Mercy

"Ma'am," the smarter one offered, nodding his head. "Does... anyone need anything?"

"Yes," she told him quickly, pulling him away from the other officers hurrying by. "Keen sent me. Told me to remind you of what he told you about doing anything I asked of you as if it were from his lips."

"You running from him?" the other guy asked, crossing his arms.

"Not at all," she lied, shaking her head, "but also sort of. I'm not even sure what is happening, all I know is apparently I offended someone, a guy named Rolfe Hassan?"

"Shit," smarter guy breathed, his eyes wide.

"Yeah, basically," Mercy agreed quickly. "So Keen is slipping me out of town early to wait for him on our honeymoon. Right now Rolfe thinks I'm with Keen and he's trying to get to me. He told me to get here to you and to tell you that you need to get me on the first plane to Ireland. Like, immediately, right now."

"We should call Keen," the other guy glowered.

"Rolfe has been trying to move in on Keen and he's had him wired for a while. Keen doesn't have a new phone yet, he said he'll get you his new number as soon as he has one. This is more important right now."

"How do we know you aren't lying to us?" smart guy demanded.

"Would I have come to you, his people, if I were just running? He TOLD me to come to you and that you would see me safe without fucking it up. You can call him, but if Rolfe is still listening and he finds out I'm not with Keen from you, Keen will be pissed and you know it! It's not like you can't tell him exactly where you sent me when he does reach out to you, right? This is nuts, quit wasting time and let's go! I don't want to be dismembered by that giant ape!"

"Fuck," smart guy grumbled. "Let's get you to the airport. Monroe, call Deluca, tell him to get a ticket for her right away. What's your name, girl?"

Mercy told him as she followed them out to the car and got in. As soon as she was sitting, she began opening her mail and sorting her ID and cards she'd had replaced from the wallet Keen had taken from her.

In 90 minutes, Mercy was on a plane to KC where she would catch her connecting flight. In 4 hours, she was boarding a plane to Ireland.

Stealthily, Mercy 'borrowed' the woman next to her phone and turned, texting her cousin quickly, telling her to meet her at the airport and not to use this number, it was a borrowed phone. After deleting the text, she dropped it back into the woman's purse as the woman snored softly.

She'd done it! She'd gotten away!

Not completely, not yet, but she was almost free. She knew Keen would hunt her down, but she wasn't going to give him the opportunity.

When she arrived, her cousin was waiting for her and extremely worried. Mercy smiled at her and told her everything was fine, she was going to go backpacking and see the sites that she'd always wanted to see.

"Come all this way and you won't even come meet your family?" her cousin teased.

"I do want to meet Colleen," Mercy told her quickly. "Can we go there now?"

Colleen was excited to meet her, even more excited when Mercy handed over her cards and ID and told Colleen to go have all the fun she wanted with the money left on them, but to throw them away after 3 days. In exchange, Mercy wanted to borrow Colleen's ID's.

Colleen was 7 inches taller, but they looked a lot alike, so it would probably work.

Finding a pair of heels before she went back to the airport, she had no issues getting a ticket with Colleen's ID's and the cash she'd withdrawn from her own accounts. In the airport, she borrowed a phone again and logged into her work account, then sent Derren an email.

'Derren, FWD this to Keen immediately -

I am gone, do not look for me, do not follow me, I am not coming back. You can't just steal a girl and expect her to fall in line. Just be happy knowing I am out in the world and safe, your luck will hold and be just fine so long as you don't try and hunt me down. I will find happiness and your luck, your business, will thrive so long as I am happy, right? So let me be happy. It's all I want, to be left alone. If you try and come after me I will know it and I will take off again and again, I know how to disappear and I will keep doing it as long as I need to. Just leave me alone and forget about me. Your luck doesn't need to be in your possession for it to work and I deserve to be able to live my own life. I don't care for you, Keen, I never did. All I wanted was away from you and I was waiting for the chance. Remember that I have access to everything and one keystroke will send all your information to 50 different agents all over the U.S. You can't have all of them in your pockets, you WILL be taken down by one if not all of them. Just let me go, Keen. Forget you ever saw me that day. It was an April Fools fluke, a prank gone very wrong. Forget me, I've already forgotten you. -Mercy'

She hit send and logged out, then cleared the history before turning the phone in to lost and found.

