Marissa slept until mid afternoon. The house was quiet, but not for long. Soon it would be like Grand Central Station - the children would be home from school and the working adults home from their jobs. Oh, how she had missed this! Even after she bought her own place, she would go to the farm every day. Sometimes just for a cup of coffee but more often, for supper. It was her favourite time of day with everyone crowded around the kitchen table, talking about how their day had gone. Supper was later than most families ate - 7:00, after the evening milking was finished. The really young children were fed earlier.

She made her way downstairs after going to the bathroom and getting dressed. Nobody was around. There was a note on the table.

Marissa,

Gone to get Terry from school. Back soon. Coffee is made. Your dad brought the 4 wheeler up to the back door so you can go see your horses.

So good to have you home again.

Love,

Mama

Marissa found a travel mug in the cupboard and poured some coffee into it. She had had a mug holder Gael had made for her out of leather. It went over her shoulder, with the holder part at her opposite hip. She didn't know where it was, though, so she had to carry the mug in one hand and walk with just one crutch.

She took the 4 wheeler to the horse barn to get some carrots, then to the pasture where her mares, Annie and Oakley were. They were way at the back. She whistled and they came running, along with the other horses on the farm. Marissa broke the carrots up and gave each equine a piece through the fence. She noticed that Onyx had a young foal at her side. After realizing there were no more carrot pieces coming, most of them went back to their grazing, but hers stayed behind for some loving. When they got bored of that, Marissa went back to the barn and took an apple out of the bin. She found a knife and cut it up into pieces for Charlie. She found an empty tin can on top of the bin, so she put the apple pieces in it and took them to the heifers' pasture. Charlie spotted her right away and came running, once again jumping the fence. Marissa laughed. “You always were a jumper, weren't you, Charlie?”, she said to the steer. He used to jump the fence at her farm whenever she was out in the yard.

“Moo”, was the reply. Sometimes, she could swear he understood what she was saying, though she knew he probably couldn't.

She fed Charlie his pieces of apple. “This is your treat for doing what Daddy told you to do this morning.” Marissa then got off the 4 wheeler and sat down on the ground. Charlie lay down in front of her and she petted him while she drank her coffee. When she was finished her java, she shifted positions and lay up against him, something she used to do all the time. Charlie would chew his cud if he wanted to and she would often fall asleep, especially if it was a warm, sunny day. Today was cool and cloudy and she didn't want to stay out too long - she wanted to get back to the house to help with supper preparations and to visit with her family members as they arrived home.

She wondered where Cooper was. He usually hung around her when she was outside, but perhaps he was in the fields with the guys. She thought she had heard them say they were going to bring in the rest of the potatoes and squash. They would be coming back soon to get ready to start the evening milking.

Marissa said goodbye to Charlie and told him she would visit with him again tomorrow. “I'll never leave you again, big guy”, she promised, not realizing it was a promise she would not be able to keep. “Go to your babies.” The steer ran away a bit, then turned around and headed for his pasture, easily clearing the six foot fence.

Back at the house, the kids were home. Terry and Anne were ecstatic to see their sister, they hadn't been able to do more than say hello before leaving for school in the morning. The foster children were shy and held back. They had come to the Brennans a year after Marissa's disappearance. Marissa asked them to join her at the table. Irene put down cookies and juice and admonished them to not eat too many of the former.

“Where have you been, Marissa?” Terry asked. “We missed you!” The younger children had not been told very much about Marissa's disappearance, just that she was living elsewhere and not able to get home at the present time.

“Don't you worry about where your sister's been”, Irene interrupted. “Just be glad she's home.”

When they'd had their after school snacks, Irene shooed them into the living room to watch tv or to their rooms to do their homework, if they had any. “Mama, can I help you with supper?” Marissa asked.

“You can peel potatoes and carrots, if you want.” She set the vegetables in front of her daughter, along with a peeler. “What are we having?”

“Roast beef.”

“My favourite.”

“I know. I hope you eat tonight.”

“I will have a bit.”

Supper was the best Marissa had had in a very long time, with the exception of the dinner she'd had with Braxton. Oh, how she'd missed the table full of family members, talking, joking, cajoling - after Gael said the blessing, of course. They all held hands while the head of the household thanked God for bringing Marissa back to them and asked for help in getting through the next steps. When he'd finished, Bill, who was staying for supper rather than come back later for the family meeting, asked him what he meant by the “next steps”.

His father only said “Later” and Bill understood.

