Everything in this story created by Disney is property of Disney

*Dedicated to my Grandmother, Dottie Jackson. "I never knew her
but I love her with all my heart."*

			Burnings

			Chapter Two
	Rose and Michelle hid in Michelle's room. The two girls plopped 
down on the bed. They were still pale. "So what happened in the dream?"
Michelle asked. "Well," Rose said, "It was a prediction of the fire. Those
three people on the news were in it. I beleive the boy caused the fire." "I
can't beleive anybody would kill that precious old woman. She was so sweet."
Michelle said. Rose nodded in agreement. It was still hard to beleive that
the house down the street had been burned. It was worse learning of the
woman's death. "Ms. Drina was so sweet. I remember going to her house on
baking days." Rose said. "Yeah. That was fun." Michelle agreed. The two 
girls sat for a few minutes to remember the moments with the lady. The few
pecious snatches of conversation, cookies, and lemonade. They remembered
when Maloney was their Sargent and asking him to leave the compound to visit
her. They remembered sitting on her back porch in the summer sun. Rose
finally smiled. "Why don't we walk down the street to her house." Rose
suggested. "What's left of it." Michelle said. Rose gave her dear friend a
smile. Michelle nodded consent and said, "Ok. Let's go.". The two girls 
quickly cleaned themselves up and left the compound. It may have been a
poorly kept neighborhood, but it was nice. Michelle and Rose finally reached
the house. The place was surrounded by police tape. Police and Fire officers
bustled about doing their jobs. All be it unhappy as can be. Rose and 
Michelle puased to watch as Paramedics rolled a stretcher by. On the 
stretcher was a small body covered by a black sheet. The two friends looked 
at each other. They knew that this could only have been her. Rose stopped 
the paramedics. "May I?" she asked quietly. "Did you know her?" asked one 
of the men. "Yes." Rose answered sadly. Another one of the men reached 
forward and lifted the sheet away from the woman's face. Rose and Michelle
looked sadly at the charred remains of Ms. Drina's face. Rose then nodded to
the paramedics who recovered her face and continued on their way. Rose and
Michelle quietly exchanged a look. Neither of them needed their powers to
know they would both miss her dearly. Jack appeared behind Rose. The two
girls had not noticed him when he followed them out of the compound. He 
placed his hands on Rose's shoulders. "Come." he said. Rose and Michelle 
allowed themselves to be escorted back to the compound by Jack. Throughout
the morning, the girls went through their training with Fox obediently but
solemnly. Rose quietly tried to concentrate as she simultaneously lifted
targets in the air through telekinesis. Michelle in turn would simply shoot
these objects down with her fireballs. Yet, as easy as pyrokinesis was for
her it had become diffulcult today. After their lessons they sat in one of
the parlor rooms. Jack came in. He patted Michelle on the shoulder and gave
Rose a hug. He wasn't going to playfight with them today. Rose gave Jack an
appreciative smile as he sat next to her. "You two gonna be ok?" he asked.
"Yeah. After a little bit." Rose answered simply. Jack nodded. Rose wasn't
talking in her usual riddles with him. He knew how much that old lady meant
to these two. She had more than once intervened on their behalf when 
"Sargent" Maloney blew his top. Jack smiled. He also remembered the 
christmas gifts she brought every christmas. He still had that green scarf
she knitted for him. He had to admit that the whole psysquad was affected by
her death but Michelle and Rose were the worst. Jack patted her hand which
rested beside her on the couch. Rose looked up at Jack and smiled agian. She
had to admit that at times he was an antagonizing, rule worshipping, brute,
but when he was needed he would come through in the most perfect way that
no one could convince her that there was a better partner for her in the 
universe. Rose leaned her forehead against Jack's shoulder and rested 
quiely. Jack shifted and put his arm around Rose's shoulder to let her 
relax. He wasn't going to push her away. She needed the support. Michelle
watched knowingly as Rose seemingly fell asleep. She shook her head. --How
come they never see how perfect they are for each other?-- Michelle 
wondered. Little did she know that Rose often wondered the same about her 
and Pat.
	Nosedive walked into the rec room. "Hey did you guys hear about the
fire last night?" he asked. Wing looked up. "No we didn't, baby bro. Where
was it?" "1408 Moon Drive. Just down the street from the Psysquad." Dive
answered. Duke and Mallory simultaneously shot to attention. They looked at
each other then back at Dive. "Did anybody die?" "How did it start?" "Is 
everyone all right?" Duke and Mallory both started barraging Nosedive with 
questions. Dive took a step back and held his hands up. "Whoa! Slow down.
Yes , someone did die. It was arson. And the other two who lived there are
missing." Dive said trying to remember all the questions. Mallory stood up
and approached Nosedive. "Who died?" she asked. She asked it in such a quiet
manner it was almost a whisper. A whisper that everyone in the room heard.
Nosedive looked curiously at Mal. "I believe the name was Ellen Drina. Why
