~~~~Love Above All~~~~

Chapter Nine


"Oh Nick, honey!" His mother bustled into the house, followed by his father. "Are you alright?"

Nick hugged his parents gratefully. "I'm doing okay, under the circumstances. Thank you for coming over so quickly." He sank back into the chair he had been sitting in.

"Where's Elisha?" his father questioned.

"She's sleeping. The doctor gave her a sedative, she was on the border of being hysterical." Nick ran his hands through his hair. "I can't believe she would do this. Why couldn't she hurt me? Why did she have to take my children? Why?" Tears that refused to fall earlier, when Elisha had needed him to be strong, fell willingly now.

Jane moved over to him and he slipped into her embrace like a child. "Do you know it was Mandy?"

Nick nodded without lifting his head. "Yeah, it's her writing on the note. The police went to her parents house, but they haven't seen her all day. She has a car...."

"Well that's something!" Bob said, hopefully. "They'll have the plate numbers and the make of the car."

Nick smiled, a bit of hope dawning in his eyes. "Yeah, that's true."

"Nick, honey, where are Rebecca and Brian?" his mother asked.

"Oh, they slept right through it, they're still sleeping. But could you help me out when they wake up?"

"Certainly, dear." Jane went into the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee.

"Mr. Carter?"

Nick looked up at the police sargeant.

"Yes?" He stood and shook the offered hand.

"We can't find any sign of break and enter. Is it possible she got in earlier today? Snuck in while you were outside or getting in the car?"

Nick admitted that it was a little crazy getting the carseats in the car and picking up the kids. "The door was unlocked then and I wasn't really focused on anything but getting the kids and my wife."

The sargeant noted this in his notebook. "I don't suppose you have any photos of the children? It's going to be difficult since they are so young but a photo might help, and a description of what they were wearing, if you can recall."

Nick raced to the kitchen and picked up a bundle of photos. "These were just done today, they were taken at the hospital." His fingers nervously flipped through the photographs. A sob caught in his throat as he found the pictures of the twins with Elisha and himself. "Here they are." He wiped a tear off his cheek and handed the photo to the sargeant. "I think they were wearing just sleepers, you know, the stretchy snapup sleepers. Gene was wearing green and Diana was wearing pink." He looked at the officer. "Please find my children for me."

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Mandy looked at herself in the mirror. "You look like shit, you know that? Nick will never recognize you looking like this." She made a mental note to add some makeup to the list of things she needed to buy. Thankfully, the babies were sleeping now. They had woken up when she had just gotten out of the house and had been squawking ever since then. Her head was pounding from all the crying. Not thinking to grab any sort of supplies from the house for the kids, she had nothing. She had screamed at them to shut up but that just made them scream more. She figured they had fallen asleep from exhaustion. They were cute kids, blond like Nick, blue eyes...it would be so easy to pass these kids off as her own. But did she want to? They had been enough trouble and she hadn't even had them very long yet. They needed so much stuff. Diapers, formula, stroller, clothes. "I can't do this shit!" Mandy exclaimed, tossing her cup in the sink. The sound woke the little girl and she started her wailing again.

"SHUT UP!" Mandy picked her up and shook her. "JUST SHUT UP!"

She tossed the baby on the bed and held her head in her hands.

"What have I done? How can I get rid of them?"

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"Nick?"

Elisha woke from her drug-induced sleep and looked around. The memory of the night before rushed to her brain.

"NICK!"

Nick heard her yell and rushed into the bedroom. "Take it easy honey, I'm here, it's okay."

Elisha sank into his arms and cried. "Did they find them yet? Do they know where our babies are?"

Nick stroked her hair. "No not yet, but they have some leads, it looks good." he lied. He hated to do that to her, but she was in no shape to hear the truth.

"Nicky, why is she doing this to us? I never hurt her. Why does she want to hurt us like this?"

Nick rocked Elisha back and forth. "She's sick honey. They never should have released her. She needs help."

"My babies." Elisha whimpered. "My babies are with her, oh God!"

Her screams filled the bedroom and Nick carefully turned and picked up the syringe the doctor had left. He gently pricked Elisha's upper arm with the needle like the doctor had shown him and she gradually relaxed into his arms.

"Go to sleep honey." Nick carefully lay her down and covered her again. He stretched out beside her and wrapped her tightly in his arms. "I'm sorry baby, but it's the only way, I wish I could just make it all go away."

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