullshit," I said loudly.

"What do you mean?" asked May. "I'm your superior. Put that gun down and come in. Prince Gregor is now the King of Pacmanistan and..."

"Prince Gregor is the asshole behind this," I said. "He did all of this because he wants Millie."

"So you know," smiled Gregor. "That means that it makes things easier. That also means that I no longer need you," he said looking at Agent May.

He quickly shot Agent May in the forehead with a gun that I hadn't seen. I shot Gregor a fraction of a second after he shot May. I caught him in the stomach. It's a painful wound but not necessarily fatal. I cursed my injuries even as I fell. I was normally a great shot even from this distance. I could only blame fatigue and the lack of blood.

"Kill him now," screamed Gregor.

I knew that was it. The men behind me started to advance towards me, shooting as they came. I couldn't even get to my feet to get away and with the wound to my left ankle I couldn't move quickly enough to escape anyway.

The men on the giant APC started to come towards me and they were closer but suddenly they all screamed at once and started to run away in the opposite direction. A huge hail of what sounded like fifty caliber machine gun rounds hit the APC even as they started to run. A missile streaked out of the sky and hit the APC destroying it. It hit the huge vehicle so hard it was momentarily lifted off of the ground. I thought I heard the sound of something beating the air but I was moving in and out of consciousness by then so I chalked it up as a hear-lucination (yeah I made that up but you know what I mean).

At least they'll go out with me I thought. I couldn't understand why the men behind me had turned on their own Prince and army but I wasn't complaining. Then I noticed that the men behind me were quickly scattering too. Two of the three trucks had been destroyed already and the men in the third truck had abandoned it and were running away.

Lights blanketed the area and I noticed what everyone else had seen. Three black Apache helicopters took up a position directly over me. One looked to the front. Another monitored the men behind me and the last one touched down only a few yards away from me.

"God damn it. This isn't good sir," I heard a voice say. "He's got at least five bullet wounds. I don't know how he lasted this long."

"I only remember three," I said. "Is Millie... the president's daughter..."

"She's fine," he snapped. "We have to take care of you."

"Don't bother," I said. "Not gonna make it..."

* * * * * *

Millie

When the helicopters landed on the roof of the Russian hospital, I was relieved at first. Then I saw Rick and I lost it. The helicopters took off again immediately and went to the palace to mop up. It took them less than fifteen minutes to rout the entire army of Pacmanistan. Two of the secret service agents had been killed besides Agent May.

Liz had been beaten but was alright. The two female agents Patty and Gail had likewise been roughed up as had the English woman Beth. Carmella fared differently. When the other women had been forced to fight to avoid being raped, she'd simply given in and the next thing she knew, they were trying to gangbang her. They had to send in more and more men. Who knows what would have happened if she hadn't been rescued. Pacmanistan really didn't have very many soldiers left.

The doctors in the Russian hospital stabilized Rick's wounds but he fell into a coma. They prepped him for the flight home where the bullets would be removed and his injuries taken care of. They sent a military jet to fly him home and I stayed with him, much to their dismay. They actually had to leave one of the medical assistants off of the plane to accommodate me.

I think she got the better end of the deal because she got to fly home first class instead of on a military flight. I got a stool once the plane took off and sat next to Rick's gurney. I held his hand and told him that everything was going to be fine.

My father called me while we were in-flight. "Millie, why the hell aren't you on the plane?" he asked. "I'm tired of this you running around like you're crazy bullshit. I know that you've been through a traumatic experience, but you need to grow up young lady. You can't run around on your own. You don't even have your secret service people with you."

"Daddy," I said. "I am grown up. And I do have my secret service man right here with me. I'll talk to you when I land."

* * * * * *

Danielle

Sitting in my living room with Donnie was the most boring thing I could think of. I'd noticed that he often wandered around the house on his own. Not that I minded. It wasn't like I had anything worth stealing and I made sure he stayed away from Katrina's room whether or not she was there. Donnie occasionally gave me a little bit of money and it helped out on the occasions when I'd gone through the money that Rick sent me for Katrina.

As I thought about it, I realized that except for sex and money, Donnie was useless to me. And the sex he provided was useless because Rick seriously didn't care who I fucked anymore. If it no longer hurt him, what was the point?

I turned on the TV and Donnie looked at me.

"Why are you turning that thing on?" he asked. "Ain't I interesting enough to keep you interested? You know Maranelli is finally going to give me another shot."

"Who the hell is Maranelli and why do I care?" I asked.

"Forget it you're just too..." he began. The announcement from the TV as I scanned the channels ended any interest in what he was saying.

"...Severely injured in the incident was secret service agent Richard Hammond and..." I looked at the screen and saw Rick's photo.

"Oh my God," I screamed.

"Ha ha ha ha ha," laughed Donnie. "That bastard got what he fucking deserves. I hope he dies and..."

"Get the fuck out of my house and don't ever come back," I hissed. Donnie looked shocked.

