Flight Risk

Capitulo Uno

Picture of Trinity --------------------------------->

Earlier That Morning

Kristy shook me awake like she did almost every morning, "Wake up sweetie. I'm finally home from my shift."

"Seven a.m. comes earlier and earlier," I mumbled, rolling over.

"Yeah well, five p.m. comes earlier and earlier," she replied sleepily.

"How was work?"

"Uneventful, unless you count the gentleman who requested that I give him a sponge bath," I heard her grumble from the bathroom down the hall.

That thought was enough to wake me up. "Seriously?" I laughed as I rolled out of bed to pick out my clothes for the day.

"Yes 'seriously'. Of course I told him 'no' on the account that he was a fully functioning asthmatic whose only complaint that evening was shortness of breath. People these days..." She trailed off for a moment and I thought she was too busy brushing her teeth, but it turned out she was making her way back to my room again to lean in the doorway. "Sam called."

My hand froze in my closet, but beside that I had to give myself props for not reacting otherwise.

"Oh? Sam always calls you. Every week. Like clockwork. Why do you sound so shell shocked?"

"Trini, he says he's coming home."

I turned around to face the woman who had been like a mother to me since the incident that had changed the dynamics of her family and mine all those years ago. Her dirty blonde hair was pulled into a messy bun and her work scrubs were stained and wrinkled. She looked absolutely worn out, but that was normal after one of her 12 hour graveyard shifts as a nurse at the hospital. What wasn't normal were the stress lines on her forehead and around her pursed lips. I immediately stopped getting ready for work and went to her. It saddened me to see her like this, on the verge of tears. Things had been rough for a while now, but together we had made it through.

"Don't cry." I murmured into her hair as I hugged her.

"He's coming home, Trini; my boy is finally coming home."

We stood there embracing for a few moments before I pulled back and gave her a smile. "You must be exhausted. Go to sleep. I'll wake up the boys and drop Clarissa off at school." She looked like she was about the protest when I asked, "Did Sam say when he'd be back?"

"That's the thing. He was calling from the airport. He'll be here this afternoon."

I could feel the butterflies of anxiety and anticipation fluttering in my stomach. How would the events of our past affect the events our near future? Would he ignore me? Hate me? Or even worse, could he have forgotten me?

Pushing her toward the stairs that led to her room, I bid her good night, or good morning, depending on how you looked at it, and then made my way toward her son Andrew's room. I gave a brisk knock on the door, just in case he was already awake. When I got no response, I opened the door without so much as a by your leave.

Sprawled out on the bed was Andy, the spitting image of his older brother back when he was only eighteen.

"Get up doofus." I said after hitting him with a pillow that he'd most likely kicked off onto the floor.

"You're a real charmer first thing in the morning, ya know that?" He complained.

"I know. Go wake up the Ty and the twins. Your mom is getting some much needed rest so I'm taking your sister to school on my way to work. We need to have a quick family meeting in the kitchen in twenty minutes so get up, up, up!"

"Yeah, yeah." I heard him say as I left the room to wake up Clarissa.

I let myself into the room two doors down and padded quietly over to the thirteen year old girl that slept there. She looked so much like her father even with her mother's blonde hair and blue eyes. If he could see her today, he'd be so proud, because his little girl was growing up. My little sister would've been about her age, I thought sadly.

"Rissa," I whispered as I shook her gently. "Wake up sleepy head."

"I don't wanna wake up!" She whined.

"You already did." I quipped. "Hurry up and get ready. I told Andy to tell the boys we have a family meeting in twenty minutes."

"Is something wrong?" With sleep rumpled hair and one eye still closed she sat up, clearly alarmed.

"Everything's fine. Now get ready; I'm taking you to school today so your mom can get some shut eye."

"Sweet!" She chirped in her high sing-song voice, before I left to get ready.

Twenty minutes later the entire Evans brood was huddling together in the kitchen.

"What do you think it could be about?" One of the twins said. I'm almost positive that it was Danny.

"Maybe she heard about how you and Kelsie...you know?" A very similar voice whispered back that by the process of elimination had to be Jake.

Dang I'm good, I thought to myself, now completely sure that I had guessed correctly. Danny and Kelsie might as well have been joined at the hip; they were together that often.

"What did you and Kelsie do?" I questioned authoritatively.

"Nothing!" Danny replied too quickly.

I narrowed my eyes at him and motioned with two fingers that I was watching him. Fortunately for him, we had something else to discuss and only a short amount of time before I had to leave for work since I had an extra stop to make this morning.

"I thought you guys should know that your brother's coming back."

Excited chatter erupted amongst them the moment the words "brother" left my lips. Only Andy stood apart from them, a pensive look on his face. "Sam's coming back? When?" He asked.

"Sometime today."

Clarissa squealed in delight. "It feels like forever since I've seen him!"

"Probably because it has been." Andy interjected tonelessly.

I gave him a look and happened to see the time displayed behind him.

"I just wanted to give you guys a heads up and I was supposed to leave like five minutes ago guys, so... Come on Rissa!"

She picked her backpack up off the table and we rushed to my 2006 black Jeep Wrangler, the wind blowing our hair every which way. Buckling up, I put the key in the ignition and turned to Rissa when she didn't do the same.

"Buckle up before I beat you like a red-headed stepchild."

"Okay," she giggled.

No sooner had she done as I asked then we were off.

We were almost to her school when she said, "Andy didn't seem too happy this morning."

"He didn't, did he? Well I wouldn't worry about it too much; I'm sure he's happy deep down. I know for a fact that he misses your brother."

"It's been two years since he last visited, but it seems like longer. When's the last time you saw Sam?"

"Seven years," I responded without hesitation. "Well this is your stop kiddo. Here's five bucks for lunch."

"Thanks Trini. Love you!" She gave me a quick hug and shot out the door to go and meet her friends that were waiting outside the door to the building that doubled for the elementary and junior high.

"Love you too." I replied to the empty space she once occupied.

The wind was howling and it had already begun sprinkling when I parked my Jeep in front of Cup O' Joe's.  I unlocked the front door and settled into the routine that was as easy as breathing to me. No one would willingly brave weather like this except for Mrs. Rodgers, who came here without fail, rain or snow. Since that wasn't for another 45 minutes, I took my time and then made myself comfortable so I could fully enjoy Nature's stormy splendor.

 **Dedicated to XxSummer-leafZx who supported this story when it was still just an idea