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Description
The Treasure Hunters’ Tale

Chapter 1
Treasure in Plain Sight

“No, that’s not an option!” Ben said sternly a he paced with the phone in his hand.

“I am sorry, Dr. Gates.  The board of investors is leaving me no choice in the matter,” said the man on the other end of the phone.  Fritz Higgins was the curator of a museum in Dubai that specialized in biblical era artifacts.  A month ago, he had hired Will to go in search of the infamous mines of King Solomon, a feat that even his father and grandfather had not dared to attempt.  Eager to prove himself and use his newly acquired degree in archaeology, Will had accepted the challenge.  He wasn’t alone on this new expedition, either.  Abe, Meri, Jamie and even Cristina had tagged along for the ride.  Cristina, the lone woman on the journey, had wormed her way onto the expedition team by producing “Widget”, a terrestrial exploration robot that she had designed and proudly built from the ground up as part of her master’s program in robotics.  Widget was equipped with speaker and microphone equipment, cameras, agile all terrain wheels and two independently functioning arms with which to interact with the environment.  What really made Will agree to take Cris along was that Widget could be controlled from a remote interface—meaning that Cris could stay in the safety of a vehicle above ground and still control Widget and communicate with the boys.  Cris had pitched a fit over this, demanding that they not treat her like some pitiful damsel in distress, but in the end, as it usually goes with the Gates boys, Will won.  All of this whirled through Ben’s mind as he listened to the curator state his reasons for his unexpected decision.

“I’m not the one you’re going to owe an apology to,” Ben said.

“We lost contact with the research team three weeks ago,” Higgins continued.  “We have no choice but to declare the expedition a failure and the team lost…I am—whether you believe me or not—very sorry, Dr. Gates…I know...”

“You don’t know my boys,” Ben growled, slamming the phone down into its cradle.  Abigail was standing in the doorway of the study when Ben mopped a hand down his face and then turned to meet her gaze.  A fine tremor was making Abigail’s hands shake even as she clutched them in front of her and her knees were growing weaker with every second of her husband’s silence.

“Ben…” she murmured, “what’s happening?”  Ben crossed the room to the doorway and folded her into a hug.

“Where are my boys?” Abigail asked, her voice thickening with emotion.

“Higgins wants to declare the expedition lost,” Ben replied.  “It’s been three weeks since anyone’s heard from them.”

“Oh, God, Ben,” she whimpered softly, sniffling through tears that were falling against her will.  “What am I going to tell the girls?”  Will, Abe, and Meri’s pregnant wives had taken up residence with Ben and Abigail when the boys left town bound for the Middle East.  With their due dates so near, Will wouldn’t hear of them being alone while they were gone.  Charlotte had begged Meri not to go—her due date was to come first—but Will was his best friend and her twin brother, and he had joked that someone had to bring Will and Abe back in one piece.

“I don’t know, honey,” Ben said softly, holding her tightly and kissing the top of her head.  “All I know is that I have this gut feeling that they’re okay…that Higgins has really underestimated what Will can do.”

“I hope you’re right,” Abigail said just as softly through her tears.  “I really hope you’re right.”

* * *

“Cris? You still with us?” Abe teased, patting the robot’s little head.

“If you pet her one more time I’m going to use her little arm somewhere you’re not going to want it, Abe!” Cris’ voice grumbled through the speakers.

“When we find this treasure—and we ARE going to find it—I’m going to rub it in the face of that arrogant son of a bitch back in Dubai,” Will growled.

“Now, come on,” Cris said.

“It’s his fault we’ve been out of communications for three weeks!” Abe cried.  “The maps he gave us lead us around in circles for the first week and half of the equipment has *fried* in the desert heat!”

“It makes me nervous not to be able to communicate with home base,” Meri added.  “What if Charlie goes into labor?  I could be becoming a father at this very moment and I wouldn’t even know about it.”

“It could just as easily be Janie or Emily Anne,” Jamie countered and Abe rolled his eyes.  Jamie’s contribution on this journey was as a record keeper.  His journal of findings and sketches would be part of the report they turned in at the end of the expedition along with audio and video files supplied by Widget.

“Please, don’t remind me, okay?  This was only supposed to take a week and a half and we’ve been out here twice that,” Abe grumbled.

“Let’s not get hostile, boys,” Cris interjected, trying hard to be the peacekeeper.  “There’s another stone door up ahead.  Sonar and telemetry looks good from my end.  As usual, proceed with caution, gentlemen.”

