quantumreality

Premise: Paige isn't happy about her parents being arrested.

Paige Jennings threw herself onto her bed - her new, uncomfortable bed at her foster mother's, not the nice, comfortable bed she'd had all those years at Mom and Dad's. Bitter memories flooded her mind as she remembered, again, how she'd come to live with people who unwillingly bore her presence.

That FBI agent from across the street - Beeman - he'd been the one to arrest Mom and Dad, right at dinner time when Dad had come to visit. No warning, just a peremptory knock on the front door, her Mom calling "Stan? Sandra? Give me a sec, okay?" Mom had walked to the hallway where you could see the door opening, and as soon as the door opened, her face changed. One second, she was casually going about her day, the next - Oh God, Paige still got chills up and down her back - her face had taken on that same fierce, uncompromising look as the time she had been utterly and completely cowed by her mother's anger.

"FBI! STOP! DO NOT MOVE!"

Paige and Henry had frozen in their seats, while Dad had zoomed out of his chair faster than Paige had ever thought her father capable of it. His gaze steely and direct, he growled, "Beeman. What's this for?"

Stan Beeman strode into the kitchen, a gaggle of SWAT and FBI officers bristling with guns swarming into the house to aim at her parents from every which direction.

"You know why, Philip. Or is that even your real name?" Beeman spat on the floor. "To think I drank beer with you! I should've cracked that beer glass over your head instead!"

"You're making a big mistake, Beeman," said Mother warningly. Paige slammed her eyes shut as she hyperventilated. This isn't happening, this isn't happening...

Sounds of an aborted scuffle.

The click of handcuffs.

Beeman saying with great relish, "As you are not American citizens and are Soviet spies, you have no rights whatsoever. Mess with me and I'll kill you here just like you did my friend Amador."

Paige's eyes opened in shock. "You'll what?! NO!" She tried to jump out of her seat, but an agent grabbed her shoulders and shoved her back into her seat. When she stopped struggling, the agent cautiously let go of her and joined the others as they trooped out of the kitchen without further ado, dragging the adult Jenningses with them.

Mr. Beeman had looked apologetically at the younger kids. Paige reached out as she stood up, drawing Henry into her trembling embrace as she said, "What? What just happened?"

"Your parents - I wish to God it wasn't true, all right? They're Soviet spies. Deep cover agents. Sleepers."

Tears stung Paige's eyes as she shook her head, her gaze falling to the floor. "No. No, it can't be true. It just can't."

A heavy sigh. "We have enough evidence, Paige. I'm sorry. We've gotten it from one of our most reliable sources inside the Soviet embassy."

"So what about us, Mr. Beeman?" spat Paige. "Are we illegals too? Are you going to execute us, too? Cut out the Russian cancer before it spreads?"

"No, absolutely not! No," said Beeman. His voice grew gentle as he carefully eased around to sit in the chair Paige had vacated. "From your reactions tonight I'm sure you knew nothing about what your parents were doing. We'll still need to ask you questions but I promise, it won't be under harsh lights or anything."

Henry, so quiet until now, wondered, "What are we going to do? What about school? And can we see Mom and Dad again, please?"

Beeman sighed and rubbed his face. "We'll make arrangements. We'll find someone who might take you in. As it's summertime, you can transfer to whatever school is in their district. And Henry, Paige - I really can't promise you'll ever see them again. Spying usually gets a long jail sentence, or even execution."

Henry just held onto Paige harder; Paige willed herself not to visibly shake more than she already was. She hissed, "So that's it? Prison, and then an unmarked grave somewhere for Mom and Dad? No way for me or Henry to say good-bye?"

Beeman looked away.

Oh, she understood Mother so well now. Why she was so hard and unforgiving sometimes, why she was so oddly indulgent other times. Mom hadn't even grown up in the USA! She'd grown up after the war in Russia.

Rage shot through Paige. Her fists clenched. God, if she could just hit something. Hit Beeman, this seeming neighbor of theirs who'd just wrecked her life completely.

But she didn't dare.

Not an FBI agent who could, as he pleased, declare Paige Jennings a complicit Soviet spy. He could tell any lie he wanted and he would be believed.

He, or someone else, could put a gun to the back of her head and shoot with impunity. She imagined she could feel the cold metal touch the back of her head - a voice telling her to kneel - her head jerking forward as the slug smashed through her skull sending her to Kingdom Come.

But she could do one thing. She could be Mother this one time.

In the coldest, angriest voice she'd ever mustered, she glared daggers at Agent Stan Beeman as she pointed to the front door. "Get. Out."

Beeman seemed to come to himself. He stood, nodded once, and left the house, leaving it silent - leaving Paige and Henry to spend a sleepless night seated on her bed, wondering what would happen next.

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