A/n: Not Thoroughly Edited.

Chapter 4 – Hiding in Plain Sight (Unknown POV) Pt. 2

The sprinkler services cut off, thirty minutes was more than enough and so starting the fire in the dorm room next to Talia's I left the building. With everything planted I took my chance when I saw it, her medication switched out, the house under my control, I sat in my car waiting. The Conrads were responsible for the death of my brother; now I would take someone they treasured, make them watch helplessly as she dies.

Alarms sounding, a woman from the next dorm house comes over, frantic, the fire just getting started but she wouldn't run inside, but near by I listened and when more came, when other students and bystanders came, everything planted, I left my car and joined the crowd. Moving my self near the Conrads as they came closer, as the group responsible for my brother's death joked and chatted. The red blazing fire truck, cutting them off, it was too late, but only I knew that.

The firemen zoning off, opening and locking – "A girl she ran into the building, she said that there was someone inside, she was screaming the name Talia," the woman that called them screamed, her face white, "I tried to stop her – but she ran inside," the dorm, now partially engulfed but they couldn't enter, I looked away, I couldn't smile. I just had to blend in, watch.

Police officers arrive and are holding back the Conrads, who fight desperately to enter the burning building; I look away, as pleased as I am disappointed. "That's our sister!" Kalenah and Ansel – the parents it would please me if one more of their precious children would enter my trap and their well deserved demise. The smoke blackened the skies above us, and over the shouting cries of the Conrad, one from inside the house broke louder. My face distressed, it wouldn't be from Talia, she was out cold, and the tranquilizers given would insure that. The loud piercing shriek, the end of life close coming, bloodcurdling and to the right firemen doubled their speed, to my left "Move!"

One that wasn't the Conrads wasn't meant to perish, an innocent, she entered the building of her own choice; she should have remained a pedestrian. She was a new factor, it was a shame that she was involved but she made that decision on her own.

I only wanted an eye for an eye.

Talia for Brian.

"Call mom and dad," one of the Conrad's cried, and with tears on their face, shaking, another moved, "Help! Help us!" someone screamed from inside, and that pulled my attention away from watching the downfall of the Conrads.

"She's in the front, spray hard!" I watched as the hose held by three men, put out the fire on the porch preventing entry by their men, and as the removed the spray, the girl, her hair wet, her body drowned in her clothing, she pulls, pulls, pulls the one I wanted to perish in her arms. The men with their masks on remove them quickly, but the girl, tumbles down, Talia Conrad on top of her, "Talia! She's our sister!"

Thaddeus pushes at the officer holding him back, "Let us by – she's our sister! She's on the ground! Move!" The words cried, shouted, and shrieked by Samson, from the corner of my eyes, my heart sinking as paramedics rushed forward, checking on the girl that tumbled down the stairs. "Mom – mom no – no she pulled her out, she fell – she fell – she fell," the words repeated but my eyes focused on Talia. Smoke inhalation. The fire didn't kill her, but that... there was enough time where that could have done it for me.

My heart dropping, I witness them pulling the shirt from her face and instead of stopping, giving up, declaring her dead, they work on her with a rush, mask on her face, another is placing bandages on her scorched leg, and with that she's moved into the ambulance. The girl – the unknown factor – the one that ruined my plan, that doesn't know the sins of the Conrads, had she I know she would have left Talia to die, is lifted into another ambulance while I stumble away, keeping my face as calm as possible while inside rage flared.

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(Kalenah Conrad POV) Pt.2

In life there are moments you remember, the big events, falling in love, marriage, a promotion in work that you've spent your whole career working towards, the death of a loved one or the unforgettable overwhelming happiness of new life or the small moments that are dear to your heart.

Maybe it's small, just a simple act of kindness from an unexpected source, but nonetheless it's remembered and treasured. Life is not all about the big moments, not all the time.

My life has been changed many times over, but for me the day Brennan - my eldest child was born - my life and senses both changed, the latter overactive, to the point of weird voodoo feels and the first, about the latter. My mother had spoken, given me advice... I had watched families around me grow but it was not the same as actually experiencing everything on my own.

It did not all come easily, and my love Ansel, we stumbled for months until there was a point where one day, I realized that I recognized different cries from Brennan, when he was hungry, sleepy and just wanted to be held, cuddled a bit. Over time, Ansel and I had more children, the senses developed even greater.

We had not planned on a smaller family, nor had it been our intentions to have a brood of ten, but we were grateful and deliriously happy. Had I been asked nineteen years ago if I would have that many, I probably would have balked at the idea of more than four. However, now? I couldn't imagine my life without Brennan, my oldest, the builder and leader of the siblings. Without Talia, the oldest girl, both in age and much older in her heart – especially with the kindness that emanated from her. She was the peacemaker of the bunch, able to control our brood with her open heart and willingness to help others. After our first daughter, came our second son, Thaddeus, same kindness. More laid back and playful than his other siblings.