Will and Meri pushed the massive stone door aside slowly and then allowed Widget to roll ahead of them into the room, the search light on the top of her head blaring brightly into the space.  Seconds later, Cris squealed and shouted, making Widget’s speakers clatter, “Come quick!  Come quick!  You have to see this!” The boys bounded into the room, illuminating it with the torches they carried.  Awe-struck seconds later, there was raucous laughter as the boys threw their arms around each other and cheered.  Before them, lay miles of tunnels and catacombs, all glittering with veins of silver, gold, and jewels.

“We were right!” Will screeched, embracing his little brother.

“No!  *You* were right!” Abe countered, turning to administer a playful hug to Widget, complete with a big sloppy kiss on Widget’s video receiver, making Cris laugh out loud.  After gathering samples and documenting everything they could see, the jubilant treasure hunters followed Widget back out into the mine shafts that had led them here.  It was trickier to get back than it had been to get in, but the boys were too happy to care.  It would take them another three days to return to Dubai.

“We’re here to see the curator. I’m sure he’s expecting us,” Will said gruffly to the receptionist.  Without a word, the frantic little blonde, blue eyed woman fumbled for the phone and called the curator.  Will could hear that he was telling her that he was in a meeting.

“Is he blowing us off?” Will asked.  “Is he in some sort of meeting?  Is it with the investors?  Oh, I hope so…”  Will brushed past the desk, waving for Cris, Meri, Abe and Jamie to come along.  The startled receptionist tried to follow them, stumbling on her high heels and trying to beg them to wait, but Will had had enough of waiting.

Will and his team walked into the conference room, still sunburned and dust-covered and went straight up to the curator, dropping a small rock sack of their samples onto the shiny polished surface of the table.  The youngsters waited for the grumblings and murmurings to quiet and the shock to wear off the curator’s face before he finally spoke.

“King Solomon might have hidden it, but he didn’t hide it near well enough,” Will said simply.

“What is the meaning of this?  How dare you come in all of this ruckus!?” Higgins demanded.

“Ruckus?” Jamie said.  “You had us turning circles for a week looking for that mine!”

“Impossible!” the curator sputtered.

“The equipment you provided for us wasn’t adequate for the weather conditions.  Most of it failed on us within the next week after that,” Will added.  “If I hadn’t brought some of my own, we’d have never made it.”

“That equipment was state of the art material provided by top engineers,” Higgins cried.

“With all due respect, your top engineers need to go back to freshman year,” Cris said, folding her arms across her chest.

“Come on, guys, let’s go,” Will said, resting his hand on Cris’ shoulder as they all turned to go.

“Where are you going?  I need documentation!  I need reports on your findings!” the curator cried.

“It’s in your email,” Meri said, turning and giving the curator a wicked grin.  “Or don’t you check that, either?”  Without a reply, Curator Higgins simply watched the youngsters leave.  His face was burning red as the eyes of his investors bore into him, silently demanding an explanation for his actions.

* * *

Ben Gates mopped his tired brow a day later.  He could still hear the water running in the kitchen as Abigail finished the dinner dishes.  All three of the girls had eaten with them, but none uttered a word other than ‘thank you’ before retreating to their respective rooms.  They hadn’t taken the news of the team’s disappearance well.  Afraid for the well-being of their unborn children, Abigail had suggested bed-rest for them and unfortunately, they took her a little too closely at her word.  Other than to eat their meals, the girls had taken to their beds nearly round the clock and the silence was wearing on poor Ben near the end of the fourth week since he’d last seen his sons.

Abigail joined him as he stared out the tall windows in the great room minutes later, wrapping her arms around him from behind, laying her head against his back as Ben covered her hands with his.  Thirty seconds later, Abigail trembled and then started to cry.  Ben’s face fell in sadness and he turned to pull Abigail more properly into his arms.  She clung to him and sobbed, letting Ben coax her to sit down on the sofa with him as she cried.

“I can’t take it anymore!” she wept, her breath coming in ragged, gasps for air.  “I can’t take the silence!  I can’t take not knowing where they are!  Even if they didn’t make it, I want them back—I want them where I can see them!  I can’t stand not having an answer for the girls! I just can’t!”

“Shhh…” Ben said softly, rocking her a little in his embrace.  “It’s going to be okay, Abigail.  We’ll hear something soon, honey…it’s going to be okay.”