After supper, Irene sent the youngsters upstairs to get ready for bed. Patsy and Vicky, Marissa's older sister who was divorced and living at home for a while until she got back on her feet, helped their mother clean up. Gael motioned to Marissa “Let's go to the office, you can show me how to do that email thing.”

Marissa followed him down the hall to his office, where he kept the farm records and books. Gael took out his keys and unlocked the door. It was locked because the ammunition for their guns was kept in there. Under Canadian law, ammunition had to be kept away from the guns, in a locked box. Locking the office door was an extra precaution to make sure the children didn't get hold of it. The guns were kept in a locked box in a storage room, which was also locked. Gael got a chair and put it beside his. Then he sat down behind his big oak desk that was passed down by his father and turned on the computer. Marissa sat beside him. “Do you have Braxton's email address with you?” he asked.

“I know it it by heart”, was the reply. When the computer had booted, she told him where to go to set up an email account. She didn't want him using the farm's email in case Braxton's was hacked by the Cartel. She directed him as he set up an account, then gave him the email address. Gael slowly typed his message - he was a “hunt and peck” typist.

Braxton,

Marissa is home - she's safe but she will need to get medical care for her cancer. Everything makes sense now, but her story is too long to get into here. We all hope you are well, I know she misses you terribly but she is afraid to call you and put you at risk.

Regards,

Gael Brennan

He hit the send button and shut down the computer, then he and Marissa talked for a bit.

“Daddy, what happened with my farm after I left?” she asked him.

“We kept it as it was for a while, baby, though we brought your animals here after a couple weeks. When it became evident that you were not going to come home for a long time, if ever, we looked into selling it but that couldn't be done without your signature. We had to wait seven years to have you declared legally dead before we could sell it. So we rented it out. There is a lovely family living there. They would buy it if it was on the market, they just love it.”

“You were going to have me declared legally dead?” Marissa didn't know how she felt about that.

“I don't know if we could have gone through with it”, Gael replied. “Probably not. But you are home now and you can decide if you want to move back to your farm or sell it. You are welcome to stay here as long as you want.”

“Thank you, Daddy.” Marissa didn't think she could go back to living at the house she'd been kidnapped from. Nor did she want to evict a family that liked the place so much.

“How much are you going to tell them?” Gael asked her, referring to the family meeting.

“I don't know. How much do you think I should tell them?”

“Everything, honey. They are going to find out anyway. It might as well come from you.”

“Do you think they can handle it, Daddy?” she wondered.

“Your mother and I handled it ... they can, too. It will upset them, but that can't be helped. Come on, let's go out there.” They stood up and Gael gave his daughter a hug before they went back to the kitchen.

Supper clean up was almost done and coffee was made. The youngsters were upstairs in bed. Gael went up to say a quick good night to them.

“Marissa, sit down in your father's chair”, Irene directed her. We'll sit on each side of you.” She set a couple heaping plates of cookies on the table. “Do you want coffee?”

“Yes, please, Mama.” Her mother poured a cup and brought it to her. Her sisters and brothers were seated around the table with their coffee. The ones that didn't live at home all lived within a 20 mile radius of the farm. While they waited for Gael to come back downstairs, the ones she hadn't seen yet greeted her with hugs and kisses.

Gael came down and sat at in the closest chair to Marissa's right. Irene was to her left. With her parents flanking her, she addressed the family. “Before I begin, I'd like to ask that you let me go through it before asking any questions. I need to be able to talk uninterrupted to get through it all with my sanity intact.” Any other time, her siblings would have given her a hard time at that last part, but they sensed that this was something big and awful that she was going to tell them. Their parents glaring at them might have been a factor as well.

Marissa started at the beginning and told of being kidnapped from her farm and taken across the border to the Cartel's compound in New York State. Of the beatings she took when she told them she would not carry drugs into the country and of caving in when the Cartel threatened her entire family. She didn't go into a lot of detail about the specifics of how she transported the drugs, but she did tell them she hated every minute of it.

She told them of being diagnosed with kidney cancer and of meeting Braxton when her oncologist insisted on referring her to him. Of getting cold feet and pretending she was looking for a hair salon and of Braxton insisting she come in out of the rain, how they became friends and of him taking care of her after Tomas beat her for something she didn't do. She showed them the scar from the hit she took on her wrist.

She spoke of being taken out of Denver when the cops got too close and of having to leave Braxton and drop all contact with him. Of training 'recruits' in New York and finding Nola dead from a beating for refusing to be a mule. Of Seattle and falling into a deep depression and seeing a therapist there who she didn't trust. Of being set up by the Cartel when they'd had enough of her and finally, of taking off and coming home. She finished with “I don't know if they will follow through on their threat to kill you guys, but if you don't want me here, I will understand and I will leave.”