After Talia and Thaddeus, our family continued to grow until I was once again pregnant with twins, two girls, my Caterina and Paige.

I had been lucky and all too privileged I know that until the girls were two that I had never suffered any great loss as was our way of life – a consequence of our being what we were. Then again, I believe I never experienced the loss because of my parents, siblings and the upbringing we had. Just as I was giving birth to my girls, a long time family friend – a woman that I attended university with – she just weeks before had given birth to her own little angel – Harleigh. Suddenly all plans of meeting up that coming summer went out of the window and a mother and fatherless little baby – Harleigh – became one of my own.

With Harleigh came an air of sadness, a girl raised as our own, who I do not believe fully understood what she was told when Ansel and I believed she was old enough to hear. We didn't want it to be kept as a dark secret, her adoption that is. We were blessed with her as our daughter, and how she became that way, did not make her any less ours, and we, hers. It was only when we adopted for the second time – a tiny little three year old, Samantha – that Harleigh understood I believe. The addition of our final two children – Amy and Simon – cementing it all.

We didn't have too many tragedies in our years, but as I grew into my role, so did my senses and I had learned to never ignore the feelings that grew inside me when it came to bad events, it was unsettling, but my stomach would curl, and the hair on the backs of my neck would stand. My skin would flush out in goose bumps and my attention would falter all day.

It wasn't that I was praying or hoping for the bad to happen, quite the contrary. I would tell myself repeated, I was worrying over nothing, and I was just expecting the worse when nothing was going to happen. So today, the first day back at school, after dropping off my younger children, Samantha, Amy and Simon off at school, I went distractedly to my flower shop.

We - Ansel and my family - had settled in Bend, Oregon – a much smaller city than New York where Ansel and I met and Chicago where Ansel had once taught – a place where we believed our family would be safe. Not hidden in a small less than five thousand people town, but not a large city with high crime rates.

Still with what I knew there was a part of me that knew that accidents happened, and this small town wasn't exempt from the randomness of life. I couldn't quite quell the nerves, "Hey boss lady," my employee Joey Blake called out just as I was opening the door, coming earlier today since we had a large deliver this morning. As well as the George wedding in two weeks, the bride and her mother were coming in to see and confirm all arrangements.

I had once been a therapist, but my true passion were flowers, working with my hands and so after Ansel and I adopted Samantha nearly 10 years ago, I traded that full time work for the occasional emergency call at the hospital - working in the flower shop full time when the kids were at school. "Thanks for coming in early," I nodded at Joey but my voice lacked my normal kindness and softness.

For a short time Joey and I make small talk, we work on the arrangement for the Georges' and when they finally appear at the store entrance, mother of the bride and the bride her self, that nagging feeling in the pit of my belly flares.

The door opens and as the George's enter, the fire truck siren resounds loudly. My hands controlled and steady when working with plants slip and I cut off more of the stem on the roses in front of me than I had planned too.

The mother in me hears that siren and I'm tempted to call my children, not sure which one, but eventually I would go through each one to make sure they were safe. "Hey, good morning Kalenah, you've met my mother," the bride comes forward, beautiful brilliant smile on her face as the phone next to Joey, rings loudly. It's not one of my children, I'm quick to tell myself and I force myself to place a smile on my face, Bend was not a small town, just because I heard a siren didn't mean that it was about my children or my Ansel. I have one of those moments where though I think the words, inside I know they are just words and that my worry is warranted.

Joey picks up the phone as I gather the different arrangements two large vases in either arm, "Wait Harleigh - what's wrong - fire? What do you - Talia? Fire? Harleigh - Harleigh," the vase in my arms, holding the arrangements that took a good thirty minutes to make falls to the ground, shattering glass surrounds my feet but I'm walking over it, reaching for the phone with no care at all for the mess around me. This wasn't the first time I was getting one of these calls.

"Mom - mom - fire - Talia - she's in the fire - oh god - oh god - that's our sister - let me pass," I hear Harleigh and the voices of my other children, blending together, drowned out by shouting of others as well. I smash the phone against my ear harder as though doing so would help me hear, would isolate just the voice of my daughter, it does not. "I - I - I need to go," I stutter out no better than Harleigh on the phone, I move to the door but the phone is still in my hands and their worried panicked voices makes my heart lurch, and my vision blurs. Not another one of my children, I repeat inside, my stomach turning, my mouth going sour.

"I'll drive you - you call Ansel," Joey says taking the phone and I hear her talking to the George's but within no time at all, but to me it felt like years, I had called Ansel, and we were pulling up no more than five minutes later.

