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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