At 4:30 we were all sitting on the big bed in Jenny’s and my room. That was the only room that had the setup to the big screen and the top end web cam.

I hit the button to make the call. It rang and rang and rang. I wondered if he had left for the disaster site already. Just as I was about to end the video call he accepted it. He was standing there in a silk Japanese robe.

“Good morning Jake, looks like we caught you in the middle of something,” I said.

“I was just getting ready for work. I wear Mindy out too much at night and it wears me out too much in the morning,” he said as he was laughing.

“What is on your mind? It must be important; you have not hit on me in the morning in years,” he replied with a grin.

“Can you come home for a couple days? A lot of people would like to see you. You know I have your whole old crew working on one of my projects. We can send a jet to pick you up,” I said.

“We are at a critical junction on the clean-up we have going in the reactor building. If I were to leave at this point, the workers would desert the job site as me being gone would be a bad omen. They are reactive to things that happen on the site,” Jake said. “What else is going on? You are hiding something.”

Jenny and I moved close to the camera and held up the sonogram sheet with two babies highlighted and said, “Hi Uncle Jake,”

Jake was ecstatic, he called for Mindy to come look. We had a long family talk.

Then I said, “We are going to tell the folks at the Labor Day party. I was hoping you could be here. Maybe you can join us by video. The party is going to be late; you and Mindy should be up by then.”

We ended the call with a time to call on Labor Day so Jake and Mindy could be in on the announcement.

We went to the Inn for a private meal. It was Friday night; we had two more nights together as a group. After the dinner we were going to have private time together – no orgy tonight, just close private time.

So many things had been going on from so many directions; we just needed the time alone together. We sat at the table and even held hands. Then we moved to the couch on each others laps so we could touch. We talked about where we had been and where we are and where we wanted to go in the future. Ching Lee and Vicky were so small and thin they could almost share a lap.

The doctor had been right that Jenny would start growing soon. Her breasts were larger and more sensitive, she definitely had a baby bump and there was more wiggle in her ass cheeks when she walked.

We were going tomorrow morning shopping with Jenny at the big maternity shop in Annapolis for at least half a dozen suits that she would be able to wear for the next couple of weeks.

There was a chance the entire court could be sequestered for the upcoming drug and gang trial she was going to prosecute after Labor Day. The plan was to put together several suitcases, enough for the estimated two week trial. The gang was already making threats against witnesses and officials alike. We were all concerned but tried not to show it.

It was near midnight when we finally went to bed. If there was a bed in the house big enough for us all to fit we would have been in it.

At seven I was cooking another Sunday morning breakfast for all my mates and Crash. I cooked all the usual fixings: eggs, bacon, scrapple, sausage, and fried potatoes. Then I sent one of the girls to get Crash. Jenny ate for two again. I hoped that she did not start eating for three.

We spent all morning in Annapolis at the mall shopping with Jenny. I felt sorry for her in a way. Shopping is hard enough but there were four self appointed fashion consultants helping and I was not one of them. Jeans, shorts and camo was all I ever needed to be comfortable and I always felt at home in my security uniform.

After the first store I stayed out of the way and watched the goings on around us. I looked at the people around us and how they were observing us.

I noticed a group of people that looked out of place. There were six of them – I could not put my finger on why. They had too many clothes on for this time of the year. They were wearing the dark long overcoat style and they were buttoned up. But by today’s standards anything goes, baggy – bulky – half falling off – to young girls with nearly nothing on.

It was late August and still warm but I always wore slacks or jeans with a light jacket, simply to cover the fact that I was carrying. A shoulder holster was my favorite or a waistband holster and a lot of times I also carried handcuffs. I never carried the traditional man-killer purse.

I kept a hair brush in the car if I needed one and I wore no makeup that needed refreshing, just a year around total tan.

As we shopped I watched the group out of the corner of my eye. They would disappear down the corridor for a while then they would be back. They were not speaking English nor were it Spanish. They were too far away and there was too much noise to be able to identify the language. They were dark but I did not take them to be African.

Jenny bought a few items that the rest of us carried for her; she needed her hands free to shop. All the women’s shops seemed to be on this leg of the mall so we did no have far to walk to hit all the shops that sold maternity clothes.

The mall was like a big star with rows of shops and stores as you made your way to each point. In the center were all the food courts and other stores that gave you a break from shopping.

There were entrance doors from the parking areas directly into the food court and at the end of each point, also direct entrances to a major retailer that were midway.

Each point featured a theme. The one we were shopping in catered to ladies. It featured shops that sold everything from 5k evening gowns to stripper outfits and every imaginable bedroom toy there was.

You could preview and order from their website or look at a sales binder that the clerk handed to the customer. The purchase was handed to the customer in heavy paper bag stapled shut. They had a robust business from the number of people walking in and out.

As we shopped our way to the food court I noticed that the group was walking past the shop we were in. After they went by I stepped out into corridor and watched them. They walked almost to the food court and stopped and waited. They seemed nervous while looking at the big clock, then talking excitedly and making phone calls.

Jenny had finished in the store we were at and had one more to go towards the food court, and then she wanted to return to the first store we had shopped in.

No surprise there – it was a given that any women always found what they wanted at the first store but would spend hours trying to find it cheaper in other stores. Being of that gender I wondered how that gene missed me. When I went shopping I had a list, knew what I was willing to pay and bought it at the first place I found it.

While we were in the last store the group made a hurried exit after taking a call as we were returning to the first store we had shopped in. A few minutes later as Jenny was finishing up at the register, we heard a woman scream then “Allah is god” as gunshots rang out. Then I was running to the store entrance.

Edit by Alfmeister