By the next day, Mercy felt safe enough to take a breath.

She'd chosen on a whim at the airport, looking over the flights and picked one at random.

When she arrived, she knew no one, had no idea where to go or what to do, but she felt safe. Anonymous. No one was looking for her here.

Going to a bank, she exchanged some of her money, then started finding her way around and learning about this place.

It took a full week before she started feeling even remotely comfortable, but it helped that almost everyone also spoke English and they were all so nice.

Still, she didn't stay too long, using cash and her cousin's ID when needed to take a bus to another country. She did that a few times, taking off after a week of exploring.

Finally, Mercy settled in a sleepy little village that was a few decades behind the rest of the world. She loved it.

She got an easy job and the morning she woke up in her new little apartment in her new home instead of a hotel, she felt sick. At first she assumed it was nerves, deciding to settle and stop running, but after the fourth day, she realized it wasn't nerves.

Feeling dread well up, she went and got a pregnancy test on her way to work, then hid in the little bathroom in the back for five minutes.

"Mercy? Are you unwell?" her boss asked her through the door.

He was a nice older man and he said she reminded her of his daughters, all married and moved away now. She knew he suspected she was running or hiding from someone and he said he was happy to hire her and pay her without the paperwork.

"Fine," she answered faintly, staring in horror at the second pink line.

Pregnant.

What the hell was she going to do now?!?

"I'll be right out! I... do you need in here?"

"No... no, you just looked a bit peeked when you came through. If you need to run along home, you can. I can manage."

"I'll be right out!" she promised him, then got up and washed her hands, trying to think.

When she came out, she knew she still looked spooked and the old man watched her warily.

"Joe... is there a place around here... a doctors office or something where... a girl can go if she's pregnant?" Mercy asked the old man softly.

Joe's face went sad and understanding as he patted her shoulder gently. "Course there is. I'll get you the telephone number so you can ring them first thing come Monday."

"Thanks," she whispered, then hurried out to keep herself busy taking orders and bringing people their drinks.

The 'doctor' was a lady who worked out of her home and Mercy knew immediately that Joe had misunderstood her. The woman was a midwife and she helped women have babies, not get rid of unwanted pregnancies. Mercy stressed and worried over it, wondering what to do, too embarrassed to ask Joe where she could find someone who could help her. Pauline wanted to help, but she wanted to keep her healthy and happy through the pregnancy and deliver the baby. Mercy had been too horrified to tell her she was looking for someone to help her with an abortion.

As the weeks slipped by, Mercy knew she was passively allowing it to happen and therefore making a choice by ignoring it. She also knew she couldn't bear to go through with trying to end it. She didn't have it in her.

By four months, she was showing. By six months she felt ponderously huge.

What surprised her most about it, was the number of local men who seemed to want to help her out. It never failed that a new man came into the pub and after a few visits inevitably asked her about the father when she didn't wear a ring. As soon as they discovered she was single and expecting, they all seemed to think she needed to be married straight away and they were just the man to take care of her.

She didn't really understand that mindset, even if they were all sweet and gentlemen about it.

The day came when a man came in acting a bit cold to her and he never asked about her at all. He was the first and she knew it was vain, but he made her extremely uncomfortable in his indifference. They ALWAYS asked. Always. This man did not, he only sat back in a corner and tapped away on his phone. That was something else different about him, most people here didn't bother with modern technology, it was a farm town and they did things the old ways. They had cell phones, but they were for making calls, not texting or looking on the internet. Most people here didn't even have internet. That was for the bigger cities. The people out in the world who hated being happy. Mercy had loved that they held themselves apart from the world and lived in a more carefree and close knit way. There were always tourists and backpackers coming through and staying at the hostels, but they never stayed long. They thought the town nice for a few weeks, but they all wanted to go back to where modern conveniences ruled their lives.

Mercy was liking the giant step back. Walking to work every day, not needing a cell phone, knowing everyone's name, knowing all of her neighbors. It was nice. She was really starting to love it here.

This new man though, this tourist who was 'passing through', she didn't like him. He made her nervous and Mercy was a little afraid Keen had found her, sent the man to make sure it was her. He didn't look like someone who worked for Keen, he looked more like he worked for Rolfe, but that meant little in their world.

