Free Natural Reaction by Terri Reid

“Yeah, but…”
    Mary knelt down in front of Andy, zipping up the front of his coat. “And if Maggie is a princess, it must mean that you are either a prince or a knight of the realm,” she said. “So, you could visit Ian’s castle too.”
    “For real?” Andy asked, pulling his cap over his ears.
    “Aye,” Ian said. “I’m sure I have a sword sitting around the place that’d suit you just fine.”
    “Cool!” Andy said, beaming at his sister. “You can get married to him and I’ll be the guard.”
    Maggie smiled, pulling her mittens on as Ian placed her hat on her head. “Kay.”
    The honk of the bus’ horn interrupted the conversation. “Come on, Maggie, let’s go.”
    “Bye!” they yelled as they ran out the front door.
    “Bye,” Mary and Ian called, collapsing into the kitchen chairs after the door closed.
    “So, are we going to be able to do a week of this?” Mary asked.
    Ian grinned. “Do we have a choice?”

Chapter Twelve

    Bradley sat down at his desk and looked at the mess surrounding him. During the time he’d spent out of the office watching over Mary, the paperwork seemed to have multiplied threefold. He started to sort the piles into priorities when the phone rang.
    “Chief Alden,” he said into the receiver.
    “Hey, it’s Sean.”
    Bradley sat back in his chair. “Hey, I’m sorry. I forgot to call you yesterday,” he said. “Mary’s out of the hospital. She came home yesterday.”
    “Yeah, she called me last night,” he said. “How’s she doing, really?”
    Bradley took a deep breath. “Well, physically she’s worn out, but other than that, she’s good. But she’s having some flashbacks.”
    “What kind of flashbacks?”
    Bradley ran his hand through his hair. “Rape flashbacks.”
    “What the hell?” Sean yelled. “She was raped? I should have let you kill the bastard. Never mind, I’ll kill him myself.”
    “Wait Sean, it’s not exactly what you think.”
    “How the hell can it not be what I think? She’s having rape flashbacks.”
    “Did you know about the hypnosis Ian performed on her?”
    “What?”
    “The only way they could help Jeannine recover her memory was to hypnotize her, but the only way they could do that was have Mary allow Jeannine to use her body to get hypnotized,” he explained. “So Mary lived through everything Jeannine experienced.”
    There was silence on the other end for a few moments. “When will she stop throwing herself in front of every bullet she sees?” he said quietly.
    Bradley sighed. “I’m hoping it’s when she becomes my wife.”
    “What the…,” Sean sputtered. “You actually asked her?”
    “Well, yeah I did,” Bradley admitted. “But she was still asleep.”
    Sean burst out laughing. “Oh, yeah, that’s the way to do it. Propose when she’s unconscious.”
    “It just slipped out,” he admitted. “It seemed like the thing to do at the time.”
    “So, did you ask her again? Now that she’s awake?”
    Bradley leaned forward and rested his head in his hand. “No, I haven’t. I want to give her some time to recover and…”
    “What?”
    “I want to ask your father permission for her hand in marriage.”
    “Hey, that’s nice.”
    “It’s what gentlemen do,” he said, his lips turned up in a smile.
    “Yeah, well, you tell me when and I’ll make sure all the O’Reilly men are present,” Sean said.
    “Thanks,” Bradley replied wryly. “Thanks a lot!”
    “No problem,” he teased.
    There was another pause, but this time when Sean spoke there was no laughter in his voice.
    “Bradley, actually I called because I got the judge’s order. We can exhume the body, I mean Jeannine, tomorrow.”
    Bradley’s breath caught in his throat and his stomach clenched. “Tomorrow?”
    “Yeah, well, we can put it off if you want.”
    He shook his head. “No, no, she’s waited long enough and I can’t search for the baby until we get her identity clarified,” he said. “I have just been so busy