The McClane Apocalypse Book Three (55 page)

"I think he feels the same about you,
Reagan. Feels that same sense of responsibility," Sue tells
her.

Hannah couldn't agree more. Reagan puffs air
through her nose.

"I don't need him to. I'm doing fine taking
care of myself," Reagan argues.

"Doesn't matter. He still feels it. I can
see it in John," Sue elucidates.

"He also loses his shit and kills people
pretty easily, too. It's like he has a switch he can just flick on
and off and do whatever it takes to stay alive…"

"Or keep
you
alive," Sue
corrects.

"Yeah, I guess," Reagan states, although her
voice is heavy with the burden of this knowledge. "It's just weird.
I've never been around someone like him before."

"Or someone with such nice muscles or
cheekbones?" Sue hints with a rotten laugh.

"Sue!" Hannah shouts with a laugh of her
own.

"I don't look at his… muscles. I don't even
know if he has any," Reagan lies so badly.

They both laugh
at
her this time.

"Yeah, right!" Sue cries with another
laugh.

From what Hannah can tell just from hugging
John, he is just as muscular as Derek and Kelly. Her sister is
obviously fibbing to cover her own embarrassment. John is also very
kind and very much in love with Reagan. Hannah doesn't need vision
to figure that one out.

"Shut up," Reagan mumbles.

Her sister moves around the room. She can
pace around all she wants, there's no way out of the room before
she finishes her assignment.

She grinds out, "Next subject.
Seriously."

"Alright, alright, Reagan. Sorry," Sue
apologizes. "Hannah, I have white shoes that will go perfect with
your dress if you'd like to borrow them. I think we're the same
size, right?"

"I think so," Hannah agrees. "That would be
great. Oh, unless they have a high heel, then forget it."

Sue chuckles. "No, sweetie. No heels.
They're totally flat, like a ballet flat. Don't want you to bust
your butt."

"No shit. Then Kelly's gonna beat me up
because I'll be laughing at you," Reagan chides.

"Good grief, Reagan," Sue scolds. "She won't
trip. She's going to be so beautiful."

"You don't need fancy shoes or some
ridiculous, frumpy costume to look beautiful, Hannie," Reagan
offers.

"Thanks, Reagan," Hannah replies on a
sardonic frown. Her sister does not have a way with flattery or
prose.

"Are you nervous?" Sue asks.

Hannah just smiles demurely to herself. "No,
not at all. I love Kelly very much. We were meant to be together.
I'm glad that we're getting married. And I'm really glad that my
family will be there with us tomorrow."

Reagan stands beside her and places a slim
hand on Hannah's shoulder. "I feel bad that Kelly's parents won't
be there to see it. I'm sure they would've loved you, Hannie. Hell,
everybody does."

"I wish they were going to be there, too,"
Hannah tells them. "We talked about it. Kelly's sad, too, but he's
glad that his brother and sister will be there. They're all he has
left now."

"No, not all. He has you now. And you'll
make a good aunt slash mom to Em, Hannah. You're really good with
her for not ever having any kids of your own," Reagan says before
walking away again.

"They're so great. It's not like it's hard
to help Kelly with them. Mostly they are just going to need someone
to talk to now and then. They've both been through so much," Hannah
corrects them.

"No kidding. Seems to be the theme of the
day," Reagan replies with sarcasm.

Then she sprints around in her normal flurry
of movement.

She blurts quickly, "Hey, I forgot to tell
you. I got you a few things the other day when I went with John to
the condo community."

"What'd you get, Reagan?" Sue asks
first.

Reagan plops down beside Hannah on the floor
and there is a rustling, clanking of items.

"It's a bag of goodies, Hannie," Reagan
explains.

She's always been good at explaining things
for Hannah's clarification. Reagan even takes her hand and runs it
over a cotton or canvas sack and gives it a jingle-jangle.

"Oh? What do you have there?" Hannah asks
with piqued curiosity.