are you and Duke so interested?" Nosedive said. "We met Ms. Drina two weeks
ago when we went to visit the psysquad. Apparently she was a very dear 
friend to them. Especially to Rose and Michelle." Duke explained. The other
ducks sat quietly. This was quite surprising. They all had to deal with the
death of loved ones back on Puckworld. They never had to deal with the death
of a human though. Mallory walked over to Duke and whispered quietly to him
for a minute. He nodded in agreement. Duke then bookmarked his book and set
it aside. The two then left the room. Duke and Mallory shared a duckcycle on
the way to the compound. Sakari and Kareem opened the gate for Duke and Mal
to come in. Duke brought the duckcycle inside the gate then followed Mal. 
Kareem and Sakari silently led Mallory and Duke to the Parlor where Rose and
Michelle were. Rose was still asleep on Jack's shoulder when they arrived.
Only Michelle and Jack were also asleep. Sakari gently shook Michelle to
wake her up while Kareem woke up Jack. Jack reached up and gently tapped 
Rose on the shoulder. "Rose, wake up. We have guests." he whispered to her.
Rose sleepily sat up. She looked up and saw Mallory and Duke exchange 
glances. She frowned. She knew what those looks meant. It seemed everybody
thought she and Jack were in love. Yeah, she liked Jack. It seemed to her,
though he wasn't interested in her. Mallory took a seat next to Michelle.
Duke stood directly behind her. "We heard about Ms. Drina. We stopped by to
see how you were doing?" Mallory said. "We be all right. It's still kinda 
sinking in." Rose answered. "Well, how about we all go and drown our sorrows
in double fudge chocolate ice cream at the Sugar Boutique?" Mallory 
suggested. Rose seemed to faintly smile at the idea. "I don't think I'll go.
I'll stay. But Rose, you and Michy should go." Jack said. He gave Rose his
no arguing look. "Michy?" Michelle asked. Jack just smiled at her. Jack then
secretly squeezed Rose's elbow and stood up. Rose looked at Jack confusedly.
He just smiled and left the room. Duke looked at Kareem and Sakari. "We'll
pass." they said. "Well, it's settled. Let's go!" Mallory said. The four
set off in Michelle's car for the mall. 
	 Rose looked at her three friends as they reminisced over their ice
cream. "I also remember when Ms. Drina introduced me to her cats." Michelle
said. Duke smiled. He had also been introduced. "Buffy, Fluffy, Mopsy, 
Flopsy, Sara, Cara, and Muavijhe." he listed off the cats. "She loved cats."
Rose agreed. The four of them shook their heads. Michelle listened as Rose
related memories of the lady to the two ducks. Duke and Mal listened 
attentively to Rose and luaghed at all the funny incidents that she 
remembered. Michelle watched Mallory's and Duke's reactions to each story.
Michelle allowed her eyes to wander around the restruant. There were a lot
of people here. A family of five dined in one corner. She smiled as their
baby girl tossed a spoonful of ice cream in her daddy's face. She then 
looked at the elderly group across the room. They looked like they had 
just gotten out of a tennis game. Finally her eyes landed on two teenage 
girls who silently whispered amongst themselves. Again, before Michelle 
realized it, she scanned their minds. Again images of fire and feelings of
hatred filled her mind. This time instead of a white house it was a small
store not far from where they were. Michelle quickly realized her mistake.
But she remembered what had happened the last time. Michelle also remembered
talking to Rose about her accidental scan. Michelle saw Duke and Mallory
start getting up. "We'll go pay for the bill right quick." Duke said. He and
Mal walked off towards the cash register. "Rose, remember when I 
accidentally scanned that boy?" Michelle asked quickly. "Yeah, I remember." 
Rose answered. "Well, I accidentally scanned those two girls over there and 
I got the same images as yesterday." Michelle said. Rose frowned. Michelle 
watched Rose look towards the two girls. Rose focused and scanned their
thoughts. "This is disturbing." she said at last. Michelle and Rose looked 
at each other then saw the two girls leave the store. Michelle and Rose 
looked at each other again. They then jumped up and followed the girls. 
They followed them around town. The girls stopped at a few more shops and 
gathered supplies for a bonfire. Rose frowned. This was strange. -- What is
going on here?-- Michelle thought. Duke and Mallory returned to their table.
"Where'd Rose and Michelle go?" Duke asked. "They probally went to the 
bathroom. I'll go look for them." Mallory answered. Duke waited outside 
while Mal went into the ladies room. Mal soon came back out. She was quite
confused. "They're not there." she said. The two ducks headed outside.
Michelle's car was gone. "It must have been very important for them to go 
and leave us like that." Duke said. He was quite agitated. He hated being 
left behind. Mallory made a quick call to Jack back at the compound to come
and pick them up so they could get the duckcycle. Jack was just as confused
as they were about the whole situation. Jack's feeling of dread from that
morning came back to him. He silently hoped that nothing had or would happen
to them.

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