Emmas Growth Spurt Ch 26

Four days later, Jim was pulling his truck out of the parking lot of a local hotel. Daniel sat in the front seat and Maisy and Daisy sat together in the back -- everyone was staring stonily ahead, not saying much. The last two days had passed by in a kind of weirdly protracted blur. Everything seemed to be moving by so quickly, too fast for processing, and yet at the same time, coming to grips with the reality of what had just happened was proving to be a slow and agonizing process, with the government serving as their only real connection to the events they had witnessed around Emma and her...relocation.

The government had been tight-lipped about where they had taken her, and, despite heartfelt pleadings form both Daniel and Maisy, they were quite firm on that point: Emma had been moved to an " undisclosed and secure location," and was being well-taken-care-of by the best possible team of professionals who were dedicated to her case. At least, that was what the government had said. Daniel in particular was finding it hard to accept that he wasn't even allowed to know where she was.

"But...but she's my partner!" he had responded indignantly to Captain Casey's refusal to say where they had taken Emma. "I...I have legal rights to know where she is!"

"Are the two of you married?" asked Casey dryly, already knowing the answer.

"W-well...no, but that doesn't matter!" Daniel countered.

"It does, actually," responded Casey, as the government men behind him began assessing the damage to the farm house. "Your partnership doesn't have the legal protections that it would if the two of you were married, so I'm afraid you're just going to have to entrust her to our care for the time being."

Daniel had not been happy about this state of affairs at all, but there was nothing he could do about it. Before Casey could turn away, though, Daniel had one more question for him:

"But if she had said I could come..." he began, "...then, I could've come?"

Casey stood there looking at Daniel, not quite understanding. The young captain had to mentally remind himself that this family was and had been going through a lot, so it was reasonable to assume they would ask some pretty nonsensical questions.

"I mean...uh, yeah," Casey answered, shrugging his shoulders a bit. "That was the whole point of asking her, right? We thought it would help her to have someone along who she trusted, who was family...but apparently she didn't want that, so...yeah."

Casey shrugged again and walked away, leaving Daniel all alone with the awful reality. He didn't know what he had been trying to get at, asking that question, and felt empty and stupid as he slinked back toward Jim, Maisy, and Daisy, who were being calmed down by some more government men. Subconsciously, Daniel had been somehow hoping for Casey to tell him that there would have been no way that he could have come with Emma, even if she had wanted him to. But, of course, the reality of the situation was that Emma had rejected him, and that fact, and that fact alone, was why he wasn't with her now...why he wasn't allowed to even know where she was.

It had not gotten any easier for Daniel after two days. The government had put the family up in a hotel close by as they continued to assess the extensive damage to the farmhouse. Emma had punched multiple holes straight through the ceilings, destroyed about half of the east-facing wall, and, most conspicuously, torn the entire roof in half. At first, the family was still shell-shocked, and just content to have a hotel room to sleep in, but after two days, they began to question why the government would want to spend all this time evaluating the damage.

"They're up to something," Jim had declared after a continental breakfast in the hotel lobby, as the family sat on the beds in their cramped hotel room. "I know it."

"But...up to what, dear?" asked Maisy, blinking with tired concern at her husband.

"I don't know," Jim answered, holding out his hands in a rare moment of gesticulation. "I have no idea. I just don't really believe that they're -- what did they say -- getting an insurance estimate, or whatever it was."

"Then what do you think they're doing?" asked Daniel, who was sitting next to Daisy on the bed that they had both shared the past two nights. They hadn't even touched body parts, and had slept facing away from each other. Emma catching them together in their shared moment of weakness, and her subsequent violent reaction, had driven a hard wedge between them. Both of them were numb with all of the mental processing that had taken place over the past two days, and all the agonized, frantic thoughts and regrets had gotten them nowhere. They had not told Jim and Maisy what they had been doing before Emma found them; they had not even discussed it themselves.

"I think they're taking samples," Jim answered, looking seriously at Daniel. "I think they're studying something...like, taking notes about...you know, about Emma's strength, and what she's capable of."

