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Realigning Destiny
By TT

Sometimes chance intervenes in our lives and causes destiny jumps the tracks. When this happens, fate steps in and realigns destiny’s course to bring us to where we need to be. But, as with the course of true love, the road of realignment doesn’t always run smooth.

Part 31 - Paint

Stephanie looked in the back seat at her son. She was unable to keep the smile from her face as she watched him review the “battle plans” he, Ranger and Bob had worked out several days before.

Her smile faded slightly as she realized it had only been two days before that the four of them had sat down to dinner together. Things were moving so fast, almost too fast and she couldn’t shake the feeling they were missing something with regard to the research. She was also concerned about how the three of them – since there was no way she was going to let Ranger and Bob face this on their own – were going to take everyone down or prevent whatever was being planned.

Maybe they wouldn’t need to stop anything here, just report it and let the proper people stop it in Denver.

She shook her head, trying to dislodge those thoughts. Unfortunately, they hung on tenaciously. She knew it would be easier to stop them before they were organized, before they were ready to roll.

Allowing her mind to wander a bit, she tried to figure out how to do that and could only come up with the thought that more people would need to be brought into the situation.

That left her with a new set of worries. She was certain Ranger had contacts who had never met her, but she was also certain that he would want to work with on this situation should he and Bob decide to handle it themselves. Most likely one of those people would be Tank or someone else from the Trenton office – someone who knew her. That meant that they would know she was alive.

The mix of feelings that realization engendered within her was to turbulent to sort out entirely.

She could identify relief that her secret would be out and her running done. She felt anxiety at the thought of her reception. She felt fear at the thought of facing her friends and family after so long. She felt curiosity at how they would respond. She felt worry about how this would affect Charlie.

She felt so much more as questions swirled in her mind. Did she want to be found? Did she want to go back to her life in Trenton? Could she leave her life here behind? How would her friends here react to her situation? Even if she wanted to stay, would she be able to? Would she be welcome to? How would Charlie react to the whole situation? How would Ranger be as a father? How would Ranger react if she decided to stay in Montana? She wanted to be with Ranger, but that desire just opened a whole new slew of questions.

“Why can’t this be easy?” she whispered to herself. As if dealing with the group at the camp wasn’t hard enough.

“What, Mom?” Charlie asked.

“Nothing, kiddo,” she denied. “Just thinking too much and talking to myself.”

“No good ever comes of that,” Charlie said, trying to keep his voice serious, though the light teasing tone came through loud and clear.

Stephanie chuckled. “Watch it, Mister,” she cautioned, “Or you’ll be doing dishes for a week!”

“Mo-om,” Charlie whined.

Stephanie could almost hear him rolling his eyes.

“I’m already doing dishes all week,” Charlie reminded.

“And you could do them all next week, too,” she teased.

Charlie sighed and shook his head and returned his attention to his battle plans.

As she turned onto the road leading to her friend's house, she announced, “We're almost there, Charlie. Do you have plans today?”

“Just going to finish our battles. We kind of got distracted yesterday when his grandmother brought by a new video game.”

Stephanie shifted in her seat and glanced back at her son. She wasn't really a fan of video games and thought Charlie would do better to stay outside and enjoy the warm weather while it lasted. Not to mention the fact that she wasn't sure she entirely trusted popular games. “What was it?” she asked, worried it might be a first person shooter or something similar.

“It's an old game, she got it on sale, but it's lots of fun. It's called 'Tetris',” Charlie informed excitedly.

A smile spread across Stephanie's face. That was a game she knew well, having played it when bored at work. “That is a good one,” she agreed. Shifting the car into park, she added, “We're here.”

Charlie looked out the window and quickly undid his seatbelt and jumped out of the SUV.

Stephanie watched as he took off running toward the house. He hadn't gotten more than halfway there when the front door crashed open and Foxx came running out to meet him before the two ran toward the back of the house to play. She was unable to stop the smile and laughter with which her son's exuberance filled her.

Seeing Mandy come to the front door of the house and wave, Stephanie smiled and waved back. They had been doing this for a few years now. Mandy always objected to the thought of getting paid, but Stephanie had found other ways to take care of her friend, not just by taking Foxx into her home when Mandy had to work late or had a date, but she had worked out a deal with several store owners in town where she would give them a certain amount of money toward Mandy's expenses. Stephanie knew that there were some months when Mandy didn't pay a single cent for groceries.

The two women never discussed it, but, knowing how hard it could be to be a single mother, especially one whose job didn't pay nearly as well as that of deputy, both women felt comfortable with the silent arrangement.

Pulling out of the drive, Stephanie headed toward the sheriff's office to start her shift.

It wasn't long before she was parked and entered the building.

Glancing at the clock, she could see she was a little early, but knew there would be more than enough for her to do. Today was also one of the days she would need to stop by the gun range for practice, but that would have to wait until her shift here was completed.

Taking in the small room, she saw that Jed was in his office. It looked like old Mr. Slater was in there with him. From the looks of things, he wasn't happy about something.

It only took Jed a moment to notice her in the outer room. He excused himself from the conversation and left his office to meet her.

“What's up with Mr. Slater?” she asked.

“Loosey boys pained the side of his barn again,” the sheriff answered, running a hand through his hair.

Stephanie chuckled softly. “What did they paint this time?” she asked.

