literature

Strength of the People ch11

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"In every conceivable manner, the family is our link to our past, bridge to our future." -Alex Haley

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"..happy birthday, dear Ashley, happy birthday to you!" The chorus of voices chanted as the now two year old Ashley Abner blew out her candles. When the two flames were extinguished, the assembled family members cheered.

Nicholas put down his video camera and started cutting his homemade creation, a work of art, really. Two layers of chocolate cake, with fudge in the middle, and chocolate frosting with roses made of frosting. Sandra's mouth was watering just looking at it. He distributed pieces to all the guests, and they all started eating it. It was just as delicious as it looked.

Sandra looked around at all the assembled guests, both Nicholas' mom and sisters, Sandra's parents and brothers, a few of Ashley's classmates and their parents, and smiled. It had been a great day. Spencer had been by a while ago to do some "physics magic" for the kids. They loved it. So had the parents, come to think of it. Sadly though, Spencer had to go early-- something about a phone call he'd received from Abby after his show was over.

Hopefully, they're all right... Sandra thought, munching on her slice of cake. Yum, this is good!

Like her mother, Ashley had a soft spot for chocolate. When asked what kind of cake she wanted, Ashley had simply grinned, exclaiming, "Coco!"

Sandra and Nicholas had had a minorly heated discussion over the ornate-ness of Ashley's cake. It was a stupid one, now that Sandra thought back to it. Something about "It's only her second birthday! We don't need a fancy cake!" and "But it's a great time to try out my new recipe!". Sandra had relented though, because she wanted to try it as much as Nicholas wanted to make it.

He sidled up to her from behind, and whispered huskily in her ear, "How is it?"

It sent shivers down her spine as he did. He knew it too. He grinned coyly and bit Sandra gently on the ear. She hit him away halfheartedly. "Stooooop it! There are children present!"

"So we can go upstairs!"

"But they need us down here!" It was almost useless to resist his charms. She walked (stumbled) away, turning her head around to face him, and walking right into her mother as she did so. "I'm sorry, Mom!"

Joanne Abner, a sixty six year old writer, had recognized the signs just from Nicholas' voice. "You know, if you need to go upstairs, Patrick, Anna and I can handle things here."

Nicholas smiled. "Thank you, Joanne!" He picked Sandra up, and walked away, up the stairs. Joanne smiled knowingly at the passing couple. "You're quite welcome."

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Sandra woke up later. She glanced at the clock. It was about nine in the evening. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. Seeing that she was still wearing her clothes, sweat pants and a t-shirt, Sandra got out of bed and padded downstairs. The living room was almost empty. It's only occupants were family. Ashley was there, dozing on the couch, next to Aaron, resting his head in Nicholas' lap. Joanne and Patrick were sitting on the couch, next to Renee and Sadie (Nicholas' sisters). Nick and Will, Sandra's brothers, were on some chairs and Anna, Nicholas' mother, was in the kitchen, fixing some tea for everyone.

"You know, they work you too hard in Quantico, Sandy," said Will.

Sandra groaned. "Will, how many times must I ask you not to call me that?"

"At least once more, as always," laughed Will.

"And how many times will you two quote that god forsaken movie?" groaned Nick. "The rest of us are sick of it!"

"Speak for yourself," said Anna. "I happen to enjoy Pirates. Ooh, that Johnny Depp!"

"I dunno, Mum. I think Orlando Bloom rocks the pirate look better!" said Renee.

"What about this?" said Sadie. "We agree they're both good looking pirates and leave it!"

The three female Brits laughed. "Agreed."

"And anyway, aren't you engaged, Sadie?" asked Nick.

"No, but I know Andrew's going to ask soon. I saw the ring in his bag before we flew out," she replied.

"So how're things at the firm?" asked Joanne.

"Good. We're getting a lot of business from Pippa Middleton, actually. She hired a team of lawyers because the paparazzi are driving her insane. Can't say I blame her, but then again, if your sister marries the prince, you've got to expect to share some of the spot light," said Anna. "I'm actually on the team she hired. There are four of us."

Ashley stirred in her sleep. Aaron turned and fell off the couch. He rubbed his elbow grumpily.

"I'll go put the two of them to bed," said Anna, picking Ashley up. "Aaron, come with me." The six year old obediently followed his grandmother upstairs.

Sandra randomly felt a jolt and turned around to face the yard. The movement was impossible to miss.

"Is everything all right?" asked Nicholas, concerned.

Sandra sat down again, head still turned. She tried to shake the feeling. "Yeah. Yeah, it's fine," sounding much more certain than she felt.

Sandra was spared the need to say anything more as Anna came back down the stairs. "They're both fast asleep, little dears."

"Oh good," said Sandra, rising. "Why don't we get some wine?"

"Let me help you with that," said Nicholas, also rising.

They went into the kitchen, searching for some glasses and some good wine, not the kind Nicholas liked to cook with. In a low voice, he asked, "Seriously, is something wrong?"

"Everything's fine, Nicholas."

"You don't need to be a profiler to see that something's bothering you."

Sandra sighed. "Am I that obvious?"

Nicholas' look said it all.

"We'll talk later, ok? When everyone's gone."

"You know that'll be hard. Mum's staying here with Renee and Sadie." They gathered the glasses in their hands. Nicholas grabbed the wine.

"Where are they sleeping anyway? We've only got one guest room," said Sandra, turning off the lights with her elbow.

"Mum has the bed room, Sadie and Renee have the couch, remember?"

"Right, I totally knew that," said Sandra. They set the glasses down on the table and poured the wine. Sandra's phone rang. "Hang on a sec." She picked it up. "Abner." She listened for a while. "Yeah, ok. Got it. See you." She hung up. "I have to go in early tomorrow, so I'm going to head to bed now."

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The next morning was Monday. Knowing Sandra had to go in to work a little earlier today, at seven thirty as opposed to eight, Nicholas got up a little earlier to make her a good breakfast with the family-- her favorite, chocolate chip pancakes, bacon and eggs with her favorite coffee.

She woke up at her usual six, showered and was dressed by six twenty. She came downstairs, to find Sadie, Renee and Anna already at the table, Nicholas standing at the stove.

"Morning everyone," said Sandra, kissing Nicholas.

"So why do you have to go in earlier?" asked Anna.

"I'm not sure. My supervisor asked the whole team to, and he hasn't done that in a while. Not since Ashley Seaver died, anyway."

"Who's that?" asked Sadie.

"A former teammate. She'd only been a full agent for about three months," said Sandra.

"So he calls you in when there's something serious going on?" asked Renee.

Nicholas sat a plate and cup in front of Sandra. "Eat up."

She did, eating with gusto. "Yeah. And from the call I got last night, it sounds really serious."

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And indeed it was. When Sandra got to the BAU a little before she needed to be there, Hotch pointed everyone to the conference room. Sandra dropped her bag off at her desk and hurried over. She sat down and Hotch gave Garcia the green light to start the briefing.

"Some pretty serious shit is going down. San Francisco has requested our help," began Garcia. She cringed as she put up the crime scene photos.

Everyone present showed some form of revulsion. Sandra was close to throwing up, but tried not to show it.

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"The mark of our time is its revulsion against imposed patterns." –Marshall McLuhan
My apologies for the delay. I've had a lot of stuff going on right now. But I decided to power through and write this before my birthday on Friday! So happy birthday to me! *celebrate* Anyway. This one should be good. I hope you enjoyed it!

I know it’s been a while, but I’m looking forward to writing the next chapters!
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