She remembered his smile from his last visit home, the way Ben had hugged her in excitement. It only brought tears to her eyes. She thought of his first words, and his first steps. His first birthdays. Times spent bowling and playing board games. She thought of all of the happy memories she had of her son Ben, and she wept. She thought of how her son would never come home. How she would never again see him smile. How she would never watch him grow into the man she was sure that she and her husband had raised. How her sons heroic deeds were forever remain secret to the world that had been saved by them.
She wept for she had lost her son.
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Catherine wept too. She had watched it happen. She had watched her daughter die with him. She watched as the bomb went off, as he fell out the window towards the river. She had seen Ben shove Erica back before leaping out the window. But it wasn't enough. Catherine had been thrown through the door she had just kicked down. Erica had been impaled by a part of the desk that Ben had leapt over to jump through the window. She had clung to Alexander then. Weeping into his shirt. Unable to look at the body of her daughter.
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Mike had tried so hard to stop Ben the day before. Telling him that it was a trap. But ben didn't care, to him it was the only surefire way to keep everyone else safe. He remembered telling Ben that he was going with him. He also remembered how tired he had been after dinner. As if there was something in his tacos. He remembered waking up and looking at the other bed in the room. He remembered the way his stomach dropped when it was empty.
When they finally found Ben, when they saw the vest on him. Mike knew it was over. He saw it in Ben's eyes as he told them there was only 30 seconds left, the only way to defuse it was with the keypad.
At 15 seconds he had shouted at everyone to get out. But Erica hadn't listened. He remembered the way Erica had thrown him out of the room before slamming to door so that she could try to save Ben. Mike remembered the desperation in Catherine's voice as she kicked the door down. Mike knew how much time was left. Something he had picked up when he was playing sports. It only made it worse.
After the explosion, he had ran back into the room. Hoping, praying that they had gotten the vest off. Then he saw Erica. A tear on her cheek as she drew her last breath. Catherine was just a second late.
