Lone Star Family Values

Chapter 9

Rest for Recovery

            Carlos was fuming as he stalked up to the man standing outside the mobile command unit being set up in his front yard.

"Do you have any idea what you just did?" He all but yelled.

"Officer Reyes, glad to see you have joined us. I know you're upset but we were waiting for you to come away from Miss Williams before we did this." The man said motioning for an officer to come forward.

Carlos saw him before he could take a step. He turned and held up a hand.

"Try it and see how upset I really am," He warned before turning back to who he assumed to be the man in charge. "Name."

"Isaac Thomas, S.W.A.T. commander." He said.

"Tell me, Mr. Thomas, why the hell did I come home to a crime scene, my sixteen-year-old in a full-blown panic attack, and my boyfriend being put into a police cruiser in handcuffs? And before you answer," Carlos asked, trying to control his volume. "Remember I'm armed, and royally pissed off."

"We received a call that you and your boyfriend were keeping Miss Williams away from her court appointed guardians. By law, we have to respond." Mr. Thomas said.

Carlos was nearly seeing red.

"Did you even bother to check her file?" He asked. "No, because if you had you would have seen that as of 7:30 this morning TK and I are her legal guardians."

Thomas went white.

"See your mistake now?" Carlos asked, taking another step toward Thomas. "Now let my boyfriend go, clear your men from my house, and get the hell off of my lawn."

For a moment Thomas looked as though he would challenge Carlos, but after a minute he nodded. Carlos didn't give him a chance to speak before he walked back up to the porch. He stood, waiting for the officer to open the back of the cruiser that TK was in. When they released him, TK practically ran up to Carlos.

"Carlos, where's Bailey? Is she okay? Did she-"

"She's fine," Carlos said, cupping TK's cheek in his hand. "Tommy and Nanci are with her right now; she was overheating so they're cooling her off but you need to calm down before you go in there. She's worked up enough as it is."

TK nodded, closing his eyes and taking a few steadying breaths.

"Okay," TK said. "I'm calm."

Carlos nodded and together they went back inside. TK winced when he saw the door but moved passed it to get to his daughter. Bailey was still sitting against the wall but she looked calmer and cooler than she had been when Carlos had left. The second that she saw TK she was up and running into his arms. TK wrapped his arms around her tightly.

"Y-you're okay." She breathed, burying her face in TK's neck.

"I'm okay, Bails," He assured her. "Everything is going to be okay."

Bailey pulled back and shook her head, new tears falling down her cheeks.

"I thought that they were gonna take you and I didn't know what was going to happen to me. I don't want to leave, I don't want to go anywhere, please don't let them move me again..." Bailey babbled on.

"Hey, hey, hey," TK said, hushing Bailey's rambling. "You're not going anywhere. They aren't going to take you away. This whole thing was just a big misunderstanding, I promise you." He said, looking to Carlos, a question clear in his eyes, 'now?' Carlos nodded and moved next to them, rubbing his hand up and down Bailey's back.