"I had him take me through a few houses near
the condos and we found some useful crap. It was mostly boring
stuff like sugar, gas, lighter fluid. Boring. But then we went into
Pleasant View and we raided a few stores and some of the buildings.
There was a surprising amount of junk still there. Grandpa's
practice is trashed all to hell, but some of the other buildings
aren't too bad. The pharmacy's screwed, nothing left there at all.
Anyways, who cares about that? I found this little brooch of two
blue birds on the floor of Bernson's Jewelry store in town. That
place had already been hit hard, but I found the brooch. I don't
know if it's real diamonds or sapphires or what it's made out of,
but it's sparkly. Jewelry has never exactly been my thing. It can
be your 'something blue.' Well, only if you want it to be. You
don't have to feel obligated," her sister offers.

It's highly unusual for Reagan to be
sentimental about anything, so it leaves Hannah smiling.

"That would be wonderful, Reagan," she tells
her as Reagan presses the brooch into her palm. Hannah can feel the
jagged edges of rhinestones or crystals. Sue comes closer to
Hannah, standing at her shoulder.

"That's great, Reagan. It's quite lovely,
Hannah. Here, we can pin it to her dress," Sue considers as she
gently extracts it from Hannah's hand. "Wow, it's stamped 14k on
the back. I'd bet these are real gemstones. They don't usually set
fake gemstones in real gold. I think it'll be just lovely on your
dress, Hannie. We could pin it to the top, near the lace at your
collar. It will be so pretty, and it matches your eyes."

"Ok, that'll be fine," Hannah accommodates
them both.

"Gold is Au on the periodic table of
elements. That always bothered me. Why not just make it a big G?
Everyone would've known it meant gold, duh," Reagan babbles.

Her sister just yammers about sciency stuff
while Sue continues on without missing a beat.

"And we can set your hair in soft rollers
tonight," Sue says when she comes back from the closet where
Hannah's dress is hung. "It'll fall in loose waves tomorrow if we
set it. It always looks so pretty that way. We could pull half up
and leave half down or whatever way you want it."

"Ok," Hannah says again. She's not concerned
about her hair or a brooch. She just wants to be married to Kelly.
All of the pomp and circumstance involved in planning and executing
the actual process aren't so much of an interest for Hannah. She
can't see any of it anyways.

"Hannah, you could pass that brooch on to
your daughter someday. If it is real, then it's probably worth
money. Well, it used to be worth money," Reagan snorts.

Hannah smiles. She's still stuck on the
brooch.

Reagan adds, "Maybe you might want to invest
in underwear and socks instead to pass down to your daughter. Not
like any of those are gonna get manufactured anymore."

"Reagan, it might not always be like this.
As a matter of fact, I feel quite certain that things will get
better," Hannah tries to put on a positive spin.

"Don't get your hopes up too high, Hannie,"
Reagan says harshly. "As long as men still run the world, it'll
stay fucked up for a long time."

"Reagan!" Sue berates. "Besides, nobody's
really running anything. It's not the worst thing ever, either.
It'll be a fresh start, a do-over for everyone in the world."

"Yeah, but eventually men will take over
everything again and then they'll just…"

"I do believe, genius, that the only woman
President this country has ever had is the one who made the Syrian
mess that involved our military. And that royal screw-up was still
going on before this started. Remember, smarty pants? Let's not
argue. People will always try to destroy each other and take what
doesn't belong to them. I'm a mom! Trust me on this one. My own
kids fight over toys on a daily basis. They're just smaller
versions of adults," Sue says with a laugh that Hannah and even
Reagan echo. "Hey, this is Hannah's night anyways. We aren't going
to be negative today."

"Ok, whatever," Reagan finally says in a
huff.

"It's ok, Reagan," Hannah lets her off the
hook. "I have enough hope for the both of us."

She takes Reagan's slim hand in her own, and
her sister actually lets her hold it for a minute before pulling
away. Hannah instead presses her palm to Reagan's cool cheek.
Hannah feels the long, thin scar there and some deep, primitively
protective instinct within her surfaces as it always does. Either
of her sisters in pain is not something she likes to think about,
ever. However, her sister pulls away more quickly this time. The
bag jingles again, the sounds of metal, perhaps wood and other
things bumping against each other.

"I also got something else at the jewelry
store. It can count as your 'something new.' It'll count as
something new for all of us actually," Reagan says and presses
something into Hannah's hand again.

"What do you mean?" Sue asks.

"I found these gold bracelets under a desk
in the back room. There was a scattering of jewelry and coins on
the floor like the owner had been packing things away when he was
come upon or… something. Let's not speculate on that," Reagan
insists.