"Baby, I'm sorry," he whined. "I didn't mean it. I was just talking."

"Get out of my house now," I repeated. "Or I'll call the cops. And Donnie, with that broken foot you can barely get around, so don't try to get macho on me. Just get out."

He limped his way to the door and walked out. I immediately got on the phone and called the number back. This time I was far more insistent and between crying, screaming and cursing at everyone I spoke to, I was finally transferred to another woman.

"Yes," she said calmly. Her voice sounded as if she was perturbed that I was calling.

"I'm trying to find out about my husband and I was transferred to..."

"Oh, you're her," she said. "In a way it's good that you called. That way I can cross you off of my list. Do you want to come here or should I come to you?"

"What are you babbling about?" I asked. "I just want to know how Rick..."

"Okay, I'll come to you," she said. "He's having another operation in the morning. This one is important but not life threatening. They have to put a pin in his leg. They say that he'll eventually be able to walk and even run again after some physical therapy. I'll be at your house by ten. And have a pen. You'll probably want to sign some papers while I'm there."

"Who the hell do you think you are?" I asked. But all I heard was the dial tone. I was pissed. I thought that it was some kind of government conspiracy. They were trying to keep me away from my own husband and I wasn't going to let them get away with it. All kinds of things went through my mind. If he was having, "another operation," it meant that there'd already been previous operations. That implied that Rick had been seriously hurt while on an assignment.

I know that it was wrong but the first thing that went through my mind was that this could be my opportunity to get my marriage back. If I nursed Rick through his injuries and was there to help bring him back to health, it could be my ticket to forgiveness. Stranger things had happened. For the rest of the day I practiced. I was sure that she'd be some tight assed little bureaucratic secret service manager who just wanted to block me out of the spotlight.

If Rick became some kind of hero, it wouldn't look good for them to have the whorish ex-wife in the spotlight. I guess they didn't want to have Trailer Trash Barbie on TV. Well fuck them. I looked through the house and tried to find the best outfit I could throw together. I wished that I had the money to buy something new and classy.

I also watched the news channels all day to get as much information on what happened and Rick's condition as possible. It pissed me off that I was legally his wife and couldn't get any more information than the average person could get.

Another thing that pissed me off was the fact that Donnie kept calling me. I really hadn't been as upset with him as I'd pretended. I'd just wanted him to get away from me so I could think. But if I was going to get my husband back, Donnie needed to go. Shit, he had a wife that he wouldn't divorce anyway. He'd already pointed out my place in his life. I was just pussy. My position with him and his money were precarious at best.

Then there was the fact that I really still loved Rick. Sure he'd pissed me off and I'd screwed some guys to get back at him but at the end of the day, Rick was the only person beside my daughter that I'd ever loved. I also realized that the best possible thing for Katrina would be to have her father in her life. I'd busted my ass trying not to be my mother and look what it had gotten me.

One bad decision had undone a lifetime of good intentions. Of course, once I'd made that mistake I'd continued down the path and even compounded the mistake many times over. But now salvation and possibly redemption were at hand and all I had to do was something that I'd do anyway.

The news was full of information about Rick. It turned out that he had held off an entire army or something and had saved the lives of ten or twelve people including the president's daughter. My brain clicked into gear and I saw it all. I saw money. I saw fame. I saw bringing my family back together. Shit, even if I couldn't get Rick back, I could still be rich and famous on my own. I could write a tell-all book. Shit, I could write a series of books.

The first book would be about how I met Rick and turned him into a football hero in college. The second book would talk about our sex life and how he got me pregnant and I'd never quite lost the baby weight from giving birth to his daughter. When you really looked at it, Rick had ruined my modeling career by pumping me full of his stuff. The third book would talk about being the wife of a secret service agent and how the stress of his job and long hours of loneliness and not knowing how he was or even where he was had contributed to the end of our marriage. Shit, if we got back together there'd be a fourth book to talk about that.

Even if the books didn't sell, Rick was going to become a celebrity so I could at least jack up the child support and maybe even increase the amount he'd have to pay me if he wanted his divorce. No matter how you sliced it, Rick's unfortunate situation and his heroism, was going to pay off big for me.

I picked Katrina up from daycare after school let out. I decided not to tell her until I had more information because I didn't want her to freak out.

Early the next morning I dropped her off at the usual time and went back to the house. At about nine o'clock, several cars pulled up. They were all black cars with the seal of the secret service on them. A group of men who dressed like Rick always dressed for work got out and went all over the yard looking at everything. I let them into the house and they went from room to room checking on everything.

I realized then that they were probably my bodyguards and wanted to make sure that no one could take me out while I waited to see Rick. Rick had often told me about how he sometimes didn't respect the people he was assigned to protect, but he did it anyway and he did the best he could because it was his job and he was a professional.

I think I got that look from some of them. Well they could suck it, because I was a celebrity now. As they looked through the rooms of the house a couple of them spoke into walkie-talkies and just stared at me. I wondered why those guys didn't just use cell phones like everyone else.