Mercy knew all she had to do was tell Joe she was afraid of the man and the man would never be allowed back, but she waited. Watched. She stayed careful.

Another month passed and the man stayed, coming every day now with his laptop. He told Joe he was a writer and the town had inspired him. He was writing a novel about the sleepy little village living out of time.

He talked to Joe all the time, but Mercy never struck up conversation with him and he never spoke to her either. She refilled his drinks, brought his orders out, but he never even looked at her.

Maybe he just hated women? Maybe it had nothing to do with Keen.

Still, Mercy worried. She felt a little trapped now that she was so close to her due date. She couldn't really travel now, she needed familiar things around her and she trusted her friends here.

She HAD to be reading too much into the lone man. If he was Keen's man, Keen would have shown up already to drag her back, or the man would have tried to take her back. Something. Not just come in every day and ignore her.

Her son was born 3 weeks early and Mercy wondered why she had ever dreamt of not keeping him. He was perfect, every tiny inch of him.

Joe let her have all the time she needed off work, but she didn't need much. Things were different here and she swaddled her baby, wrapping him in a sling to secure him close to her as she worked.

He was perfect and Joe didn't mind at all when she stepped in the back to feed him and take care of him.

It wasn't odd to anyone that she worked with her baby snuggled to her chest, her hands free. Everyone wanted to see him and hold him and tell her how beautiful he was.

The only person who never looked twice at her son was the man writing his novel. Joe called him Mikkael, and he was still there in his corner booth, all day every day. Mercy still didn't like the man, even if he did tip her well.

It was early February when a new man showed up in the village. He was a little older in his mid 30's and tall and he had a smile that made you want to smile with him.

Mercy warmed to him immediately as he grinned at her and sat down. His third day in, he asked to hold her son and she let him. "He's a lovely little chap, isn't he?" the man asked with his smile. "Must look like his father though, doesn't he?"

"He does," Mercy agreed, blushing.

"Mind if I ask about him? His father? He must work as hard as you since you always have the lad here with you?"

"Oh... his fathers not in the picture," Mercy told him quickly.

"Shame, that... you're from the States, right?"

"Yeah," she faltered, feeling nervous. She hated answering questions about herself.

"His father back there still, then?" the man asked, his tone hopeful. "You don't keep in touch, or... anything?"

"Yeah, his dad... he doesn't know about him. I left and did a little European tour before ending here, Everett and I."

"Everett? There's a lovely name, init? Hello there little man, lovely to meet you old boy. My name is Ishmael, but I'm not much of a fisherman. Don't even much like whale's at all anymore actually, sort of done hearing about it? You'll understand that someday," he chuckled. "Most folks just call me Sam. You suppose you might be keen on introducing your mother?"

Mercy smiled, shaking her head as she blushed. "Mercy," she told him softly. "Be right back," she offered, going to clear off a table, then hurrying back as she watched Sam with Everett.

"Not a common name," Sam volunteered when she got close.

"It was my fathers name," she told him, looking down at Everett. He was sleeping, a tiny hand clutching Sam's pinky finger.

"I meant 'Mercy', but that too. What will you call him?"

"My dad went by Rett, I guess he will too someday. Do you want me to take him..."

"If it's all the same, I don't mind holdin' him?"

"Do you have kids, Sam?" she asked, moving around the bar to wash a few dishes.

"No... I was supposed to once upon a time, but it didn't happen," he spoke sadly, looking down at Everett with a sad little smile.

"Bad breakup?" Mercy asked idly, used to hearing men talking about breakups and exes.

"No. No, nothing like that. I was married once and we both wanted kids badly. Tried for a couple of years, then she got sick... a week later she was gone. I started traveling after that. Seeing what there was to see in the world."

"Sorry to hear that," Mercy offered, feeling bad for him. "What landed you here?"

"Passing though... Can I be truthful, Miss Mercy?"

"Of course."

"I meant to only stay the night, but then I saw you and thought maybe another day might not hurt. Then another and another. It was my hope that maybe you weren't married since you weren't wearing a ring... and my further hope that maybe if I asked you might like to step out with me?"

"Step out with you?"

"A date."

Mercy blushed furiously as she bit her lower lip and tried not to grin. She didn't even care that he had a decade on her, she liked him and his warm smiles and magnetic personality.

