Page 82 of Operation: Valiant Angel

“Let’s let Reina sleep longer. She was really tired last night,” he whispered to Lilly. “Do you want to watch TV this morning and then we can maybe surprise Reina with breakfast? You can help me make it.”

“That would be great!” she exclaimed.

“Shh,” he hushed her.

She climbed onto his brown leather sofa as he turned on the television. “Cold, gotta pee,” she said.

“It’s down the hall, remember?” he asked, pointing to the hallway.

She slid off the couch and ran to the bathroom, stopped in the hallway, and turned to him, waiting.

“Go potty, honey,” he said. She still didn’t move. “You need help putting the potty seat on, don’t you?” he asked. He went into the bathroom and fitted it over the adult seat, and he pulled the little foot stool they’d bought her in front of the toilet. She still didn’t move as he stepped back to the door. Then it occurred to him she needed help. Well, shit. He was not at all comfortable with this. “Can you pull your pajama pants down?”

She shook her head.

He reluctantly went back in. He pulled her pajama pants and underwear down and lifted her onto the potty seat. He knew it was innocent, and he wasn’t some pedophile, but it just seemed so wrong. He stood in the doorway with his back turned.

“Done,” she said, still seated on the potty.

“Okay,” he said, turning back around. “Did you wipe?”

“Mommy do,” she said.

“You’re a big girl and we’re going to teach you how to,” he said. He dispensed the toilet paper, wadded it and handed it to her, giving her instruction on how to wipe, shocked that he was doing this. After she did, he helped her stand, pulled her pants back up, and then helped her wash her hands. He’d made it through it. Whew. That had been harder than some of the missions he pulled in the Middle East.

The sound of clapping drew his attention to Rae, standing a few feet outside the bathroom door. “Nice job, you two.”

“We were going to let you sleep in today,” Wilson said, a bit embarrassed she felt the need to applaud his efforts.

“I’m awake. Let’s mix up that pancake mix and fry that bacon we bought at the store.”

It was around noon that the alert Wilson had been waiting for finally sounded on his phone. He had thirty minutes to get to the office. His go-bag was ready. He was waiting for Jackson to pick him up. When Jackson messaged that he was two minutes away, Wilson slung his backpack over his shoulder and then wrapped his arms around Rae. “You have the keys to my truck and the key code and alarm code for the door. You can go anywhere you want. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone, but I’ll call and text when I can. Reach out to Angel or Madison and set up a playdate for Lilly like they invited you to.”

“Yes, I’ll do that,” Reina promised.

“And remember, contact Ops if you need to,” he also reminded her.

“I’m going to be fine, Jimmy. Lilly and I will be just fine. We’re going to play games, color, watch movies, and probably go to bed early again. I plan to do some laundry, and Lilly and I will probably walk down to that corner store to get some fresh air and exercise. I’ll let Lilly pick a treat. We didn’t get much in the way of treats at the store last night, just meal stuff. But maybe tomorrow I’ll reach out to Angel or Madison.”

He kissed her, a slow, passionate kiss. “I’ll miss you. But we’ll get them.”

“I know you will,” she said.

Then he went over to Lilly, who sat at the kitchen table coloring. “I have to go to work, kiddo, but Reina will be here and will take good care of you.”

“Bye, Jimmy,” she said.

Yankee

“Cameron Woods is really killing it on the Digital Team,” Garcia told Wilson. “So far, he’s a good hire.”

Wilson was surprised. “I’m glad to hear that. I’ll admit I was on the fence about him.”

“I know you were. He was like a dog with a bone when we needed to find that SUV. He worked twelve hours straight with no break and he worked all night going through flight manifests to find what flight Adams and Henning took. They flew under the names Pete and Cynthia Dougherty, their five-year-old daughter, Lilly, not making the flight.”

“I know the Digital Team is still working on where they went after arriving in Newark,” Wilson said. “It’s a big city.”

“Well, first off, Newark airport has hundreds of security cameras. They’re still poring over footage to track their movements when they got off the plane. And Newark has lots of traffic cameras,” Garcia said. “These fuckers aren’t going to get away.”

---