SAVING CASSIDY

NINE

        Ben hated the exhaustion on Jennie's face. But the gentle, euphoric smile that it held gave him more joy than he had ever known possible. After all she'd been through in the last 18 hours, she could still smile. He bent and kissed her sweaty forehead and looked again in awe at the tiny, rosy creature that had caused his wife so much pain and turned them into a family.

        "My daughter," he whispered reverently.

        "I had a little to do with it," Jennie winked at him. He kissed her again.

        "OUR daughter. How are you doing?"

        "Tired. Sore. Very, very happy. I love you, Ben. Thank you for being with me."

        "Honey, there is no where else I would have been. My whole life is in this room."

        "I picked out a middle name. Since we couldn't make up our minds, I've made a executive decision."

        "Okaaay?" he urged. Jennie's eyes settled on her newborn daughter, but her hand held tight to her husband's.

        "Melissa Cassidy Marx." She heard his intake of soft breath.

        "Jen-"

      "What do you think?" she asked, smiling up at him. He leaned close to her, kissed her mouth, then the downy head of his baby girl.

        "I think it's beautiful. And so are you."

        So it was good, their life. Jennie and Ben were still hopelessly in love with one another and over the moon to have a child to share in that love.

        They'd moved from Miami shortly after their wedding to quiet Jupiter. They bought a small but pretty house not too far from the beach. Jennie found a job at a nearby elementary school and Ben worked for the local hospital, back to his roots in the ER. They made friends, enjoyed their neighbors, played community softball. Two weeks after Jennie discovered her pregnancy and shared it with Ben, she came home to find a swing set in the back yard, roses in vases all over the house, and a crib in the middle of the extra room with a huge, fat teddy bear sitting in it. She'd worried that it was too soon. They'd only been married a year and though they certainly wanted children, they hadn't necessarily planned one so soon.

        Melissa Cassidy Marx was like her mother: quiet, content, with huge blue eyes and dark lashes. They called her Lissa and she simply lit up their lives.

        They shared their second anniversary with their 4 week old baby girl. Their good life.

        Three days later, hundreds of miles away, at the border between Mexico and the United States, a thin, bruised, frail woman approached the checkpoint on foot. She lifted her face to the border patrol officer and spoke.

        "What year is it?" she asked, eyes enormous in her face. When he answered her, the devastated disbelief in her expression told him that what she said next was entirely true.

        "My name is Cassidy Glendening. I am a US citizen who was kidnapped seven years ago. And I want to go home."                

        The call came.

        The call they had all stopped waiting for, finally. The call that would change everything.

        Ben was working and Lissa was napping. It was the final week of Jennie's maternity leave and the day would be forever burned into her memory.