The family had sat together in silence for a few moments, contemplating what Jim was saying. It certainly seemed plausible. And, of course, considering that the government had obviously been monitoring Emma for some time now, it didn't seem too farfetched that they were carefully researching the damage she had done to the house.

"I just hope...hope that she's ok," said Maisy in a quiet voice, staring out the window. "I hope they're telling the truth when they said they're taking care of her."

Again, there was silence. They had all been talking so much the past two days about everything -- Emma's abrupt "psychosis" (which Daniel and Daisy knew wasn't true), the government people, what they had injected her with, the fact that the government appeared to have had a plan that they acted out, where they had taken her, and on and on and on. The long, exhausted silences that the family now found themselves in was the end result of two frenetic days of endless questions with no answers.

Just then, Daniel's phone had rung out into the hotel room, and he saw that the number was restricted. He had known that this was the government calling him, and so he had answered, his heart pattering with expectation. Maybe now they would tell him where Emma was, and perhaps even that she had changed her mind and wanted to see him.

"Hello?" he had begun, answering the call as he stared at Jim and Maisy.

"Hello Daniel!" came the sound of Captain Casey's voice on the other end. Daniel was heartened to hear the young man's bright voice -- it was a familiar voice, and one that heightened his expectations that he was about to hear some good news.

"How's the hotel?" asked Casey amiably. "You guys doing alright over there?"

"Uhh...I -- I mean," said Daniel, caught off-guard by the strange conversationality of his tone, "It's...you know, a hotel, haha. Kinda cramped, to be honest, but...but I...uh, we're...we appreciate you all helping us out here."

"Well you know, that's just what I was about to get at," Casey continued pleasantly. "We set you all up in that hotel strictly as a temporary measure, you know, while we sorted some things out, but we know that you're all probably eager to get back to somewhere more permanent."

"Uhm, y-yes...yes I think so," nodded Daniel. He was hoping to get all of this fluff conversation out of the way so he could hear about Emma.

"So we were thinking," said Casey, "That we could relocate you all back to your house -- the one you and Emma stayed in before coming to the farmhouse weeks ago."

"I...how do you..." began Daniel, but he stopped himself. He certainly had not been expecting this.

"Emma told us," Casey answered Daniel's implied question, shaking his head to himself. Of course, they had known where the house was all along. "She gave us the address and everything."

"Oh! She...she did!?" Daniel asked, his heart skipping a beat at the mention of Emma's name. "So she's --"

"Yes, so we know that the local fire department had cut a hole cut in the living room ceiling," continued Casey, talking over Daniel's next question. "But that's a simple fix, really, and we'd be happy to provide that for you. It shouldn't take more than a few days for us to repair."

"Well...uhm, that's...that's nice of you," muttered Daniel, looking around at no one in particular.

"Yeah, the structural damage to the farmhouse is a lot more extensive," Casey continued, "And it's gonna take a lot more time to fix up. But we thought that you all might not want to stay in a hotel for months, and might appreciate going back to somewhere familiar?"

"....Yes...I...think that we would, yeah," responded Daniel, nodding again. "Can I...can I just talk to everyone first, just to get the "ok," before I give you a full answer on that?"

"Of course, Daniel!" answered Casey. "I'll call back in ten minutes."

"W-wait...wait!" stammered Daniel, before Casey could hang up.

"Yes?" The young captain's voice hung on the line.

"So...how is Emma?" Daniel asked, feeling slightly stupid and lame asking such a basic, casual-sounding question.

"She's fine," said Casey lightly, with almost flippant bluntness. "Eating a lot, of course, haha. But that's not surprising, is it?"

"N-no...no it's not," Daniel laughed, his face flushing as his heart sped up even faster. They were talking about her! "So...so do you think that I c-could, uhhhh, maybe sp--"

"Ok Daniel, so you talk over my proposal with the rest of the family," interrupted Casey pleasantly, "And I'll call you right back, mmk?"

The call had ended, leaving Daniel feeling like he had been slapped in the face. He just sat there on the bed with the phone still up to his ear. He could feel the awful, sinking weight of the reality plunging down through him, even as he continued to resist: he couldn't get to her...through her own wishes, he was being denied access to her. Access in all forms. At least...at least she was still eating a lot. That meant that she was ok, right!?

