* * *
Meredith, Miguel, and Nate pulled up to Eleanor’s small house, and Meredith noticed how different it looked during the day. The stucco walls were a warm shade of pink, and a neat row of bushes along the front softened the lines of the house. The front door was painted an inviting moss green color, and Eleanor had hung a bronze doorknocker that was shaped like a dragonfly.
Nate pulled into the driveway and shut down the engine, and they all climbed out. As Meredith shut the front passenger door behind her, she heard a car approaching. She looked up and recognized her mother’s white Honda CR-V, with both of her parents inside. A huge grin broke out on her face, and she ran down the driveway to meet them as her mother pulled the car up to the curb.
Meredith met her father as he stepped down from the passenger side of the CR-V, but Rob’s eyes never left Nate’s face. His own face was pale, with two bright red spots on his cheeks, with the corners of his mouth pulled down into an angry grimace. “You son of a bitch,” Rob growled.
“What?” Meredith asked, confused. She looked over at Nate, who was holding his hands up defensively, eyes wide.
“Let me explain--” Nate began.
“Explain?!” Rob roared. “You are a lying, conniving, sonofabitch!” He skirted past Meredith and lunged toward Nate, blinded by his own rage. He grasped Nate’s throat and shoved him against his Ford Explorer, pressing down and cutting off Nate’s air supply.
Nate grabbed Rob’s arms, struggling to free his throat. Unsuccessful, his face was turning a bright shade of red.
Meredith ran toward the fighting men and pulled on Rob’s arm while Amelia came around her car to join in the fray.
Both Meredith and Amelia screamed at Rob to stop, but he was immune to their pleas, his eyes trained solely on the object of his anger. “You-- were-- with-- her-- and-- you-- lied-- to-- me!” Rob grunted the words out one at a time, appearing to take a sick pleasure in Nate’s bulging eyes and silent expression.
“Stop it, Rob!” Amelia screamed, yanking on his other arm.
Miguel wedged himself between Rob and Nate, trying to push the two men apart while Nate swung around wildly with his arms. There was a dull smacking sound as Nate’s right fist came into contact with Rob’s left ear, causing Rob to let go of Nate’s throat and instead clutch at his head. The suddenness of his release startled Miguel, who was still pushing with all his might to separate them. Rob stumbled backward and tripped over the brick border that separated the driveway from the front lawn, sprawling backward and landing flat on his back.
Nate gasped for air before launching himself across the driveway and on top of Rob, fists swinging and cuss words flying.
Horrified that Nate would hurt her father, Meredith threw herself onto Nate, punching and scratching and pulling his hair mercilessly. She snaked her arms around Nate’s midsection, yanking as hard as she could. “Get off of my dad!”
As she yelled the words, she felt a wave of power surge through her, like a full-body sneeze, and Nate flew through the air and hit the side of the house with a dull thump. He lay crumpled at the base of the wall, wincing and panting.
“Holy shit, Mere,” Miguel exclaimed from behind her.
Stunned, Meredith looked down at her hands, which, for a moment, retained a faint glow. She watched in amazement until the glow had completely faded and her hands looked normal again.
Rob lay on the ground with his eyes closed while he took stock of his injuries. One of his eyelids was already beginning to swell where Nate had hit him.
Meredith felt her mother laid a hand on her arm, and she looked into Amelia’s question-filled eyes. Her mother’s eyes were blue, like her own, but age and years full of laughter had put lines around Amelia’s.
“Honey,” Amelia began, pausing as she searched for the right words. Finally, abandoning delicacy, she demanded, “What the hell was that?”
Meredith ignored her mother’s question for a moment, instead turning to Miguel and saying, “Can you please make sure Nate is all right?” Then she returned her attention to her mother’s confused and impatient face. “There is a lot I have to tell you guys,” she said simply, shrugging her shoulders.
From next to the house, Nate wheezed, “You did it again! See? I wasn’t making the tree thing up!” Miguel helped him to his feet while Nate clutched his ribcage painfully.
Rob sat up. “Did what again?”
“Are you all idiots?” The authoritative voice boomed out across the yard, silencing them all and drawing their eyes toward it. Eleanor stood in the doorway with her fists clenched and eyes flashing angrily. “Come inside this instant before you make even more of a scene.” She spat the words out disgustedly.
