EPILOGUE
Ronan
One week later…
Ronan watched while Everly tended her newly planted seeds. She spoke to each pot telling it to grow strong as she watered them. The would-be plants sat in front of the sliding glass door which got morning sunshine.
The day before, she and Ronan had sat at the kitchen table and planted seeds in little peat cups.
Tennyson wrote the name of each seed type on a popsicle stick.
The care and management of the little plants was in Everly’s hands after that.
She was looking forward to Memorial Day Weekend when it would finally be safe to transfer the sensitive herbs and vegetables into the soil of their garden.
“Is Dad gonna leave his job at West Side Magick?” Everly asked, when she finished watering.
Ronan knew this conversation was coming, but he hadn’t known when Everly would choose to start it. Now seemed as good a time as any with Tennyson out shopping with Ezra. “No honey, your Dad’s not going anywhere.”
“But he was so scared when he was in jail.” Everly filled the electric tea kettle and turned it on before grabbing mugs for herself and Ronan. “I’ve never felt that kind of fear before, Daddy. It was almost paralyzing. I don’t know how Dad was able to stand up against it.”
“You’ve grown up a lot faster than I would have liked, thanks to your gift. We’ve had to talk about a lot of situations that regular elementary school kids never encounter until they’re much older. It’s this kind of question that reminds me that you’re seven, not seventeen.”
Everly grinned at Ronan.
“The kind of fear your Dad was feeling wasn’t for himself.
It was for you and Ezra. He was afraid of what would happen to the two of you if he wasn’t able to come home.
Later that fear was for your safety. He might not have known the brick was going to come through our window, but he was aware something like that could happen.
Thankfully their homeowners insurance had taken care of the cost of a new window. Ronan vacuumed the house every day just in case they’d missed any stray shards of glass. But for the dent in the coffee table, it was impossible to tell a brick had been thrown through the window.
“That’s interesting,” Everly said. “Even though he was really scared, he also wasn’t afraid to stand up to what that woman tried to do to us.”
“Your Dad wasn’t just fighting against the criminal charges that woman instigated against him, but also for all the psychics in Salem.
If Autumn Miller had been able to convince the court of Dad’s guilt and the need for him to pay for his crime, it would have been really bad.
All of the psychic shops would go out of business if clients were allowed to send psychics to jail when readings didn’t come true. ”
“I would still read for people anyway,” Everly said.
“You would?” Ronan wasn’t surprised one bit.
“I have this gift for a reason and I’m gonna use it to help as many people as possible, even if I risk getting in trouble myself.”
“You’re so brave and so smart, honey.” Ronan got up from the table when the electric kettle shut off and poured the hot water into mugs. “There are always going to be people who try to hurt others, but it’s people like you who will always be there to help.”
“I’m just like you, Daddy. You help people all the time. I don’t want to be a police officer and carry a gun. I want to help people heal from the kind of pain Dad went through. Even though that situation with Autumn Miller is over, he’s still feeling scared and dramatized.”
Ronan flashed a quick smile. “Do you mean traumatized?”
Everly nodded. “How do we make that feeling go away?”
“It’s going to take some time before your Dad feels safe again. The police officer from Danvers really hurt him.” It was a damn good thing Dutch Vance was in jail, because he’d wanted to beat on the man, the way he’d done to Tennyson.
“Until all of this happened to Dad, I didn’t know there were policemen who were bad guys.” Everly wore a sad look.
Ronan’s heart broke. One more piece of Everly’s innocence was gone.
“Some people go into law enforcement for the wrong reasons. They want the excuse to use their power to hurt instead of help people. Dutch Vance was a good cop when he worked for Cisco. He’d wanted to start a cold case team in Salem for years before it happened.
He thought he was going to be a member of the unit and when Cisco hired me, Jude and Fitz instead, Dutch was angry and wanted revenge against us. ”
“He got revenge by hurting Dad and having him put in jail,” Everly said softly. “Wasn’t that enough? Why did he have to throw the brick or try to hurt Dad in the hospital?”
“What do you do when you’re angry?” Ronan asked.
“I try to calm myself down first and then work on the problem, like you and Dad taught me to do.”
“That’s right,” Ronan said. “After we talk about the problem, how do you feel then?”
“Better and then I go do things that will make me happy again.”
“Dutch Vance didn’t do any of those things. He wasn’t satisfied with your Dad being in jail. He wanted to bring more pain to our family.”
“He’s gonna have a hard time in prison,” Everly said.
The last Ronan heard was that Dutch and his attorney were working on a plea agreement.
All told, his charges could land him in prison for thirty years, meaning he wouldn’t get out until he was in his seventies.
Autumn was looking at the same charges related to the incident at the hospital, plus stalking charges for her actions against Doctor Elijah Logan. “You can see him in jail?”
Everly nodded. “He’s still really angry and getting into fights. We should help him, Daddy.”
“You think so?” Ronan never ceased to be amazed by his daughter’s capacity to love.
“We could write letters and I could draw pictures. Same with Autumn. Maybe if we gave them a reason to feel good, they wouldn’t be so angry anymore,” Everly suggested.
There was no way in hell Ronan would allow his daughter to communicate with either of those people.
Yes, Everly was suggesting a good deed, but what his daughter didn’t know was that Vance and Miller planned to kill her after he’d taken care of Tennyson.
For that alone, the two of them deserved to rot in the deepest, darkest pit.
“We’ll see.” Ronan cleared his throat. “In the meantime, how about we make Dad his favorite dinner so he can relax tonight.”
Everly nodded. “And his favorite dessert!”
“You got it!” Ronan grabbed his phone and started throwing together a quick shopping list. Shrimp scampi with linguine and extra garlic to keep the vampires away. Dessert would be fudgy brownies with whipped cream.
Tennyson hadn’t been the only one who’d been traumatized by what happened thanks to Autumn Miller.
Ronan was dealing with his own trauma and guilt.
He knew Everly was dealing with her own share of both as well.
The only thing they could do was band together to help each other heal one day at a time.
Ronan knew their love for each other would carry them through to brighter days.
THE END