Jed grinned and laughed softly. “A train tunnel and tracks,” he answered.

Nearly choking on the laughter she was holding back, Stephanie asked, “Like from a cartoon.”

“Yep. And Mr. Slater is pretty upset over it too. He's demanding justice,” Jed answered, his eyes twinkling.

A small groan escaped Stephanie as she noticed the twinkle in the sheriff's eyes. “And I have to go out and fetch them back,” she guessed.

“Yep,” Jed answered. “Unless, of course, you'd rather try to calm Mr. Slater down.”

Stephanie's eyes widened in horror at the thought. “No, no. That's quite all right. I'll bring them right back. Just let me get keys to one of the cruisers,” she babbled, already walking away, ignoring Jed's laughter.

Grabbing the keys, she hurried out the door before Jed could change his mind.

Slipping behind the wheel of the car, she quickly turned it on and pulled out, heading toward the Loosey farm.

This wasn't the first time Brad and Chad Loosey had painted Mr. Slater's barn. It was, in fact, a fairly common occurrence. It seemed to happen most often when they were bored.

While any act of vandalism is not to be tolerated, the pictures they chose to paint were frequently humorous and sometimes breathtaking. Both boys had amazing artistic talent.

Of course, their punishment for painting Mr. Slater's or any other person's property was usually to have them paint the entire building – something the boys seemed to enjoy.

Mr and Mrs. Loosey, Ed and Louise, had long ago accepted their son's peculiarity. They were respectable people and had raised their boys well. Both Brad and Chad were aware that what they were doing was wrong and was breaking the law, but, after a few months, it just didn't seem to matter to them. When that happened, another complaint would be filed.

Of course, there had been a few people who enjoyed what they had painted and for those people, the boys had gone back of their own accord about a month later and painted over their works of art.

To Stephanie, it was just one more thing that made this small town home.

Pulling up in front of the house, Stephanie barely had time to shift the car into park before Louise Loosey was backing out the front door carrying a tray of lemonade and cookies.

“Morning, Mrs. Loosey,” Stephanie greeted.

“Morning, Deputy,” she returned.

The two women got along very well and called each other by first name when they met in town or at social events, but, when it was official reasons that brought them together, they fell back into a more formal mode of address.

Approaching the house, Stephanie settled into the familiar chair opposite Mrs. Loosey and thanked her as the other woman handed her a glass of lemonade.

“Who was it this time?” Louise asked, sounding more tired than upset.

“Mr. Slater,” Stephanie informed taking one of the cookies from the plate. “Side of his barn.”

A sigh escaped Mrs. Loosey as she contemplated that information. “I told those boys to stop so many times even I'm tired of hearing it. Of course, they should know better than to bother old Mr. Slater. Man has absolutely no sense of humor.” She selected a cookie of her own, taking time to bite, chew and swallow before asking her question. “He decided on the punishment?”

Stephanie blew out a breath and looked out at the countryside. “The sheriff was talking to Mr. Slater when I left.” Turning to look at her friend, she added, “I'm here to bring the boys back in with me. Will you have time to follow along so they can get back home?”

“Sure enough,” Louise assured. “The boys are out with their father working, they should be back shortly. I called them when I saw you coming up the drive.”

With a smile of appreciation, Stephanie nodded her head in acceptance. “So, anything new with you?” she asked, honestly curious. Both Ed and Louise came from large families and hearing about the myriad of siblings, in-laws, nieces, nephews, cousins, aunts and uncles always brought a smile to her face.

“Well,” Louise began, knowing how much her friend enjoyed such tales. “My cousin Minnie followed this man she met only a week before halfway across the country declaring him to be the love of her life. Of course, that lasted until the day they arrived at their destination. As soon as she stepped out of his car to go into his house, the man's neighbor came out and that was love. Needless to say, poor Minnie is still a mite confused about love and lust.”

Stephanie was laughing. This wasn't the first time Minnie had done something like this. The poor woman just seemed so clueless at times. Finally getting her giggles under control, she asked, “Did your brother Ray ever find a job?”

Louise nodded as she chewed on a bite of cookie. Once she'd swallowed she replied, “Just got a job at the US Mint. He said they had been going through a hiring cycle for the past eight months, so there are a lot of new people there.”

Whatever Mrs. Loosey said next was lost to Stephanie as that information registered. Ray lived in Denver and there was a US Mint in Denver. That wasn't surprising or startling, but hearing that there were a great deal of new people there was enough for her to begin to put pieces together. The picture she came up with seemed absurd to her, though. There was no way, even with many people inside, that the terrorists would be able to take over or rob or blow up or whatever their plans were. The US Mint, regardless of city, was on such tight security it would be impossible. And even if they did manage to take the building over, how would they ever remove the money?

No, it just didn't make sense that they would try to rob the Denver Mint. Still, all the recent hiring... Then again, the inside person on the job to steal the depleted uranium had worked that job for many years, so maybe she was making more out of the information than she should. Either way, Bob and Ranger would need to know.

The sound of a car on the road drew Stephanie's thoughts back to the present.

“There they are now,” Louise was just saying, standing and waving at her husband and sons.

Stephanie also stood and brushed her hands against her pants. She had some very important information to pass along to Ranger and Bob. She wouldn't be able to do that, though, until she got the Loosey boys and their situation handled.

Stepping off the porch, she waved a greeting at the new arrivals.

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