Chastised, they all shuffled into the house quietly, refusing to make eye contact with each other.
Inside, Eleanor’s modest living room seemed even smaller with so many people crammed into it. Meredith sat on the sofa with her parents while Miguel and Nate stood. Eleanor sat alone on the loveseat, scowling at them like a disappointed headmistress.
Meredith looked anxiously at her parents, knowing she owed them a huge explanation for her behavior. Rob was sucking on his lower lip where it had split and was bleeding, while Amelia had draped her arm around Meredith’s shoulders and was stroking the back of her hair.
Amelia looked at Meredith only, ignoring everyone else in the room. “We were so worried about you, Mere. We love you more than anything, you know? You can’t do that to us. We were absolutely crazy with worry.” She looked pointedly at Rob as she said the word crazy.
Rob rolled his eyes. “That asshole deserved far more than what I did to him,” he said, referring to Nate.
Meredith met Nate’s eyes coolly. “What are they talking about?”
Nate shifted uncomfortably, turning his gaze to a blank spot on the wall behind Meredith. He bit his cheek nervously, formulating a response.
“I’ll tell you what he did,” Rob answered with a glare in Nate’s direction. “I called him, not even an hour ago, and told him we were looking for you, and he lied and said he didn’t know where you were.”
“That’s the phone call you got?” Miguel asked incredulously.
“Let me explain,” Nate said quickly.
“You’d better,” Amelia advised.
“Meredith knows why all these weird weather things have been happening. She knows something that could save tons of lives, and she wants to just sit on the information. I told her that she should go public with it, but she doesn’t want to because she’s scared.” He said the last word in a mocking tone. “I wanted to have a little more time with her to try to convince her to do the right thing. I was going to call you back and tell you the truth once I’d gotten her to agree.”
“Well, she’s right not to agree,” Eleanor cut in. Then to Rob and Amelia she asked, “How much has she told you?”
“Nothing.” Amelia said, exasperation creeping into her voice. Meredith could tell that Amelia was frustrated for being in the dark while everyone else seemed to know what was going on.
“Why on earth shouldn’t she go public?” Nate demanded, taking a step toward Eleanor. “What about all those other people who will go in to have their Second Hearts removed because of their ignorance? Ignorance that you, Meredith, and Miguel could very easily rid them of?”
Eleanor stood up, coming toe to toe with Nate. Even though the top of her head barely reached Nate’s shoulder, her physical presence seemed to dominate his, making him seem like the smaller person. “You couldn’t possibly understand what Meredith and Miguel are facing. Who do you think you are to judge their choices? You are nothing but a child trying to play the man, and you do it poorly.”
Rob came up off the couch and put an arm between them. “Let’s just back up a few steps, folks. Nate, I think you had better leave. We’ll take it from here.”
Nate frowned and his eyes sought out Meredith’s, as if he hoped she would intercede on his behalf. “Meredith, wait,”
he pleaded.
Meredith rose to her feet as well. “No, Nate. I was right not to trust you. You hoped to keep me isolated and afraid so you could get me to do what you wanted, what was good for your career. You didn’t have a single thought for my well being, because if you had, you wouldn’t have dreamed of lying to my family about where I was.”
“This is bigger than your well being, Meredith!” Nate protested. “You have to start thinking beyond yourself!”
“You should go,” Meredith said firmly.
Nate looked at Miguel, who had formerly been his ally. Miguel looked at his feet, refusing to meet Nate’s gaze. “Miguel, we could do it without them,” Nate suggested desperately. “I know you think I’m right.”
Miguel looked up at Nate sadly. “You know, you had my support when I thought you were acting honorably. But to deliberately hide a daughter from her mother and father just to get your own way… man, even if I agreed with you, I would never side with you.”
Nate’s shoulders slumped. “Look, I know I screwed up. So I went about it the wrong way, but I’m still trying to do the right thing. I’ll leave, but please promise me you’ll think about it. Think about all those parents whose daughters and sons won’t just be missing, they’ll be dead. Do you really want that on you?” He walked to the front door and opened it, turning back one last time. “You have my number. Call me, please. Do the right thing.”
The door shut behind him and they all stared at it as if they expected him to come back.
Rob broke the tension, saying, “The little shit really is persuasive, isn’t he?”
Through their laughter, Amelia said, “Mere, you’re really going to have to tell us what is going on!”