“Marissa?” Gael Brennan asked. “Is that you, baby?”

“Yes, Daddy, it's me.” Marissa was in tears.

Gael breathed a sigh of relief. “We've been so worried about you, honey. Where are you? Are you okay?”

Marissa didn't know what to say. She didn't want to tell him she was not okay but she also did not want to upset her father any further. She skipped that question and answered with “I'm in Calgary, Daddy.”

“Where in Calgary?”

“At the airport.”

“You stay there. Your mother and I will come and get you.” He was so relieved that his daughter was back in Canada, Gael was willing to drive any distance to get her.

“No, it's too far. I have a ticket to Edmonton. I can rent a car there and drive to the farm.” The family's farm was a couple hours west of Edmonton.

“When does your flight get in? We'll meet you there. Don't spend your money on a car rental.”

“Dad, it gets in at 4am. The cows will be upset if you don't start milking at 5:00.”

“Your brothers can do the morning milking. They don't need me. There will be a day when I won't be here and they will take over. We are coming to get you, I insist.” The tone of her father's voice told Marissa he would not back down.

“First, I need to tell you something so you can decide if you want me to come home.” Marissa had to be honest with him about the risks of the Cartel finding out she was back home in Alberta.

“Of course we want you to come home, Marissa.”

“Daddy, if the people I am running from find out I'm there, they will come after all of us, including my younger sisters and brothers and the foster kids, if you have any right now.”

“You let us worry about that, honey. We have guns and we know how to use them.” Marissa's family hunted every fall to fill one of their freezers. “Now, tell me what time your flight gets in.”

“4:00.”

“Are you on an express flight?”

“Yes”

“You have a bit of a wait, it's only 12:30. Will you be okay?”

“Yes, I will be fine. I have a cup of coffee to help me stay awake.”

“Can we reach you at the number that came through on our call display?”

“Yes, Daddy. It's my cell.”

“Okay. We'll bring the number with us. We still have the same mobile numbers. Do you remember them?”

“I've never forgotten them.”

There was a lump in Gael's throat. “Call us if you need to. Your mother sends her love. We'll see you in a few hours.”

“I love you, Daddy.”

“We love you too, baby.”

----------------------------------

Gael turned to his wife, Irene, who was lying in bed next to him. “Our Marissa is coming home”, he said to her.

“Thank the Lord”, Irene replied through her tears.

“I figured you'd want to come with me to get her, that's why I didn't ask.” The Brennans had married when Gael was 17 and Irene was 16. They would celebrate their 38th wedding anniversary in the spring and were so close that they could usually finish each other's sentences.

“Wild horses couldn't keep me away.”

“I'll call Bill and tell him so he knows I won't be here for milking.” Bill was their eldest son, who lived with his wife and kids across from the homestead. He and his brother, Stan, who lived in the otherwise unused old bunkhouse on the farm, would take over when Gael retired or passed away.

“I'm going to get dressed, then I'll put a pot of coffee on. And I'll write up a note for the kids when they get up.” Their youngest children were still at home, as well as an older daughter who'd come home after splitting up with her husband. The youngest two were special needs children whom they had adopted after first fostering them. Terry, now 14, had spina bifida and had come to them when he was just an infant. His birth mother felt she couldn't give him the care he needed, so she'd relinquished him for adoption. He couldn't walk and was wheelchair bound. Anne, now 13, had come to them as a toddler. She was high functioning autistic and loved music. She wanted to be a singer. Marissa had been teaching her how to play guitar when she'd been kidnapped by the Cartel.

The Brennans also had three foster children at the moment, ages 8, 12 and 15. They helped fill up the house with some of their biological children gone. Neither Gael or Irene were ready for empty nest syndrome. But no matter the number of people in the household, they still felt a void with Marissa gone, especially with the way she left. And they were thrilled that she was finally coming home.

Irene packed some sandwiches and homemade cookies after she wrote a note for the kids. Vicky, the second oldest currently living in the house, would make breakfast for the youngsters and make sure they got to the bus stop on time. She would drive Terry to school in the accessible van they had and then she would go to work at a real estate firm where she was the receptionist. Irene would usually drive into town in the afternoons and switch vehicles with Vicky so that she could drive him home rather than have him hang out at the local mall for a couple hours.