Total chaos, the shouts of my sons and cries of my daughters are what I hear, the fire men are running around, but the police are holding my sons back from entering the dorm house of my daughters. My mouth fills with bile and my breakfast wants to make a reappearance, not another child, my troubled panicked mind thinks.

I'm on my feet running to the children, "what happened?" I shout and when Harleigh sees me, she's the first one to wrap her hands around me. "T - T - Talia is in there - mom - mom - Faith went in - the adviser said no one was in there - but Faith ran in and - and - and we - we can't get to - Talia - we called her - her - her phone," she bawled, her body shaking, sobbing her body sways against mine.

"Keep calling her - maybe - maybe she's not in there," I whisper not sure that anyone heard me.

Looking around wildly, with Harleigh attached to me, I go to the nearest officer, "My - my children - she - one - Talia is in - they said that - what happened?" I stutter out, my normally calm cool demeanor is shattered and I'm barely hanging on. The officer comes forward, "Yes ma'am - the adviser," he points to a woman, "She said that the building was empty but one of the students, a Fatima Ashlynn said Talia Conrad was in the building, the adviser tried-"

"They won't let us in mom, and - and they won't go in themselves," Brennan roared loudly, still struggling against the cops, and my legs shake with his words, "why - why not?" I ask but I see the fire, I see why they wouldn't be able to enter, the entire place was engulfed.

The firemen are working to get the hydrants open, while some are pushing back the crowd, a blanket of silence aside from one man giving orders, the shouts of the firemen working in tangent with one another. Then there's a bloodcurdling shriek from inside, and it hits me hard, and my sons double their efforts to get past the police men holding them back.

The firemen hear it as well and they seem to work faster and time slows down for me, "No! Don't go in there!" I'm shouting, but I do not even recognize that it's me yelling at first. And over the roar of the fire, and order, the pulsing sound of the water sprouting, hitting the building where firemen would try to go inside, another shout of agony rings loudly, "Help! Help us! H-H-Help! Ahhh."

"Aim low - aim low!" the fireman in charge is shouting and they start spraying water around the entrance, the windows, but drenched a small figure, maybe a foot on my Samantha, thin, so small and hunched over, back to us is coming out. The red flames, and smoke surrounding her, my heart sinks when I realize that my Talia isn't the one standing. Shifting my position - I see that Talia is the one being pulled by Faith.

Her clothes wet, blackened and sticking to various areas of her body, she over pulls Talia, sending herself flailing backwards, her head bouncing like a ball, and in slow motion to me, Talia is rolling down the steps at her feet, not moving. Frozen in my spot, a part of me dies inside when I realize that Talia isn't moving, Faith pulled her out of the ablaze home and now, after tumbling down the steps backwards, she lay above Faith, still. Orders are being given and paramedics are rushing forward, I can see – even from my spot a distance away – that the girls are burned in various places. When they check and begin to give Talia oxygen, I finally sob my body sagging, but it's quick, fast, though I see it slowly happening. She's covered; the police are around them both, shouting on their talkies, I catch the words, "Air lift to – Portland."

"Where - where are they taking them?" I ask my hands shaking - so badly that I don't know how I'm standing when my legs feel so tingly and weak.

"Portland, Oregon, burn unit," my heart lurches once again, ready to claw it's way out of my chest, "that's - that's nearly four hours away!" I'm shouting but the cop, his face is pained. "With their burns, you want them to go to that hospital first," he says seriously.

"What's going on?" I hear Ansel and though I know he's here now, I still won't break down when my children need their parents, breaking down now won't help us, "they're taking Talia and Faith to Legacy Burn Center in Portland," I repeat the officers words, "We - we need to go," I already taking steps away from the officers. "There's something wrong with how this started Ken," I hear from the police radio and when the officer hears it as well, before another officer comes forward. "We," he waves to another, "will drive you all, lets go," all the children - sans Amy, Simon and Samantha - and we get into two different cars, and with headlight sirens on, we head off, at full speed.

Ten minutes into the ride, I've long stopped crying though I'm rocking softly back and forth, and Harleigh who was hanging onto me, still is, her hand holding mine in a death grip and I wonder where her mind is right now, but it's short, my attention keeps going back to Talia and Faith.

Talia is my child, but I cannot wrap my head around Faith.

She ran into the building for Talia, the girl we just met the night before, the girl I know has been locked away all of her life, never interacting with anyone besides her captor who I was told she feels a deep attachment too. None of this made any sense, I had read her file, impulsivity was not on the list, and though I'm thankful she bothered going to get my Talia – I'm troubled.

I go back and forth in my mind not understanding how this happened, before, when we had been in this same position, it did not take long for the events to be explained and make sense even though I did not want them too. School was not out, but Talia was inside, and not only was she there, but somehow only Faith knew that? How?