None of them wants to. It is likely a
macabre tale.

"Oh, they're pretty, too, Reagan. This is
definitely real gold," Sue exclaims.

"Here, Sue, I got this one for you; and one
for you, Hannie; and one for Em and Sam, too, since they're kind of
our adopted little sisters. And one for me, of course," Reagan
explains.

Hannah allows her fingertips to glide over
the smooth, polished metal of the bracelet. In the exact center of
the flat, intertwining link of the chain is a cross that is
connected on either side with some sort of filigree or design. She
frowns.

"What is it, Reagan?" she inquires.

"It's a Celtic symbol on either side of the
cross, Hannie," Reagan replies quietly. She is still kneeling
beside Hannah. "Here, let me work the clasp for you."

"What does the symbol mean do you think?"
Sue asks.

Reagan chuffs again. "Don't be silly. I know
exactly what it means or I wouldn't have taken them. It's a triple
spiral. Feel, Hannie. Feel the circles? They don't close all the
way. It's usually an interpretation of women according to the
Celtic world of symbolism. The three sides represent the three life
stages of a woman from young to old and usually mean power, change
and strength, blah, blah, blah."

"It's really beautiful, Reagan," Sue says
after a moment's pause to think about the bracelet and what it
represents.

"I just thought they were cool. You know,
kind of badass like us. We're powerful women. And this links us
together forever no matter where we end up, or if God forbid we'd
ever be separated," Reagan says.

She knows her sister is trying her hardest
to seem nonchalant about such a poignant gift. Before Reagan can
rise and leave her again, Hannah reaches out and pulls her sister
close for a long hug. This time Reagan doesn't swiftly draw back
but actually returns it. Sue joins them, and soon she and her
oldest sister end up with tears streaming down their cheeks. Reagan
does not return this expression of feeling, though. That would be
too much for her.

"Good grief!" her feisty sister finally says
and pulls away. "This is not the powerful badass stuff I was
talking about!"

Sue laughs aloud, not caring what Reagan
thinks. Hannah smiles.

"I can't wait to show Em," Hannah expresses
on a sniffle. "She'll think it's so great being a part of this.
It's so hard for her having lost her mother. If she feels a
connection to the three of us, I think it will help her."

"Oh, I agree, Hannah," Sue says with a smile
in her voice. "She's so sweet and good. She'll feel like she's a
part of some inner circle when she gets this. I know I sure
do."

"Me, too. And someday you can pass yours on
to Ari," Hannah agrees.

No matter how much she loves and cherishes
Kelly and will until the day she dies, there is something about
being bonded to her sisters that is unexplainable. There will
always be aspects of her life, aspects of her as a woman that he
will never fully understand. There will always be things that she
will only share with her sisters. And there will always be a love
so powerful that has bound her to them and them to her for the rest
of their lives. Perhaps it was because they'd all lost their mother
of whom they'd loved so deeply. Perhaps it is simply the way things
are with all sisters. It doesn't matter to Hannah. She'll always be
a part of them, and they'll always know that they are a part of
her.

Sue hands her a handkerchief, probably
Grandpa's. "I pinned the lace from Grams's wedding dress to the
inside hem of your dress, Hannah. Even though we may be living in a
modern apocalypse there's no reason not to do this right. You now
have all four elements of the 'something' tradition. We've got old,
new, borrowed and blue. The end times have got nothing on us."

"Yep, we're a regular, freaging bunch of
party planners around here," Reagan sarcastically remarks.

Sue scolds Reagan again, but it isn't
heartfelt and lacks any real scrutiny. A short while later, they
finish the decorations and her crown of flowers. And Sue finishes
Reagan's linens. Hannah's quite sure her that her wily sister has
complained ceaselessly about it just to get out of doing it. After
all, she is a genius.

They make their way to the kitchen together
just as the men are coming in from doing whatever outdoor chores
they've been working on. The kids follow noisily behind them as
Grams joins the melee. Sue and Derek depart, taking their children
with them. Kelly sends Cory upstairs for cleaning up and Em
downstairs for the same where he follows her. One by one the family
disperses, leaving Hannah and her grandmother alone in their
special room of the house.