Gael came downstairs and sat down at the long kitchen table - he'd made it himself out of wood to accommodate their large family. Irene poured him a cup of coffee. “What's that?” he asked, indicating the insulated bag on the counter.

“I made some sandwiches for us and Marissa - I'm sure she'll be hungry after her trip. I'll make a couple thermoses of coffee to take, too.”'

“Looks like you made enough for an army, woman”, he teased.

“I'm sure they will be gone by the time we get home.” Neither one knew of how little their daughter had been eating or how thin she'd gotten.

They chatted for a bit longer, then Irene made coffee to pour into the thermoses and their travel mugs while Gael packed the car - she had also set aside a couple blankets and a pillow to take with them in case Marissa wanted to sleep on the drive home. Finally, they were pulling out of the laneway, anxious to see their wayward middle child.

-------------------------

Marissa finally boarded her plane. She had asked for a wheelchair, something she rarely did but she was utterly exhausted this time and didn't feel she could get through the airport and board the plane on her own power. The sleep on the bus had helped, but she was more mentally spent. The airline pre-boarded her, along with a couple others who were in chairs.

The flight was a short one, just under an hour, so she didn't get a chance to sleep. She didn't think she'd be able to anyway, she was a bundle of nerves. Marissa was looking forward to seeing her parents for the first time in four years but she was also apprehensive. Her father had sounded happy to hear from her, but once that wore off, would he and her mother be angry at her for what she'd done? Would they think her weak for not leaving the Cartel sooner? She knew they were going to say that she should have come home long ago regardless of the risk to them, but she still felt she'd done the right thing in protecting them. The only reason she was taking the risk now is she had nowhere else to go and the Cartel would go after them anyway since she'd run from it. Yes, she could have used her savings and gone to another city to start over, but what would happen when that money ran out? She couldn't use her real name and any alias she used wouldn't have a work history, so how could she find a job? She really had no other choice but to go home.

When the plane landed, Marissa and the other wheelchair users had to wait for the rest of the passengers to disembark. Then they were taken into the terminal by airline staff. She was wheeled to the area where people waited for their loved ones. Since she was one of the last to disembark the plane, the area was not as busy and she immediately spotted her parents - Gael, tall, dark haired and in good shape since he worked on the farm all day and Irene, a few inches shorter with a chunky build and short dark hair. Neither of them had as much grey in their hair as you'd think someone of their age would have.

“Mama, Daddy!” she exclaimed as they ran toward her and smothered her with hugs and kisses. The airline attendant waited patiently for a few minutes, then suggested they get Marissa's luggage from the carousel. Marissa tried to get out of the chair, but Laura told her she couldn't until they reached her parents' vehicle. “I'm sorry, it's airport rules. A liability issue. If you get out now and something happens to you - a fall, for example - we could be sued for letting you walk on your own.”

“You stay right there in your seat”, Gael said to his daughter. “You look worn out, you have enough trouble walking when you aren't tired.” Marisa could have taken this as an insult, but she knew he was right. Walking was difficult for her at the best of times. Besides, her father would never deliberately insult her.

At the luggage carousel, she pointed out her suitcase and Gael lifted it off. Her carry on bag was on her lap. Irene suggested they get some cold water at a vending machine for the ride home - all the kiosks were closed at this hour of the morning. “We brought sandwiches and cookies for the ride home, I'm sure you must be hungry.”

“I could really use another coffee”, she replied.

“We have that in the car. Your father graciously left some for the ride home.” Gael was a coffee-holic and Marissa seemed to have inherited that trait.

“Maybe we should stop at a Timmy's before we're out of Edmonton”, he suggested. “There's not that much left in the thermoses.”

They made their way to the main door. The Brennan's had brought Marissa's handicapped parking permit with them so that they could park as close to the entrance as possible as they had thought she would be walking. Gael put her luggage in the trunk while Irene helped her daughter out of the wheelchair and into the back seat of the vehicle. “Do you want to sit in the front?” she asked.

“No, Mama - I might sleep for part of the drive.” She highly doubted that she could keep her eyes open another two hours.