Finally, she turned to him, able to school her expression. "You... understand I'm not in a position to just..." she began as she climbed up on the tall stepstool so she could lean on the bar and see Everett.

"Of course I mean both of you," he spoke up. "I want to step out with you and Everett both. I know exactly what I am asking, Miss Mercy, and I am not just passing time. I... want to know you. And I hope you'd like to know me as well?"

Joe came out of the back, trying to hide a grin and Mercy knew he'd been eavesdropping. "Mercy, it's a slow day. Why don't you head on home?"

Mercy laughed as Joe shooed her out from behind the bar and Sam stood up, grinning. "I'm hoping this is a yes, then?" Sam asked hopefully as she took Everett and nestled him into the sling to hold close.

"Just south of the village on the old cart road is a creek," Joe offered. "Follow it west about half a mile and there's a waterfall, and..."

"It's a bit cold for that," Mercy told Joe, shaking her head.

"Mm. S'pose it is better in warmer weather. Still, it's pretty there, great place for a picnic and... special sorts of questions."

"Joe!" Mercy cried, horrified.

"How about just dinner down the road and perhaps we can talk back at the place where I am staying? Come to know each other?" Sam asked, not embarrassed at Joe's pushiness at all.

Mercy smiled up at Sam and took the arm he was offering. "See you tomorrow Joe, you old goat! Thank you. Sam, that sounds lovely, but if you don't mind, my place would be better. I have all I need there for Everett."

"Of course! I didn't want to presume, Miss Mercy!"

It was nice to sit down to a meal and talk to someone, really speak to them and not just listen because it was in her job description. The best part was that Sam didn't feel sorry for himself or tell her about all the bad things. He was so joyful and talked about the beautiful things he'd seen and done and the places he still wanted to go. It was refreshing to be around someone so incredibly positive and... good.

As she looked him over, she decided she liked his soulful blue eyes the most. He was handsome, but his eyes seemed to hold all of his contented happiness and she liked that a lot.

After she put Everett to bed, she sat down next to him on her couch and faced him, curling up.

"Tell me about you, Miss Mercy?" Sam asked softly. "Every time I ask you questions, you deflect or give vague answers. Are you running? Joe says he thinks you must be hiding from Everett's father."

"You talked to Joe about me?" she asked, her eyebrows high.

He didn't blush at being caught out, only nodded. "Yesterday evening when you went back to feed Everett. I asked all about you and he told me you showed up here before you knew you were pregnant and he knew you were trying to disappear. That he never asked why."

"You haven't really said what it is you do," Mercy told him, changing the subject.

"I was fortunate enough that I was born into good money. I went to University, met Connie and we married right after we graduated. I... don't actually DO anything, at the moment I'm just traveling. The closest I have come to any sort of trade is buying art. I love beautiful things and I collect art. I don't know why, I am rarely back home at all."

"Where's home?"

"Reading."

"You like to live in books?"

He gave her a smile then, looking her face over. "Reading, England. What about you, Miss Mercy? Where are you from?"

"The States," she told him with a shrug and a tight smile.

"Is Mercy your real name?"

"Yes."

"Mercy Covington?"

"Joe told you my last name?" she asked, surprised.

"Perhaps I asked around a bit and asked your landlady here," he told her, finally blushing.

"And I suppose you googled me too?" she asked, her face going red.

"I did... and not much came up. The full name on your lease... Colleen Josephine Covington does bring up a girl in Ireland, though. And the picture is very close, isn't it? I'm sorry, I know I overstepped, Miss Mercy... I don't know why you're hiding but I don't care. I only want to help and... I truly want to know you. I know it wasn't my place to insert myself, but I'm a firm believer in being honest, so I will be honest. I looked into you and asked questions yesterday, both from Mrs Doering and Joe, and also Pauline who delivered Everett. Your neighbors all speak highly of you. They all have the same name from you... but that woman on that ID... she still lives in Ireland and she just married a man name of Ian Thorpe. She's also a good half a foot taller than you are at least. You aren't 5'5", you aren't even 5'. I won't say anything to anyone, your business is yours... but as I said, I aim to be honest with you and I am. I asked, and I know. I know your name may be Mercy, but it's not Colleen Covington."