"So...who was that, Daniel?" came Daisy's voice, knocking at his ear. In that moment, Daniel felt such a vicious and intense antipathy toward Daisy that he very nearly snapped his head up and glared at her in front of Jim and Maisy. As it was, however, he had enough self control to stare wide-eyed at his thighs for a couple seconds before putting the phone down and turning to her with a calm and measured expression.

They didn't need to talk it over for too long -- everyone wanted to be able to just relax, which they couldn't really do in the cramped hotel room. Daniel and Emma's old house was large enough that everyone could have their own bedroom: Jim and Maisy could sleep in the master suite, Daisy could stay in the guest bedroom, and Daniel could make do with sleeping on the pull-out sofa in the living room. Ten minutes later on the dot, Captain Casey had called back, and Daniel had told him that they all had accepted the offer.

"Excellent!" Casey replied warmly. "Now you all just give us a couple days to fix everything up over there, and then you can move back in...take a nice little breather, you know?"

"Ahaha, yeah," said Daniel, already jostling to try and sneak in a question about Emma. "So my girlfriend...c-can she...can she speak to me?"

"I'm afraid not," answered Casey. His voice seemed infused with a kind of genuine regret, but this aspect was rendered unpalatable by the authority with which he was speaking.

"But...but why not?" asked Daniel, now making no secret of his displeasure. He didn't care that he was in front of the rest of the family. He didn't really care about anything else except speaking to Emma at this point. His agonizing guilt felt like it was a boulder on top of him, slowly crushing out the life, and he was becoming more and more panicked by the hour. A deep bubble of emotion welled up in him, threatening to rise up to his face and pop. He felt like he was about to burst into tears.

"She doesn't want to talk to you," said Casey simply.

A dagger through the heart. His brain processed everything immediately. Implied in the captain's words was the fact that they had tried to get Emma to talk to Daniel...and that she had rebuffed these offers. Once again, try as he might to chalk the chasm between him and Emma down to the product of outside forces, Daniel had to face the reality that Emma was the one continuously refusing interaction.

"And...I'm sorry, but we're really trying to avoid doing anything that would upset her," Casey continued after a short pause. "When we mentioned you she got agitated and bent one of our...aaaanyway, look, like I said, you're just going to have to trust us right now, ok?"

Daniel was staring forward into space, seeing nothing.

"Ohhh-kay," finished Casey smartly, "Well you all just sit tight for a couple more days and you'll be settling down before you know it. We'll be in touch."

But since then, the government had really not been in touch. Two more days passed, and, despite Daniel's repeated attempts to call the restricted number back, all he got was an "error" recording that the line he was calling was no longer in service. He tried all the tricks, dialing "*69" and the like before calling, but none of it worked. The only way he could talk to the people who had Emma was if they called him. And they weren't calling, until a couple days later, when someone did call to say that the house was nearly finished, and that they could all go ahead and start moving in. But it wasn't Casey, and whoever it was seemed a lot less amiable, and a lot more blunt, than the young captain.

"Can I speak to my girlfriend please?" Daniel had asked urgently.

"No," the gruff voice had answered on the other end. "Access is restricted. Have a nice day."

And now the whole family was in the car, pulling away from the hotel, silent and exhausted, Jim driving, Daniel beside him, and Maisy and Daisy in the back seat. The tension between them all had been building in the little hotel room, especially between Daniel and Daisy. The only thing uniting them at this point was their mutual and unspoken pact that Jim and Maisy would never know what they had been doing before Emma caught them. Aside from this pact, they had barely interacted with each other...barely spoken...barely even looked at each other. It was a strange and cruel irony that they had been forced to sleep in the same bed together for the past four nights. Daniel thought he had spied Daisy trying to catch his eye a few times, but he was in no mood to look at her. He knew that he was unfairly heaping the anger at himself onto Daisy, but the agony of Emma's rejection was still so raw that he simply didn't care if he was being distant. In any case, Daisy herself seemed to be grappling with her own issues and regrets, and had been mostly keeping to herself as well. Both of them knew that they shared the blame.