“If you want to lie down, we'll pull over and figure out a way to buckle you in.”

“It's okay, Mama, I don't need it.” Marissa hated seat belts and only used them because it was the law. The last thing she needed was a cop pulling a car she was in over and asking for her ID. If he ran it, it would come back as no such person in the system. She was home now and able to use her real ID, though she didn't need the points a seat belt infraction would cause. However, she knew if a cop was behind them, s/he would not know there was someone lying down in the back seat.

“You will buckle up, even lying down, when you are in my car, young lady”, Gael admonished her. “I will not put the car in drive unless everyone is belted in and you know that.”

“Yes, Daddy”, Marissa replied, contritely.

They found an all night Tim Horton's drive through and each ordered a large cup of coffee to get them through the first part of the drive to the farm. Once on the highway, Irene asked if anyone wanted a sandwich. Gael accepted the offer, but Marissa declined, saying she wasn't hungry. “Please have one, sweetheart. You are all skin and bones. When was the last time you ate?” Irene had been shocked at how thin her daughter was, but had tried not to show it in order to not upset her.

“I don't know, yesterday maybe....no, it's already tomorrow so day before yesterday.”

“And what did you eat then?”

“A few crackers.”

“Marissa, you need more than that. I'm going to get some weight back on those bones of yours”, her mother vowed.

Marissa sighed. “Mama, you fuss too much.”

Gael felt it was time for him to butt in. “Let your mother fuss over you, Rissa.” He hadn't called her that since she was a child. She would flip if anyone else called her that, including her mother. “You don't know how much she - no, we - have missed you. Have something to eat. It won't kill you.”

Marissa felt like she was a little girl again, getting chewed out for something she'd done wrong. “All right, I'll have half a sandwich”, she compromised.

They were quiet while they ate, then Gael asked the question he and his wife had been wondering. “Rissa, now that we've had something to eat.... what were you doing in Denver and where did you go when you took off from there?”

Marissa didn't even think to ask him how he knew she'd left Denver. “You don't want to know, Daddy.”

“Yes, we do want to know. You told me that we could be in danger if you came home. We said it didn't matter, that we'd deal with it. I think we have a right to know what you were doing and why we would be in danger. Now dish.”

She took a sip of her cooling coffee. “It's not pretty.”

“We gathered that, honey. There is nothing you could say that would shock us.”

Marissa was resigned to telling them. She didn't want to - she knew what it was going to do to them to find out what she'd been through. “Daddy ... Mama ... the upshot is that I was working for ...” She hesitated a few seconds “a drug cartel.”

Her parents didn't react the way she was expecting. She thought they would freak out or even be in denial. Instead, Irene asked her “Why, sweetheart?”

“I didn't have a choice, Mama. They made me do it.”

“Made you do what?”

Marissa shuddered at the memory of what she had been doing. “Bring drugs into the States from Central and South America.”

“A drug mule”, Gael said quietly.

“Yes.”

“So Braxton's friend was right.”

At the mention of Braxton, Marissa's heart skipped a beat. “You were talking to Braxton?”

“Just after you disappeared on him. He was - is - very worried about you.” Gael made a mental note to call Braxton and let him know that Marissa was home.

“What did you mean about his friend being right?”

“Braxton has a friend on the police force - a detective. I think he said his name is Logan. Anyways, he called Logan after you took off...”

Marissa interrupted. “I told him not to call the police when I got transferred!” She felt betrayed.

“Don't interrupt your father”, Irene said to her.

“Sorry”, Marissa replied sullenly.

“Rissa, he was just very worried about you. He had a feeling you were involved in something bad and that it might not be by choice. His friend told him there had been a drug cartel in the city, but that it had bugged out before they could arrest anyone. They couldn't locate anyone using the names they'd been given by their informant, apparently all their mules used aliases as well as their supervisors - and when the heat is on and they move to another city, the Cartel creates new aliases for them. Is that true?”

“Yes, Daddy.”

“Marissa, you said they made you do it. How? We raised you better, sweetheart.”

