Chels had just gotten back with our food when there was a sharp knock on the door. We looked at each other with concern. I immediately got up and when into the bathroom, locking the door.
“Who is it?” Chels asked sweetly, not opening the door. I pressed my ear to the door so I could hear.
“My name is Jason Forthness. I am from the witness protection program and am looking for a person or persons that are in fore mentioned program. Please open the door,” a man’s voice answered. His voice was low and sounded urgent. I let out a long sigh.
“How do I know that you are telling me the truth?” Chels questioned. I snickered to my self.
“Good job, Chels,” I whispered to myself, “don’t let him in.”
“You won’t know unless you play hopscotch, in the rain, during a stormy July day, while vacationing in Texas,” the man answered with a laugh. I unlocked the bathroom door and slowly opened it.
“What?” Chels asked in confusion.
“Let him in,” I told her as I leaned against the door jamb. She whirled around to look at me with wide, questioning eyes. “It’s okay. I know him.” I said.
“Ooookay, if you’re sure,” she gave me one last glance. After I gave her a confirming nod, she opened the door to let the guy in.
“Hello, Mr. Carter,” he greeted with a lopsided smile.
“Hey Jase. I am surprised you remembered the whole code,” I snickered.
“I have never had a participant in the program give me such a complicated pass code,” he smiled back at me as Chels closed the door behind him.
“Someone, please, fill me in?” she looked at me with her fake green eyes.
“He is my case manager,” I began to explain. “When I was getting ready to be shipped to my first location, we had to come up with a pass code. With that pass code, I can always tell if the person is really from the WPP. I got to pick my own pass code.”
“And your pass code is something to do with hopscotch and July rain?” she looked at me with both confusion and amusement.
“Specifically, playing hopscotch, in the rain, during a stormy July day, while vacationing in Texas,” I confirmed with a nod. Chels’s face went blank as she looked from me to Jase. Her eyebrow arched and a small smile formed on her lips.
“Somehow, I am not at all surprised by that,” she shook her head.
“I know…I’m good,” I gave my cheesiest grin and rubbed my nails on my shirt before turning serious again. “But, how did you find me?”
“It’s my job. Now, you both need to gather your things so that we can go,” he said crossing his arms.
“GO?” my eyes widened even though I, really, wasn’t surprised.
“Yes.”
“Why both of us?” Chels asked scrunching her eyebrows.
“First of all, you have been seen with him in public. If someone realized that it was him then they would come for you, expecting you to know something. Second of all, you have a ring on your finger, no?” he smiled over at her, motioning toward her, fake, wedding ring (that he didn’t know was fake). She opened her moth to respond but I jumped in before she had the chance to say anything.
“Yeah. She does. It was a spur of the moment thing. I didn’t need to tell you did I?” Can you blame me for lying? I mean, I didn’t want to say good bye to the first real friend that I had made since entering the program. What was I supposed to do? So…I lied.
“Alright, then pack your bags,” he smiled my way and winked at me. I looked at him oddly before following his directions. Within a half hour, we were ready. Jase and I loaded the bags into the trunk of the black Suburban.
“So where are we going, and what does this all entail?” Chels asked from beside me in the back seat.
“He’s going to take us to the office. There he will give us our new identities, ID’s, and everything else we need. Then he will, probably, give us plane tickets and keys to our new place.”
“That’s, pretty much, it,” Jase nodded.
“Well, can I call…” she began but was cut off by Jase and I.
“NO!”
“Oh,” she hung her head a little.
“I’m sorry, Steph,” I whispered looking at her out of the corner of my eye.
“It’s okay, Nick,” she gave me a soft smile. “I just don’t know how all this stuff works and I’m a little freaked out.”
“Tsh, believe me! I KNOW what you mean,” I chuckled. We kept our voices low as to keep the conversation, somewhat, between us. Jase was concentrating on the road while singing softly with the radio. “I’m not thrilled about another round in the program,” I sighed.
“Hopefully they will resolve the whole hostage situation thing and you can get yourself out of this protection stuff,” she said as she leaned to rest her head on my shoulder.
“God, I hope so. I miss the guys soooo much. Not to mention, my career,” I let out a long sigh and rested my head against hers. The drive was long and we were starting to get anxious. It was almost two hours before we got to the main WPP office. I couldn’t even fathom the concept of yet ANOTHER identity! How many am I up to now? You lost count didn’t you? I don’t blame you, but this will be the fifth…or the sixth, if you count the ‘relapse’ to being Elliot. The fact that Steph,…Chels…whoever she’s going to be next, was with me only helped to slightly ease my frustration.
“Nick? Helloooooo?” she snapped me out of my trance with a poke in the ribs.
“Huh?”
