Book I: The Others - Chapter 8 - An Ending (Part 1)

It really was a good day for a funeral. The sun was shining and a cool breeze blew through the trees. Every so often a shadow of an afternoon cloud would scud across the cemetery keeping the gathered mourners cool in their dark clothing.

A large bouquet of flowers and a photograph of the deceased sat atop the single casket. Only a few people gathered around the grave as the priest closed the ceremony.

“... and the blessing of God almighty," he prayed, "the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.” The priest raised his head from the prayer and nodded to Jessica.

Holding Mac’s hand, with tears streaming down her small cheeks, she walked forward to place a single rose upon her mother’s coffin. Mac followed suit, and they both walked away to a waiting car. Behind them came Bob Danann, who was accompanied by a woman and a boy about Jessica’s age. Linda Mason and her husband followed them, and finally Marcus O’Donovan came forward holding hands with Jaime, his receptionist and wife.

As the last mourner left, the coffin was lowered into the ground to reveal a dark marble headstone:

Catherine Seamus Lochbairn-Connely
B. February 14, 2006
D. June 23, 2041
Beloved Mother and Wife

The television screen went black as Jessica stopped the recording of the funeral.

“You see how good I was?” She was very proud of herself. “I didn’t forget anything.”
She sat in a chair next to a hospital bed.

“Yes, you did very well. I’m so proud of you.” The woman in the bed held her arms out toward the little girl. “Come up here and give your mum a hug.”

Jessica jumped up from the chair and jostled the bed a little when she climbed on.

“Gently dear. Momma still hurts a little.” Catherine, enfolding Jesse in her arms, held her daughter for a long time thinking about all that had happened in the last few weeks.

When she woke up for the first time after the shooting, the initial thing she noticed was the lack of feeling or more precisely the lack of sensation, and this, needless to say, scared the crap out of her.

She opened her eyes, but could only see out of the left one. It was enough to see that she was on her side in a hospital bed. She looked beyond the chrome safety bars and recognized the view out of the window ... she was in her own bedroom in the Danann building and the windows were darkened. In the shadows, she saw someone in a chair near the foot of the bed. It was Mac ... sound asleep with his head tilted back, mouth open. He looked like he ought to be snoring but she couldn’t hear anything. She tried to turn onto her back but she couldn’t move.

“This just gets better and better,” she whispered. She couldn’t hear the sound of her own voice. Not even on the inside.

She wasn’t sure what was happening. She spoke up hoping that it was loud enough for Mac to hear. “Mac!”

His head snapped up so quickly he nearly fell out of his chair. After he regained his equilibrium, he saw her staring him ... with tears of fear in her eyes.

He gave her a reassuring smile that almost made her feel reassured. He started to say something, but all she saw was his lips moving.

“Mac, I can’t hear what you're saying!” She was probably screaming, but at this point she didn’t care. “I can’t feel anything! What’s going on?”

Mac, looked confused for a second then held up his hand, signaling for her to wait. He then walked around the bed out of her field of view.

She sensed some movement, and then she saw that she was being rotated onto her back. Mac came into view at the head of the bed. He held a control pad in his hands.

He tapped the pad a couple times, and the bed changed shape, bringing her to a semi-sitting position. He tapped the pad a couple more times and, looking at her, began talking while slowly sliding his finger from the bottom of the display toward the top.

As she watched his finger move, she slowly began to hear him speaking to her.

“... slowly removing the aural block. Just let me know if you can hear me ... Catherine, can you hear me?”

“Yes! Yes, loud and clear thank God.” She breathed a sign of relief. “I don’t suppose you can restore the feeling in the other parts of me?”

“Well, we’ll have to let the doctors look at you and make sure you’re able to handle it.”

“Handle it? Handle what? Mac, just level with me, what’s my condition? The last thing I remember is ...” She look puzzled for a moment. “The last thing I remember is ... running out of here to go find Conner ... Then I was at that pub where he hung out ... I followed him into the alley ...” She paused again struggling to put the fragments of her memories back together.

“Catherine, don’t force yourself. They’ll come in their own time. Just rest, and devote your energy to getting ...”

Catherine’s eyes snapped up to meet Mac’s, and he could feel the mental energy of her realization and see the tears beginning to well up. “Oh my God, Mac! He remembered me ... and Jesse. He knew me, Mac. He remembered ...” She started breathing heavily, becoming seriously distressed. “Mac, he remembered, and then they ... “ She let out a gut wrenching sob. “They killed him, Mac! They killed him!”

Catherine broke down, sobbing uncontrollably. Mac couldn’t stand it any longer. He manipulated the control pad again. “Catherine you need to rest now ...” Catherine’s puffy eyes began to droop.Mac went over to her, tenderly moved the hair out of her eyes and brushed the tears from her face with his thumb. Just before she finally fell asleep, he whispered, “You’re wrong about one thing ... they killed both of you.”

Chapt. 8 - An Ending (Part 2)