Cold Hard Courage

[29] - Epilogue

Beatrice Eaton stands in the kitchen of her home watching her boys. Graham, the oldest, a boy with stuck straight deep chocolate brown hair that frame his face and deep ocean blue eyes, throws cheerios at Atticus, a little boy with chocolate curls that frame his face and medium blue eyes, his little brother, both laughing at their little game. Tobias enters the kitchen with their daughter, Olivia, a little girl with honey-blonde hair like her mother, but curls she inherited from her father, as well as her mother's grey-blue eyes, in his arms. Five years ago, Tobias and his friend Ezekiel Pedrad were abducted and almost murdered. Tobias went into a month long coma after his heart stopped on the table, just two months after his first son was born. The trial was grueling and brought up many of the traumatic memories Tobias and Zeke worked so hard to keep hidden away. The five year old and three and a half year old boys watch as their father carries their nine month old little sister to the table where they all will be eating breakfast.

"Boys, pancakes or waffles?" Beatrice asks, looking back at the table.

Each boy exclaims their answer, both choosing pancakes.

"Tobias, honey, pancakes sound good?" Beatrice asks.

He turns his head from feeding their daughter her mashed sweet potato baby food.

"Sounds great, love." He says, and turns back to Olivia.

Beatrice stands at the stove and cooks the meal for the family, takes the plates to the table, eats in between spurts of laughter, sends her Husband and eldest son off with a kiss as they head to work and school, and spends her day at home with her two other children.

* * * * *

Tobias Eaton drops his two boys off for school, now seven and five and a half. His daughter, two, almost three years old, sits in the back seat. He drops his daughter off at the daycare just across the street from the Precinct, then walks through the parking lot and into the building. He drops off his brief case and starts his work, logging into his computer. He walks to the cork board and pubs up pictures from the latest crime scene, a double homicide. A pregnant woman and her husband, found dead by their landlord. Said they were late on payments.

"Any leads yet?" Zeke asks.

Tobias chuckles and shakes his head.

"Just started. I don't have any leads just yet." He says.

Shauna approaches them, handing each man a folder of possible suspects.

"These are all of the people visiting the couple in the past week. Reported by the landlord." She says.

Zeke and Tobias nod at her, thanking her for the list. Shauna is seven months pregnant with their second child, a little girl they plan to name Hayley. Their first child is a four year old little boy named Jaxon, born two years after Shauna and Zeke were married.

* * * * *

Ezekiel and Shauna Pedrad usher the eldest child of their two to his first day of second grade, now seven years old. Jaxon is tall and thin with caramel skin and deep chocolate brown hair like his father, neatly trimmed by his father the night before. Their daughter, caramel skin like her brother and deep chocolate brown hair, three years old, sleeps in her car seat behind Zeke. Zeke drives them to the office where he parks, crosses the street with his Daughter, drops her off at Daycare and says goodbye. He crosses the street and walks inside where is wife is waiting for him. Tonight, she will pick Hayley up from Daycare. Tobias Eaton stands at the cork board, holding a pen between his teeth as he stares up at all of the pictures pinned up on the board. They've been trying to crack this case for three weeks and Tobias believes he may finally have a lead.