“You don’t know that!” Abigail cried, pulling free of him.  “You don’t know any better than anyone else does!”

“Abigail…” Ben started but then stopped at the sound of a key in the front door.  He stroked her hair and kissed her cheek before getting up and moving to find out who was at the door.  Other than his own children, only Riley had a spare key to the house, and they weren’t expecting him.

When Ben emerged into the front hall, he stopped in his tracks when he looked up to find five people he didn’t expect to see again nearly so soon.

“Oh, my God!” Ben gasped, unable to keep tears from gathering in his eyes as his boys threw themselves into their father’s arms.  “You’re alive!”

“You didn’t really think one little mine shaft was going to keep us down, did you?” Will teased.  Ben smiled wryly at him and then laughed, hugging Will once again before embracing Meri, Jamie, and Cris.

“Your parents are worried stiff,” Ben told them.  “You guys need to—”

“Who’s crying?” Meri demanded.  “Is that Charlie?”

“No…,” Abe said.  “That’s mom.”  He and Will jogged the rest of the way to the door of the great room before stopping, taking a breath and then slowly approaching their mother, who still sobbed into her hands as they covered her face.  She was crying so hard that she was having a hard time sitting up, and leaned into Abe’s arms without looking up when he sat down.  Will quietly knelt in front of the sofa just out of reach right before Abigail spoke through her hands.

“I want my boys back!” she wailed, barely pausing to catch her breath.  “Ben, I want them in my arms…I want them back…”   Abe and Will exchanged a look that held a son’s guilt for making his mother cry and then Ben spoke for them.

“It seems someone’s answered our prayers, honey,” Ben said, patting Meri on the back again.  Abigail was still drawing a shuddering breath when she looked up and finally saw that it was Abe who held her and not Ben.  She looked up at him in speechless shock and then turned to see Will when he gently touched her knee.

“It’s okay, mom,” Abe said.

“We’re home now, mom,” Will added.  “You don’t have to cry anymore.”

Abigail threw her arms around her sons, smothering them with kisses that only a mother could truly get away with.  Her tears slowly dried as she shakily stood and reached for Meri, her son-in-law, and then Cris and Jamie.

“Oh, God,” Abigail murmured over and over.  “Oh, God, I’m so glad you’re all right!”

“You really had us scared, Will,” Ben said, squeezing his oldest son’s shoulder.

“We were scared for a while there, too,” Will replied.

“Anyone seen my wife?” Meri quipped.

“Yeah,” Will said.  “Where are the girls?”

Abigail told them about the self-enforced bed rest and ordered them all to go upstairs that minute and greet their wives, an order that each of them cheekily grinned at and immediately complied with.

Meri knocked on Charlotte’s door and waited for her response.  When none came, he knocked again and finally Charlotte called out, “Leave me alone!”  Meri sighed, pinched the bridge of his nose, and listened for a moment—she was crying.  With this, he carefully opened the door anyway.

“With all due respect, I asked—” Charlotte stopped mid-tirade when she looked up and saw who was at the door.  She immediately tried to get up, impeded by the large swell of her belly and Meri cried, “No!  Stay there, I’ll come to you!”  He sat down on the edge of the bed and drew Charlotte into his arms as she burst into fresh tears.

“Where have you been?” wept Jane as Abe cradled her in his arms.  Jane had actually made it up off the bed before Abe could object and had silenced any request for her to get off her feet with the sound kiss she issued him before she could utter the question of his whereabouts.  Abe hungrily returned her kisses and intermittently stroked her belly as their child kicked inside her.

“Paying for our children’s college educations,” Abe said, producing an uncut diamond the size of his fist.

“I thought I’d never see you again,” Emily Anne half wept, half grumbled into Will’s shoulder as he held her, stroking her long blonde hair and covering her face and head with kisses.  She clutched his shoulders, nearly refusing to let go as he answered, “You know me better than that…I’ll always come for you.”  Emily Anne finally laughed and sniffled back some of her tears.

“I do know that,” she murmured.  “But knowing that won’t keep me from worrying about you, Will Gates.”

“Yes, Mrs. Gates,” Will quipped back, enduring her good-natured swat at his shoulder in order to kiss her again.   After all of the team had been duly greeted, the team made stops at the Pooles’ and the Bonners’ homes to greet and reassure Riley and Jacqui, and Jacob and Nadya, as well as to drop Jamie and Cris off at home before Will, Abe and Meri returned to spend the night with their patiently waiting wives.  It was good to be home.