Marissa was met with a chorus of “No way!” The males wanted to form a posse and hunt down the people who ran the Cartel, but they realized that was not realistic. Vicky asked Marissa what was going on with her cancer treatment.

“I didn't have any. I wanted it to take me so I would be out of the Cartel and you all would be safe. They wouldn't bother you if I died of natural causes.”

Bill was as furious as his father had been. “Goober, if I ever see any of them, God help me, I'll kill them with my own hands.”

Gael jumped in. “I haven't had a chance to tell you yet, Rissa, but I called Brent and he can see you tomorrow at 1:00. We'll see what he says and go from there.” Marissa nodded. “And baby, you know what you have to do, right?”

“What, Daddy?”

“You have to go to the police, honey.”

“Oh, no - I can't do that!” Marissa was horrified at the thought of turning the Cartel in. Not that they didn't deserve it, but it would anger them even more than her taking off and anyone that the authorities didn't find and arrest would surely come up here and kill them all.

“You have to, baby. We will handle anything they send our way, but I won't let you be intimidated by them any longer!”

Her siblings all agreed with Gael. Marissa let it drop. She answered their questions, then excused herself to go upstairs to bed. She was emotionally worn out.

The next day, Gael and Irene accompanied her to her appointment with their family physician, Dr Brent Evans. She was greeted warmly by their long time family friend. Brent and Gael had gone to school together. He was like an uncle to Marissa and her siblings. When he got his licence to practice medicine and returned home to set up practice, the Brennans became his patients when their GP retired and nobody took his place. “Marissa!” Brent exclaimed when he walked into the exam room where the Brennans were waiting. “It's so good to see you! Everyone was so worried.”

“Hi, Brent”, she replied. “It's good to be home.”

“What's been going on?” the doctor inquired as he sat down at the desk.

Marissa took a deep breath. “It's a very long story. The upshot is I was kidnapped and forced to work for a drug cartel as a mule.”

Dr Evans gasped “Oh, my goodness, Marissa! Look, I want to know more, but we only have 10 minutes. Why don't I come out for one of your mom's delicious meals someday and we'll go for a walk in the woods and talk?” He realized he'd forgot about her difficulty walking, and followed with “Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot...”

“It's okay, Brent. We can go for a walk in the woods. You can walk and I'll take the four wheeler. Or we can go for a ride.”

“A ride sounds even better. I haven't been riding in a long time and I've missed it.” Brent had been divorced for a few years and his wife had got their small hobby farm in the settlement.

“Okay, we'll do that.” She smiled.

“Now, your dad tells me you have cancer in your kidney?”

“Yes. It was diagnosed about a year ago.”

“What did they do for you?”

“I was scheduled for surgery to remove it but then I had to leave Denver.” She played with the necklace she was wearing - the necklace Braxton had given her. It was the first time she'd worn it and the accompanying earrings since their dinner out. It was probably too fancy for a doctor's appointment but she didn't anticipate going to a high end restaurant again any time soon.

“Why did you have to leave Denver?” Brent asked. “Never mind, you can tell me when we go for our ride. The pertinent thing is that nothing has been done in a year. Do you know what the stage was or if it had spread beyond the kidney?”

“I can't remember what the stage was but he said it had not spread and that I could keep the kidney if he could get the tumour out.”

“Who was your oncologist?”

“Dr Gideon Maynard.”

“With your permission, I'd like to talk to him and maybe get the test results sent to me. I'll have to get you to sign a consent form.”

“That is fine.”

“I will call you when I've heard from him and we can go from there. You'll need to get the tests done again to see if it's spread since then.”

“Brent, she can't get AHCIP until she's been in the province three months”, Gael said.

“Oh, bugger - you are right. What about insurance? Did you have any down there?” he asked Marissa.

“I did and still do, but they won't pay for cancer treatment up here - I would have to go back to the States to get it covered.”

“We'll figure that out later, after I talk to Dr Maynard and get your test results. Have you had any other health issues since I last saw you?”

“I have stones in the same kidney. They and the tumour were found at the same time. They didn't do anything about the stones because they thought I'd lose the kidney anyway, but then I found out I might not.”

“How is your pain level? Do you have pain medication?”

“It was good for a long time but it's starting to hurt again.”

“Why didn't you tell us, honey?” Irene asked.