“We’re here,” Jase spoke up. “Now let’s go in and get you guys settled.” I climbed out of the Suburban and held out my hand to help her out, then we headed into the grey brick building. Jase led her in but I trailed behind a bit, trudging at a reluctantly slow pace. Once I finally caught up to where they were waiting, in the lobby, Jase took us up to his office. The familiarity of the room sent shivers down my spine as Steph and I sat in the chairs in front of his desk.
“Lay it on me, Jase,” I said with my head slumped to one side.
“Alright. Shall we start with your new names?”
“Fine, whatever,” I sighed.
“Okay. I now pronounce you Mr. Blake and Mrs. Sarah Lawrence. You can keep the rings you have,” he chuckled. Both Ch…Sarah and I looked at him un amused.
“Not funny,” I retorted.
“Sorry. Anyways, you will no longer have to be surrounded by snow because you will now resign…I mean, RESIDE in Hawaii,” Jase began laughing hard.
“Oh now, what the fuck! Who the hell DOESN’T know about that shit?” My eyebrows furrowed in agitation.
“That IS old news, Jason. You are just as lame for bringing it up now, as he was for saying it, then.”
“Sorry, sorry. My little niece just told me about that the other day and I couldn’t resist. You HAD to know that being in the WPP and moving to different places, someone was going to bring it up,” the older man continued laughing.
“Whatever, so do we get a house or an apartment or what? How about a car? What going to happen to hers?” I decided to change the subject before my irritation levels got too out of control.
“You’ll be in a two bedroom house. Another couple just got relocated, so you’ll be moving into where they just moved from. Yes, you’ll be getting a car; a newer one this time, it’s a KIA. As for her car, we’ll take possession of it just like usual. But, there’s more.”
“Do I dare ask?” I raised an eyebrow.
“You own your own company, now. It’s not huge but it’s pretty descent sized. There are already people running it so you won’t have to do much of anything. The point is for you to have income without having to be in the general public all day, every day.”
“Um…ok. Is this like, special shit just because of who I am?”
“Technically, yes. We wouldn’t normally arrange this type of thing, but with everything else going on, we cannot afford for you to be working a job. Going to the store is one thing but working 9 to 5, Monday through Friday, at the same place makes it too easy for someone to recognize you or your voice. Right now, extra precautions must be taken.”
“I see.”
“Um…” the woman next to me finally spoke up again, “will I be working?”
“Only if you want to,” Jase answered, “there will be enough income, from the company, that it will not be required. However, if you wish, we can set you up with one.”
“No,” I interjected. “If I’m not allowed to be exposed to the public every day, than neither is she.”
“What?” she looked at me strange, “why?”
“They aren’t willing to risk my life and I’m not willing to risk yours,” I answered without looking over to her. “Where are we staying tonight?”
“You’ll be put up at a nice hotel downtown.”
“So are we done?” I asked. I was really sick of being in his office, discussing this. I wanted out of the entire situation.
“Um, not quite. Here are your credit cards, already set up, like usual. Your house and utility payments are set up for automatic with drawl, again, nothing new. Let’s see, what else?” Jason sifted through papers and I slouched further down in my chair. I looked over at Sarah. She had her head hung and was fidgeting with her hands; she was obviously nervous about the whole ordeal and I didn’t blame her a bit. At this point, I would have rather thrown myself to the gang members who wanted me, rather than to drag her through this with me. All this time, she has been such a good friend to me and we were really connecting on that friendship level.
“You know what? Can’t she just go back home? I mean, no one will ever even realize it was her that was with me, if she dyes her hair back and everything.”
“Sorry,” Jase shook his head. “She’s involved and therefore she is in danger by association. It’s better for her to go with you.”
“I’m not bailing out on you, Nick,” she laid a hand over mine. “We will do this together, okay?”
“I just feel bad. You know, dragging you down with me,” I looked over at her and received a slight smile.
“There is no dragging required.”
“Let’s get back to business. I need both of you to give me all of your old identification, credit cards, and any other identifying articles.” I drew in a deep breath and started sifting through my wallet. It only took us a few minutes to hand over all of our personal shit. He gave us each different papers and stuff that we would need to assume our new identities. After all that, we were finally done and headed to the hotel. Jase stopped to let us grab some food to take to the room.
“Yo, check this shit out!” I called to Sarah after we got settled. I had the news on and was floored at what I saw on the screen. The repoter was talking at a rapid pace to describe the events being covered. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I pinched my arm, thinking that it was a dream.
“Yeah, Blake?” she walked out from the bathroom and sat next to me on the bed, where I was scarfing down a burger, my eyes glued to the TV.
“This shit is fucking crazy!” I turned to her with wide eyes.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Thank you so much to all of you who have been reading along! I appreciate all of your feedback. You guys are great. *muah*
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