END

Description
The Treasure Hunters’ Tale

Chapter 1
Treasure in Plain Sight

“No, that’s not an option!” Ben said sternly a he paced with the phone in his hand.

“I am sorry, Dr. Gates.  The board of investors is leaving me no choice in the matter,” said the man on the other end of the phone.  Fritz Higgins was the curator of a museum in Dubai that specialized in biblical era artifacts.  A month ago, he had hired Will to go in search of the infamous mines of King Solomon, a feat that even his father and grandfather had not dared to attempt.  Eager to prove himself and use his newly acquired degree in archaeology, Will had accepted the challenge.  He wasn’t alone on this new expedition, either.  Abe, Meri, Jamie and even Cristina had tagged along for the ride.  Cristina, the lone woman on the journey, had wormed her way onto the expedition team by producing “Widget”, a terrestrial exploration robot that she had designed and proudly built from the ground up as part of her master’s program in robotics.  Widget was equipped with speaker and microphone equipment, cameras, agile all terrain wheels and two independently functioning arms with which to interact with the environment.  What really made Will agree to take Cris along was that Widget could be controlled from a remote interface—meaning that Cris could stay in the safety of a vehicle above ground and still control Widget and communicate with the boys.  Cris had pitched a fit over this, demanding that they not treat her like some pitiful damsel in distress, but in the end, as it usually goes with the Gates boys, Will won.  All of this whirled through Ben’s mind as he listened to the curator state his reasons for his unexpected decision.

“I’m not the one you’re going to owe an apology to,” Ben said.

“We lost contact with the research team three weeks ago,” Higgins continued.  “We have no choice but to declare the expedition a failure and the team lost…I am—whether you believe me or not—very sorry, Dr. Gates…I know...”

“You don’t know my boys,” Ben growled, slamming the phone down into its cradle.  Abigail was standing in the doorway of the study when Ben mopped a hand down his face and then turned to meet her gaze.  A fine tremor was making Abigail’s hands shake even as she clutched them in front of her and her knees were growing weaker with every second of her husband’s silence.

“Ben…” she murmured, “what’s happening?”  Ben crossed the room to the doorway and folded her into a hug.

“Where are my boys?” Abigail asked, her voice thickening with emotion.

“Higgins wants to declare the expedition lost,” Ben replied.  “It’s been three weeks since anyone’s heard from them.”

“Oh, God, Ben,” she whimpered softly, sniffling through tears that were falling against her will.  “What am I going to tell the girls?”  Will, Abe, and Meri’s pregnant wives had taken up residence with Ben and Abigail when the boys left town bound for the Middle East.  With their due dates so near, Will wouldn’t hear of them being alone while they were gone.  Charlotte had begged Meri not to go—her due date was to come first—but Will was his best friend and her twin brother, and he had joked that someone had to bring Will and Abe back in one piece.

“I don’t know, honey,” Ben said softly, holding her tightly and kissing the top of her head.  “All I know is that I have this gut feeling that they’re okay…that Higgins has really underestimated what Will can do.”

“I hope you’re right,” Abigail said just as softly through her tears.  “I really hope you’re right.”

* * *

“Cris? You still with us?” Abe teased, patting the robot’s little head.

“If you pet her one more time I’m going to use her little arm somewhere you’re not going to want it, Abe!” Cris’ voice grumbled through the speakers.

“When we find this treasure—and we ARE going to find it—I’m going to rub it in the face of that arrogant son of a bitch back in Dubai,” Will growled.

“Now, come on,” Cris said.

“It’s his fault we’ve been out of communications for three weeks!” Abe cried.  “The maps he gave us lead us around in circles for the first week and half of the equipment has *fried* in the desert heat!”

“It makes me nervous not to be able to communicate with home base,” Meri added.  “What if Charlie goes into labor?  I could be becoming a father at this very moment and I wouldn’t even know about it.”

“It could just as easily be Janie or Emily Anne,” Jamie countered and Abe rolled his eyes.  Jamie’s contribution on this journey was as a record keeper.  His journal of findings and sketches would be part of the report they turned in at the end of the expedition along with audio and video files supplied by Widget.

“Please, don’t remind me, okay?  This was only supposed to take a week and a half and we’ve been out here twice that,” Abe grumbled.

“Let’s not get hostile, boys,” Cris interjected, trying hard to be the peacekeeper.  “There’s another stone door up ahead.  Sonar and telemetry looks good from my end.  As usual, proceed with caution, gentlemen.”