“I didn't want to worry you any more, Mama. I'd already upset you so much.” Marissa felt her eyes water. She hated what this was doing to her parents.

“Don't you worry about worrying us, Rissa”, Gael said. “We want to know everything. Are you in pain now?” she nodded.

“Do you have pain medication, Marissa?” Dr Evans asked.

“I did, but I didn't bring it home with me. I know it sounds weird, but I didn't want to bring it across the border. I had taken enough risks.”

“It doesn't sound weird”, the physician said reassuringly. “I understand your hesitation. But you can bring legitimate prescription medication across, as long as it's in it's original vials with the pharmacy label intact. I can't prescribe anything until I look at you. Ideally, I would get a scan done, but I can't do that if you don't have coverage.

“How much would it cost if we paid cash?” Gael asked.

“Around $300 or so”, was the reply.

Gael looked at Irene and she nodded. “We will pay it. Schedule her, please.”

Marissa was not about to let her parents pay. Farmers are not wealthy people. They were comfortable, partly because they grew or hunted their own food, but they still had to watch their pennies. “No, Daddy, I can pay”, she said.

“You hold onto that money, Rissa. The authorities might need to take it.” Marissa's face went white at the thought of losing her savings. She'd gone through hell for that money and she thought 'I'll be damned if they take that from me'.

Brent intervened. “Let me see what I can do. I need to examine Marissa, then I will call Dr Maynard later, after I've seen the rest of today's patients. Will you be in town for a while?”

“Yes, we've got some things to do”, Gael replied. “We'll wait out there while you examine Marissa.”

“I won't be long, I'm just going to give her a quick check.”

Gael and Irene left the room and Brent helped Marissa onto the table. “You don't have to get undressed, I'm not doing a gyn exam or anything”, he told her. She sighed in relief.

The doctor took her blood pressure, listened to her lungs and heart, then had her lie down on the table. “How are you managing, Marissa?” he asked with concern.

“You mean with my feet?”

“Yes. How are you coping? I know you refused my offer to refer you to someone.” The doctor had wanted her to get therapy to help deal with what had happened to her.

“I'm doing fine - I've learned to manage. I just have to do things a different way sometimes.”

“Good, I'm glad you have adjusted. Now, I want to palpate your abdomen - let me know where it hurts.” Brent carefully felt around Marissa's abdomen. When he got to the area of the affected kidney, she winced. “Here?” he asked, even though it was obvious. Marissa nodded. “All right, you can get up now. I will call this Dr Maynard later and when he confirms that you have the stones and tumour, I will fax in a prescription for you.”

“Thank you, Brent.” He helped her down from the table. “Brent, can I ask for another prescription?”

“What for?”

“Zoloft. I left mine behind.”

“Why are you on Zoloft?”

“I got really depressed and the Cartel made me see a shrink. She put me on it and it helped a lot.” She anticipated what he was going to say next. “But you can't talk to her. I am pretty sure she is in cahoots with the Cartel. I can't let her know I'm in Canada.”

“What makes you think that?” Marissa told him about not trusting Dr Lambert and of having to get the Zoloft at one specific drug store that billed the Cartel. “I can understand your fear”, he said when she stopped talking. “I do need something to go on, though. Let me talk it over with the oncologist, maybe the two of us can come up with something. I'll call you later. Do we have your cell number?”

“I gave it to the receptionist.”

“I'll let you know when I've talked to Dr Maynard. And maybe we can set something up for a ride this weekend, if your pain is manageable.”

“Sounds good, Brent. Could you please say hi to him for me? And tell him I'm sorry I ran out on the surgery.” She held no animosity to her former oncologist even though she did not want the surgery back then.

“I will, Marissa. Can I tell him what you told me about where you were?”

“Yes. You can give him my number, too, and he can call me if he wants to know more. It would be better if he called the house phone as my cell is by the minute until I can arrange to get a plan up here.”

“Don't forget to stop at reception and sign that release.”

Out in the car, Gael told Marissa where they were going next. “We're going to the police station, Rissa, so you can tell them what happened.”

“Today?”

“Yes, honey. Better to get it over with.”

“What if they put me in jail? I wanted some more time with you!”

“They won't. I've spoken to Owen and he assured me you can come home with us tonight. They will need to contact the American authorities and figure out how to proceed, but he's in your corner. He will do everything he can to keep you out of jail.”

Marissa resigned herself to turning the Cartel in. She hoped that any repercussions would be on her, not her family or on Braxton.