Insomnia had taken over Meghan's mind. This wasn't something that had been thought about in a while, but one of the many associates had to handle a murder case.
She didn't know how to tell Mike about any of this. And she couldn't talk to Neal, in person or over regular phone. That left Agent Burke since only he and Neal knew what she saw three years prior.
At that time, Peter still didn't know she existed. He was mad that there was a witness to James Bennett's crime. But once he knew why she didn't come forward, he and his wife probably would have gone through his arrest anyway. He was doing what he had to with a system that failed Neal's family.
Criminals in positions of power had ways of finding witnesses. This meant that Neal's family had targets on their backs even before Mike and Meghan were born.
The nightmares hadn't bothered her in months. She didn't understand why they had returned. Even all the movies and TV shows she'd seen hadn't prepared her to watch someone's life blood drain from their body. Maybe because what was once fiction had become her reality.
How did you ever call him Dad after what he did to get revenge? She thought as if having a telepathic conversation with Neal.
Meghan opened the message app on her burn phone, hoping this would be a good time to talk to him.
"Are you busy, right now?" she asked. Her thumbs tapped away at the keypad.
"In a way. It's a lot more work keeping my hands clean." Then he added, "are the nightmares back?"
"How did you know?"
"It's four o'clock in the morning where you are. The only time I've received messages from you at four in the morning is after one of your nightmares. Or when Mike was late coming home from work. Took a shot."
"And it hit... They are back." She looked over the back of their couch. Just enough to see Mike shift in his bed. "I haven't slept in over a week and it's compromised my grades as well as my work at the firm."
"I thought all you did was refill printers and get law books from the library. Why are you working the Firm's cases?"
"That's what I'm supposed to do, but because I have Dad's brain, the partners have been using me the same way they've been using him. Especially Jessica now that she knows he never got a degree."
"Who told her?"
"You seriously had to ask?"
"I'm going to quote Peter here and say that 'just once, I wish I did'."
She laughed at that. They texted back and forth for a while. She didn't feel herself falling asleep as the night faded to morning. She told him how she wouldn't be graduating until the following school year and would also be attending summer school.
Her slumber didn't last long when Mike came over to wake her up for school. Instead of getting up as she was told, she buried herself deeper under the covers and into the futon.
Mike tried to rip the blanket off like a band-aid, but she had a tight grip on the covers. It was surprisingly strong considering he had the muscles of a wrestler in comparison to his kid sister.
~***~***~
School was out, though she never went, and Meghan was on her way to the firm. Mike's latest set of rules roaming through her head.
1: Do your job.
2: Keep your head down.
3: Come to me if anyone gives you a hard time.
YOU ARE READING
Meghan Ross: Con Artist in Training
FanfictionThere was more than prison at stake... much more. She was one of Mike's last living connections to the late Rosses. He couldn't go against Jessica. Not when his fifteen-year-old sister, with a heart condition, was mentioned in the letter. She couldn...
