Mirror Image

Carole?”
    “Come in.”
    The minute she saw Fancy’s face, she stopped dead in her tracks and raised a hand to her chest. “Oh, my baby! What happened to you?”
    Fancy’s lower lip quivered. A fresh batch of tears filled her eyes. She stretched out her arms and, in a weak, tremulous voice said, “Mommy?”
    * * *
    “I left them crying in each other’s arms,” Avery told Tate a few minutes later. “This might have been the best thing that could have happened.”
    “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Eddy so irrational.” While she’d been gone, he’d stripped down to his trousers. Bare-chested, he was pacing the room, still spoiling for a fight.
    “He’s determined to get you elected. When something happens that could jeopardize that, his temper is explosive.”
    “But to strike a woman?” Tate asked incredulously, shaking his head.
    “How long have you known that he was sleeping with Fancy?”
    “A few weeks.”
    “He told you?”
    “No, I picked up signals.”
    “Did you say anything to him about it?”
    “What could I say? He’s a grown-up. So is she. God knows he didn’t coerce her or sweet talk his way past her virginity.”
    “I guess not,” Avery sighed. “But for all her sexual experience, Fancy’s extremely vulnerable, Tate. He’s hurt her.”
    “Don’t get me wrong. I’m not defending—”
    “Listen!”
    Avery held up her hand and signaled for quiet. Then, moving simultaneously, they rushed toward Mandy’s bedroom and burst through the door.
    She was flailing her limbs, thrashing them against the bed covers. Her small face was contorted and bathed with sweat. She was weeping copiously, her lips blubbering.
    “Mommy! Mommy!” She screamed the name repeatedly.
    Instinctively, Avery reached for her. Tate placed a restraining hand on her shoulder. “You can’t. This might be it.”
    “Oh, no, Tate, please.”
    He shook his head stubbornly. “We have to.”
    So Avery sat on one side of Mandy and Tate sat on the other. Each lived through the hell the child’s subconscious mind was being put through.
    “No, no.” She gasped for breath, holding her mouth wide. “Mommy? I can’t see Mommy. I can’t get out.”
    Avery looked across at Tate. His fingers were steepled over his nose and mouth, his eyes fixed on his tormented daughter.
    Suddenly Mandy sat bolt upright, as though a spring action device had catapulted her head off the pillow. Her chest was rising and falling rapidly. Her eyes were open and unblinking, but she was still in the throes of the nightmare.
    “Mommy!” she screamed. “Get me loose. I’m scared.
Get me loose!
”
    Then her eyelids began to flutter and, though her respiration was still choppy, it no longer sounded as though she’d been running for miles and each breath might be her last.
    “Mommy’s got me,” she whispered. “Mommy’s got me now.” She flopped back down, and when she did, she woke up.
    Once her eyes had focused, she divided her bewildered gaze between Tate and Avery. It was into Avery’s arms that she hurled her solid little body. “Mommy, you got me out. You got me away from the smoke.”
    Avery enfolded Mandy in her arms and hugged her tight. She squeezed her eyes shut and thanked God for healing this child who had become so dear to her. When she opened her eyes, they melded with Tate’s. He extended his hand and stroked her cheek with his knuckle, then laid his hand on his daughter’s head.
    Mandy sat back on her heels and announced, “I’m hungry. Can I have some ice cream?”
    Laughing with relief, Tate scooped her into his arms and swung her high over his head. She squealed. “You certainly can. What flavor?”
    He ordered ice cream from room service, along with a change of linens from housekeeping to replace the damp, tangled sheets on Mandy’s bed. While they waited for the deliveries, Avery changed Mandy into another nightgown and brushed her hair. Tate sat watching them.
    “I had a bad dream,” Mandy told them pragmatically as she used another hairbrush on Pooh Bear. “But I’m not scared anymore ’cause Mommy’s there to get me away.”
    She’d gotten sleepy again by the time she’d finished her ice cream. They tucked her in and sat at the foot of her bed until she fell asleep, knowing that if Dr. Webster was right, her sleep would be uninterrupted from now on. As they left the room, their arms looped around each other’s waists, Avery began to cry.
    “It’s over,” Tate murmured and kissed