I lick my dry lips knowing more than Ansel, though I had not told him that Faith would be one of my patients. She didn't have family I think recalling what her file said, but did have plenty of ways for her guardian Walsh and Patricia to be reached in cases of emergencies. "We - we need to call Walsh," I murmur. "What?" Ansel asks, "Who is Walsh?" I hear the confusion.

"Faith's guardian," I mumble and when his brows furrow wondering I'm sure how I know that, I just look away until I realize that Thaddeus is in the car filling Ansel in on what he knows.

"I'm surprised Faith even bothered to help Talia," Thaddeus blurts out and even by his tone; I know that my son did not intend to share or say anything out loud. "Why?" my husband questions, and silently I listen. "After – Samson he was – I – he was being a jerk to Faith, and I think – Talia had to take her to the nurse-"

"Did he harm the girl?" Ansel asks outraged, "No – no – dad, it wasn't like that!" my son backtracks. "He just – he may have insulted her but Farmer handled it and Faith was silent for maybe three or four minutes before she just gasped and – and it was like – it was like the panic attacks Samson had when..." Thaddeus doesn't finish, but after a while, "it's been exactly three years today."

Those are the last words I say the rest of the two-hour trip that really should have been around three plus hours. I couldn't understand it at all, Faith didn't - they didn't say she had suicidal tendencies, and I hadn't picked up on that but had I been wrong? What did they mean when they said something was wrong with this scene? Why was Talia in the building, how - I mean Faith was pulling her out - why? The same old questions are on repeat in my mind.

As ice ran through my veins, I went over and over and over again, the scene, what I saw of Faith - of Talia... smoke inhalation, burns, and blackened clothes. Then my mind went to injuries, potential and current diagnosis. The dirt that could infect Talia and Faith's burns, how badly their injuries were, smoke inhalation alone could've killed them both, why wasn't Talia awake? Had someone harmed her inside and then left her to die?

We were different, but Talia hadn't - she could still be... my mind wouldn't let me go there, remain positive Kalenah, remain positive, I repeated so many times, holding onto my mantra, the trees a blur of green as we were taken to our destination. All of us, jumping out, rushing inside, demanding answers, words and current conditions thrown at us, until shockingly, Trevor - Ansels' brother - came from the double doors.

The police that came with us come forward as well, ready for information, "You're here," I say stupidly knowing he didn't work here. "When the girls were going to be airlifted I volunteered to be the one to go with them on the trip," he says with a sigh.

He rubs his face harshly, Talia isn't just his niece, but Goddaughter, "Talia has third degree burns on her leg, very little smoke inhalation I mean we sent for blood tests because she had seizure when we were nearly forty-five minutes into the trip," he shakes his head, "But she never once woke up, the girl with her-"

"Faith," I correct him my heart already invested and caring for the young girl that prepared a meal for us just the night before. Trevor lifts a brow, glances at Ansel but nods and continues, "she - Faith - her left arm was severely burned - but not like Talia's injuries..." I nod woodenly.

"Her head injury is what's worrying us right now, they said her head bounced," I nod, remembering that as well, that feeling of elation when I saw her pulling my Talia, but shock and unease when her head smacked and made contact with the concrete.

"From what I've heard - she ran into the building and I'm also hearing that she had to have wet herself and Talia - paramedics and the fire department said," my eyes widened and gripped Ansel's hand tighter.

My eyes swing over to the police who nod as well, "she covered Talia's face with a wet shirt, and the amount of water on the two of them, the firemen had just started spraying the water, paramedics said Faith's front was wet, that wouldn't have happened from that spray outside."

I blinked, "But that was good thinking, I think that's why," Trevor swallows, "I know Talia's injuries aren't good but, with how her leg was burned, had she not been wet, the clothes we cut off, we would be looking at whole body injuries," he looks at Ansel and myself right in our eyes, he's Doctor Conrad now, not Uncle Trevor.

"Talia's blood pressure is - was - also shallow and her pulse - I mean it was there but - that girl - Faith - for all she knew, she could've been pulling a corpse out of that fire," I gasp thinking of the scenario where Faith would have just left my Talia inside... I gasp and half sob, my hand lifting up to my mouth.

"Is Talia on anything besides her muscle relaxers?" Trevor looks down at his notes, asking confused, and behind my hand I'm shaking my head. Trevor looks between his brother and I, shaking his head, he has no more answers.

My children are all behind us, listening intently, but besides the cries, they remain quiet. "I need to go back, I'll come out again," Trevor says and we begin waiting, until finally, they've cleaned both of the girls burns, and have them being heavily monitored in rooms right next to one another, and an MRI showing that they've stopped Faith's brain swelling, thankfully.    

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