Will and Meri pushed the massive stone door aside slowly and then allowed Widget to roll ahead of them into the room, the search light on the top of her head blaring brightly into the space.  Seconds later, Cris squealed and shouted, making Widget’s speakers clatter, “Come quick!  Come quick!  You have to see this!” The boys bounded into the room, illuminating it with the torches they carried.  Awe-struck seconds later, there was raucous laughter as the boys threw their arms around each other and cheered.  Before them, lay miles of tunnels and catacombs, all glittering with veins of silver, gold, and jewels.

“We were right!” Will screeched, embracing his little brother.

“No!  *You* were right!” Abe countered, turning to administer a playful hug to Widget, complete with a big sloppy kiss on Widget’s video receiver, making Cris laugh out loud.  After gathering samples and documenting everything they could see, the jubilant treasure hunters followed Widget back out into the mine shafts that had led them here.  It was trickier to get back than it had been to get in, but the boys were too happy to care.  It would take them another three days to return to Dubai.

“We’re here to see the curator. I’m sure he’s expecting us,” Will said gruffly to the receptionist.  Without a word, the frantic little blonde, blue eyed woman fumbled for the phone and called the curator.  Will could hear that he was telling her that he was in a meeting.

“Is he blowing us off?” Will asked.  “Is he in some sort of meeting?  Is it with the investors?  Oh, I hope so…”  Will brushed past the desk, waving for Cris, Meri, Abe and Jamie to come along.  The startled receptionist tried to follow them, stumbling on her high heels and trying to beg them to wait, but Will had had enough of waiting.

Will and his team walked into the conference room, still sunburned and dust-covered and went straight up to the curator, dropping a small rock sack of their samples onto the shiny polished surface of the table.  The youngsters waited for the grumblings and murmurings to quiet and the shock to wear off the curator’s face before he finally spoke.

“King Solomon might have hidden it, but he didn’t hide it near well enough,” Will said simply.

“What is the meaning of this?  How dare you come in all of this ruckus!?” Higgins demanded.

“Ruckus?” Jamie said.  “You had us turning circles for a week looking for that mine!”

“Impossible!” the curator sputtered.

“The equipment you provided for us wasn’t adequate for the weather conditions.  Most of it failed on us within the next week after that,” Will added.  “If I hadn’t brought some of my own, we’d have never made it.”

“That equipment was state of the art material provided by top engineers,” Higgins cried.

“With all due respect, your top engineers need to go back to freshman year,” Cris said, folding her arms across her chest.

“Come on, guys, let’s go,” Will said, resting his hand on Cris’ shoulder as they all turned to go.

“Where are you going?  I need documentation!  I need reports on your findings!” the curator cried.

“It’s in your email,” Meri said, turning and giving the curator a wicked grin.  “Or don’t you check that, either?”  Without a reply, Curator Higgins simply watched the youngsters leave.  His face was burning red as the eyes of his investors bore into him, silently demanding an explanation for his actions.

* * *

Ben Gates mopped his tired brow a day later.  He could still hear the water running in the kitchen as Abigail finished the dinner dishes.  All three of the girls had eaten with them, but none uttered a word other than ‘thank you’ before retreating to their respective rooms.  They hadn’t taken the news of the team’s disappearance well.  Afraid for the well-being of their unborn children, Abigail had suggested bed-rest for them and unfortunately, they took her a little too closely at her word.  Other than to eat their meals, the girls had taken to their beds nearly round the clock and the silence was wearing on poor Ben near the end of the fourth week since he’d last seen his sons.

Abigail joined him as he stared out the tall windows in the great room minutes later, wrapping her arms around him from behind, laying her head against his back as Ben covered her hands with his.  Thirty seconds later, Abigail trembled and then started to cry.  Ben’s face fell in sadness and he turned to pull Abigail more properly into his arms.  She clung to him and sobbed, letting Ben coax her to sit down on the sofa with him as she cried.

“I can’t take it anymore!” she wept, her breath coming in ragged, gasps for air.  “I can’t take the silence!  I can’t take not knowing where they are!  Even if they didn’t make it, I want them back—I want them where I can see them!  I can’t stand not having an answer for the girls! I just can’t!”

“Shhh…” Ben said softly, rocking her a little in his embrace.  “It’s going to be okay, Abigail.  We’ll hear something soon, honey…it’s going to be okay.”