At five minutes to ten, a long black limousine pulled up in front of the house. I knew that Ms. Tight ass was here and right on time. I opened the door and went into shock. Ms. Tight ass was younger than me and prettier too. Her face was really familiar. I just couldn't place her. But she, like all of those Washington DC types was always in the paper.

A bigger shock was that she was holding my daughter's hand. She walked right past me and told Katrina to go upstairs and pick out all of the clothes she wanted to take with her because they were going on a trip to visit her daddy.

When she spoke it all came together. The slight Texas accent, the long flowing blond hair, the almost too blue eyes; she was Millicent Cameron. She had been the one the secret service people were trying to protect not me.

"Should I start packing too," I asked. "How long will we be away for? Where exactly are we going?"

At first, I thought that she was ignoring me. Her face flashed through several emotions as if she was trying to maintain her composure. She looked at one of her secret service guys and pointed at the couch. He unfolded the newspaper he held under one arm and placed it on my sofa. She sat down on the newspaper and looked at me.

"You don't need to pack," she said nicely. Both the tone of her voice and her speech pattern had changed. Her voice had become very brittle as if each syllable was chipped from crystal. She was icily polite.

"Because you're either staying here, or going away," she said. There was something about the way she said it that sent ice up and down my spine. This woman was only in her early twenties, she was younger than I am but she reminded me a lot of her father.

When you saw him on TV, if he was just making a speech or giving out an award, there was a lot of that jovial Texas cowboy charm. But when you saw him dealing with Congress or talking about going to war, all of that homespun charm fell off and he was all fucking business and he was just not a nice man. This was definitely his daughter.

"Can you try saying something that makes fucking sense?" I said. "What do you mean I'm either staying here or going away?"

"You asked me if you needed to pack," she said. "If you're staying here you don't need to pack. If you're going away, you also won't need to pack for where you're going."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" I hissed.

"I'm taking Katrina to see her father," she said. "Where's the pen I told you to have?"

"I think there's something wrong with you," I said. "You can't take my daughter anywhere without my permission."

"Actually I can," she said.

"You bitch," I said. "Just because you're the president's daughter doesn't mean that you can..."

She held up her hand. "It wasn't me," she said. "...Although I did help to speed things up a bit. You did this all on your own. Rick filed a case to get custody of Katrina before he left town for his last assignment. He even gave them this video..." she pulled out a phone that I recognized as Rick's.

She pushed a button and the video that he'd taken started to play. "They were probably going to have a custody hearing on this anyway," she said. "It was just going to take some time and who knows how it might have ended up. You are clearly not the best influence for her. Rick, on the other hand, has a job where he may be called out of the country on very short notice, so they would have probably fucked around and told you to clean up your act and given her back to you."

I smiled.

"But things have changed," she said. "Rick now has a better job or he will when this is all over. And it's more stable and doesn't involve him traveling or any danger."

"That's great," I said. "That's all I've wanted from the beginning." She looked at me like I was an alley rat swimming in the punch bowl."

"They decided to give Rick custody of Katrina," she smirked. "So I'm taking her to him."

"What about me?" I asked. "And you can't expect a little girl to go and stay in a strange city by herself. She doesn't even know anyone wherever you guys are going."

"Yes, what about you?" she said. "It seems like everything has always been about you. I do have something here for you." She reached into her pocket and brought out some folded papers. She placed them down on the sofa between us.

"You have four years to get your shit together," she said. "The alimony stops after that."

I looked and saw that the papers were divorce papers. They cited irreconcilable differences as the reason for the divorce. I would get thirty-five thousand dollars a year for four years, liberal visitation rights to my daughter, including rotating the holidays and nothing else.

"You're out of your mind," I said. "This is worse than the offers Rick's lawyers made. In his offers, I got Katrina and he got visitation. Plus he offered me the same money and for five years. I'd have to be a moron to sign this."

"You're missing something," she said smiling. "The card..."

I looked and noticed that stapled to the first page was a small orange card. I looked at it more closely and noticed that it was a "Get out of Jail free," card from a Monopoly game.

I didn't understand the relevance of the card. As I looked at her, she just smiled.

"You'll figure it out," she said. She looked at her watch. "Danielle, please excuse me for a moment. She pulled out her phone and made a call. Her face revealed nothing as she spoke but a smile that lit up her face like Christmas told me that she was happy about something.

She looked at me and tilted her head as if trying to decide whether or not to tell me something.

"The surgery went very well," she said. "He'll probably have a cast over his leg for about six weeks, but with therapy he'll have no loss of function in his leg. The pin they put in is made of carbon fiber so he'll even be able to go through metal detectors."

She got up and went up the stairs. A few minutes later, she and my daughter came down the stairs. "Mommy, I'm going to ride on a plane and visit daddy. Then I'm going to stay with him for a while. I miss my daddy."