A few hours later, Jim was pulling up to the old house. Daniel blinked at it a few times; he was surprised by the intensity of the memories that were flooding back now. A blue tarp covered the living room roof, but aside from that, everything looked as it had before. Daniel's mind jumped back to weeks and weeks before -- it seemed an eternity ago -- when he had driven Emma away after the fire department had cut the hole in the roof to let her out. A crowd had gathered, loud and scared and unruly...it was all so muddled in Daniel's head, and yet, at the same time, so clear. He had been dead-set on getting Emma out of there. She had just woken up from a nap, and had been upset by all the people gathered, looking at her. She had tried to step out of the hole in the roof carefully, but had accidentally bashed her leg up against the front wall, taking a good chunk of brick and drywall with it.

'And there it is, still,' Daniel thought to himself, looking out at the bricks scattered on the lawn.

He could see her desperate face looking at him as he pulled his truck around, with the trailer behind it for her to crawl into. He had felt so bad...so terrible for her...she had looked like a poor, cornered animal, desperate to get away from all those prying eyes. How big had she been at that point? Just over 12 feet...12 feet!? She had seemed so impossibly huge then...but she was over twice that tall now.

"I thought they said they were almost done fixing it up," muttered Jim, pulling the car into the driveway. "Looks like they've got a ways to go."

Daniel had to agree -- it certainly didn't seem like the government had done too much, but he couldn't focus too hard on being irritated because he had gotten out of the car and was staring hard at the grass. He hadn't realized it before, since he had been in such a rush to drive away, but Emma had left noticeable footprints in the grass as she ran to him after stepping out of the house. It had been weeks since then, but he could still see the large indentations, where her huge feet had crushed the grass, grinding it into the dirt. He counted one, two, three of them, not quite foot-shaped, but clear enough to show that they were indeed her footprints.

'She only needed three steps,' thought Daniel as he stared down at the tracks, 'Three steps to cross the yard...' He put his foot in one of the dirt indentations and blinked down at the comparison...the print was over twice the length and width of his own foot, with his shoe on.

"So Daniel," Maisy was saying. He looked up and saw the whole family standing there with their bags, staring at him expectantly. "You think we should go in through the front or the back?"

"I, uhh..." he answered, stumbling over himself a little. How long had he been looking around the yard at Emma's footprints? "Let's...uhm, let's try the side door, I think." As they walked toward the door, Daniel looked up at the big oak tree by the driveway. His mind shot back again to a time weeks...or months...before, and he saw Emma crouching down, wrapping her huge arms all the way around the tree's trunk. She had been so happy, so thrilled, that she had been able to go all the way around it. He could see her beautiful eyes dancing down at him. God, that had been the day she had been wearing those huge black platform heels...he had forgotten about those! The way she had been playing around with him, pushing him down in the grass and then putting that enormous heel on his chest. Was that the day that he had really started to worry she was losing it!? Her eyes, far, far above, just looking down on him curiously, studying him...

"It's locked, honey." Maisy's voice again cut through Daniel's flashback.

"Oh! Uhhh, heheh, sorry," he chuckled sheepishly, fumbling for the keys in his pocket. "I just...uhmm...yeah..."

"A lot of memories coming back, huh?" Maisy asked, smiling gently at him, her voice understanding.

Daniel had not been prepared for the smell that hit him as he walked into the house. It didn't matter that there had been a hole in the living room roof for weeks -- the fire department had apparently covered it with the tarp fairly quickly, keeping out the elements, and preserving the integrity of the house's interior. It smelled like Emma...it smelled like their old life. Daniel exhaled out a labored breath, and he had to pause and put his hand on the kitchen counter, leaning into it as he tried not to cry. Her slightly sweet, heavy scent still permeated the house as he looked around. Everything seemed like it had been before, and it all came flooding back to him as he looked around. The sofa, the coffee table, the entertainment station, and the love seat were all bunched into the far corner of the living room.

'Of course!' Daniel remembered to himself. 'Emma had moved all that stuff...in like...a minute...so I could measure her.'

"God, so they just...sliced right through the roof, then?" Jim was saying, staring up at the large hole in the ceiling, covered by the tight blue tarp. "And Emma...she was small enough to fit through it then, I guess?"