“Mama, I didn't want to. I tried to say no, but they wouldn't have it. They beat me so bad and I still said no.” At this revelation, both of her parents gasped. “After the third time, when I still said no, they said they would torture and kill you and the children and make me watch. I had to say yes. They kept reminding me of that. I had to do everything they told me to do to keep you and my brothers and sisters safe.” Marissa hadn't wanted to tell her parents of the beatings, but they knew her too well and would know if she was hiding something.

Gael was the first to speak again. “Baby, when you were beat up and had to have an operation to fix some broken bones, did the Cartel do that?”

“Somebody from the Cartel did, but it wasn't authorized. He was my escort coming home that trip. He had to wait for me to ....uh ... expel the packets. He said I was one short and accused me of keeping it for myself. I would never do that, I hate drugs!”

“We believe you, Marissa”, Irene said.

“*He* didn't believe me and he beat me up. He used brass knuckles and went to punch me but I put my arm up and he hit the inside of my wrist with them. He broke two bones in my wrist and gave me a big cut.” She was wearing a jacket as it was September and cool, so neither Gale or Irene had seen the scar.

“What's his name, Rissa?” Gael asked.

“Why, Daddy?”

“Just tell me his name.”

“Tomas - I don't know his last name. It's an alias anyway.”

“If I find him, I will take care of him for what he did to you.” Gael was livid, both at the Cartel and at Tomas.

“He got punished. I'm pretty sure he got a bad beating. My supervisor said that escorts are not allowed to do that and that a packet got left behind in my hotel room. He said it was nobody's fault.”

“What was your supervisor's name?”

“At the time, it was Brian then they changed it to Mark. Don't go after him, Daddy - he was good to me.” She didn't tell him that she thought Mark had sold her out.

“Those people aren't good to anybody but themselves.” Gael wasn't buying it.

“Daddy, he was. He looked out for me, he knew how hard it was on me and he felt they shouldn't have 'taken' me.”

“What do you mean by 'taken' you, Marissa?”

“Mama, remember when I disappeared from my house?”

“How could I forget?”

“That's what happened. Two men knocked on my door and said their car broke down. They asked if they could use my phone, said they couldn't get cell service. I told them I would bring my cordless to them but they pushed the door in and grabbed me just as I was reaching in my purse for it. I fought as hard as I could but they were too strong. They put me in the back of a van and said they had a gun and that if I made any fuss at the border, they would shoot me.”

“Oh, sweetheart...” Irene was horrified at what her daughter had been through and had been forced to do. Gael was gripping the steering wheel so tight his knuckles were white. He was furious and wanted to find the people responsible and do to them what they had done to his 'baby'. However, he knew that wouldn't be wise and besides, they would probably be hard - if not impossible - to find. But if they came anywhere near the farm, he'd make them regret the day they were born.

“I'm tired, I'd like to try to sleep.” She really was tired, it wasn't a ploy to get out of talking. The motion of the car and the warmth from it's heater was making it hard to keep her eyes open.

“I'll stop the car and we'll get you lying down and buckled in”, Gael said as he pulled over onto the shoulder and put his 4 way flashers on. He and his wife helped Marissa get comfortable. They did up the middle seat belt by pulling it over her waist and around her back before buckling it up, and they managed to get the window belt around her legs without using the shoulder strap. They couldn't do up the other belt without the risk of choking her if Gael had to stop suddenly so they left it alone.

Marissa fell asleep almost as soon as the car was in motion again. Gael drove in silence for a while, then he said in a low voice so as to not wake his daughter “You know what she has to do, right?”

“She has to go to the police”, Irene answered in a voice that was almost a whisper.

“Exactly.”

“Let's give her a few days to recover and visit with the family and her animals and get settled in.”

“We can't give her long - just today, honey. Otherwise, the police might question why she took so long to go to them after getting home. I'll talk to Owen and tell him she's back with us so they can close the missing persons report.” Owen Jarvis was one of Gael's best friends and the commander of Edson's RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) detachment. “I'll also tell him that Marissa will be looking to talk to someone about what happened to her while she was gone. I just hope they don't arrest her. She doesn't need that.”

“I hope not, too, but she has to do it. It's only right that she turn them in.”

They drove in silence a while longer, then they were home. “We're home, baby”, Gael said to Marissa as he turned into the laneway.