“You don’t know that!” Abigail cried, pulling free of him.  “You don’t know any better than anyone else does!”

“Abigail…” Ben started but then stopped at the sound of a key in the front door.  He stroked her hair and kissed her cheek before getting up and moving to find out who was at the door.  Other than his own children, only Riley had a spare key to the house, and they weren’t expecting him.

When Ben emerged into the front hall, he stopped in his tracks when he looked up to find five people he didn’t expect to see again nearly so soon.

“Oh, my God!” Ben gasped, unable to keep tears from gathering in his eyes as his boys threw themselves into their father’s arms.  “You’re alive!”

“You didn’t really think one little mine shaft was going to keep us down, did you?” Will teased.  Ben smiled wryly at him and then laughed, hugging Will once again before embracing Meri, Jamie, and Cris.

“Your parents are worried stiff,” Ben told them.  “You guys need to—”

“Who’s crying?” Meri demanded.  “Is that Charlie?”

“No…,” Abe said.  “That’s mom.”  He and Will jogged the rest of the way to the door of the great room before stopping, taking a breath and then slowly approaching their mother, who still sobbed into her hands as they covered her face.  She was crying so hard that she was having a hard time sitting up, and leaned into Abe’s arms without looking up when he sat down.  Will quietly knelt in front of the sofa just out of reach right before Abigail spoke through her hands.

“I want my boys back!” she wailed, barely pausing to catch her breath.  “Ben, I want them in my arms…I want them back…”   Abe and Will exchanged a look that held a son’s guilt for making his mother cry and then Ben spoke for them.

“It seems someone’s answered our prayers, honey,” Ben said, patting Meri on the back again.  Abigail was still drawing a shuddering breath when she looked up and finally saw that it was Abe who held her and not Ben.  She looked up at him in speechless shock and then turned to see Will when he gently touched her knee.

“It’s okay, mom,” Abe said.

“We’re home now, mom,” Will added.  “You don’t have to cry anymore.”

Abigail threw her arms around her sons, smothering them with kisses that only a mother could truly get away with.  Her tears slowly dried as she shakily stood and reached for Meri, her son-in-law, and then Cris and Jamie.

“Oh, God,” Abigail murmured over and over.  “Oh, God, I’m so glad you’re all right!”

“You really had us scared, Will,” Ben said, squeezing his oldest son’s shoulder.

“We were scared for a while there, too,” Will replied.

“Anyone seen my wife?” Meri quipped.

“Yeah,” Will said.  “Where are the girls?”

Abigail told them about the self-enforced bed rest and ordered them all to go upstairs that minute and greet their wives, an order that each of them cheekily grinned at and immediately complied with.

Meri knocked on Charlotte’s door and waited for her response.  When none came, he knocked again and finally Charlotte called out, “Leave me alone!”  Meri sighed, pinched the bridge of his nose, and listened for a moment—she was crying.  With this, he carefully opened the door anyway.

“With all due respect, I asked—” Charlotte stopped mid-tirade when she looked up and saw who was at the door.  She immediately tried to get up, impeded by the large swell of her belly and Meri cried, “No!  Stay there, I’ll come to you!”  He sat down on the edge of the bed and drew Charlotte into his arms as she burst into fresh tears.

“Where have you been?” wept Jane as Abe cradled her in his arms.  Jane had actually made it up off the bed before Abe could object and had silenced any request for her to get off her feet with the sound kiss she issued him before she could utter the question of his whereabouts.  Abe hungrily returned her kisses and intermittently stroked her belly as their child kicked inside her.

“Paying for our children’s college educations,” Abe said, producing an uncut diamond the size of his fist.

“I thought I’d never see you again,” Emily Anne half wept, half grumbled into Will’s shoulder as he held her, stroking her long blonde hair and covering her face and head with kisses.  She clutched his shoulders, nearly refusing to let go as he answered, “You know me better than that…I’ll always come for you.”  Emily Anne finally laughed and sniffled back some of her tears.

“I do know that,” she murmured.  “But knowing that won’t keep me from worrying about you, Will Gates.”

“Yes, Mrs. Gates,” Will quipped back, enduring her good-natured swat at his shoulder in order to kiss her again.   After all of the team had been duly greeted, the team made stops at the Pooles’ and the Bonners’ homes to greet and reassure Riley and Jacqui, and Jacob and Nadya, as well as to drop Jamie and Cris off at home before Will, Abe and Meri returned to spend the night with their patiently waiting wives.  It was good to be home.

END