Andromeda's First Rescue -

"Good night sweetie."  Warm hands tucked in her covers.  And warm lips kissed her forehead.  She was too sleepy to notice anything else.

"G'night Mama..."  Andromeda murmured sleepily, yawning lightly.  One chubby hand sneaked out from under her blanket to rub at her heavy eyes, but she fell asleep before her hand got there and it fell against her pillow.

***

Caroline closed the door as quietly as possible.  Years of practice had made her a ninja of door closing, and there wasn't the faintest creak.

Warm strong hands wrapped around her waist, pulling her to a firm and equally warm chest.  "Didn't you forget something?"  A low voice whispered in her ear.  Her husband placed a small plastic bottle in her hands, the label bore Andromeda's name.

Caroline's body sagged.  "I couldn't do it."  She said, defeated.  She turned around in her husband arms, looking up into his warm dark eyes with her own golden ones.  "Chris, how can I drug my own child?  She blind, doesn't that mean she's suffering enough?"  She asked him, half pleading.  Tears sprang to her eyes.

Chris rubbed her back gently, making shh-ing noises.  "It's for the best."  he said gently.  "Doctor Thompson said that the night terrors were just getting worse."  He cupped his wife face in his hands.  "We don't want her to suffer, you're right.  We want Andromeda to have a peaceful night's sleep."

Caroline's eyes fell, defeated.  "All right.  Tomorrow."  She said.

Chris looked down at his wife, frowning slightly.  She had said the same thing last night.  He sighed, kissing her on the forehead.  "C'mon, let's go to bed."  He led her gently down the hall.


***


Andromeda turned over, frown lines etched into her brow.  She kicked the covers away, fussing in her sleep.  

She was lost.  She was somewhere she had never been before.  Trees rose up all around her, huge and terrifying.  It was so dark, she wasn't used to the dark, it scared her.  

How had she gotten out here?  She couldn't remember.  Where was here?  She didn't know.

She just wanted her mommy.

Andromeda's eyes flew open.  She rose up in bed smoothly, turning her head to the window, though she couldn't see the full moon shining through the panes, casting shadows all around her room.

She wasn't facing the window because it was the window.  She was facing where something else was.  She slipped out of bed and into her slippers.

Someone was out there.  Someone was lost.


***


The bedroom door burst open with a bang.  Gardenia stood in the doorway.  At fifteen she had long, skinny arms and legs poking out of one of her father's extra large T-Shirts. "Andromeda's gone!" She rushed in, throwing herself onto the bed between her parents.  Her dark eyes were wide and hysterical.

Her parents sat up in the bed, rubbing sleep from their eyes.  "Gardenia, what are you doing up?  Do you have any idea what time it is?"  Caroline didn't know what time it was either, but her body told her it was very late.

"Look, I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep."  Gardenia spoke fast, her words tumbling over each other.  "I thought I would watch a teensy bit of Mutant Zombies 4, to help me get back to sleep.  But you left the VCR in Andromeda's room so she could listen to Barney.  I went in there to get it, and-  Andromeda's gone!"  She shouted the last bit, throwing her hands in the air, panicking.  "We need to find her!"

"Calm down."  Her father told her, getting out of bed.  "Everything is all right.  I'm sure she's just downstairs."  He stuffed his feet into his slippers and shuffled out the door.

Gardenia turned back to her mother.  "I already checked downstairs!  I checked everywhere!  I thought she might be in here, but she's not!  She's not here!"  Gardenia's voice was rising higher, squeaking.  She had always been protective of her little blind sister.

Caroline pulled her older daughter close.  "Hush, hush.  It's OK.  Andromeda is fine.  She couldn't have gotten out.  How could she?  Daddy will find her."

Just then, Chris rushed back into the room.  "Caroline!  Call Sheriff Rayner!  The front door was open.  Andromeda's gone!"


***


"There were no foreign footprints leading to or from the house, no sign of forced entry.  It looks like she left on her own."  Sheriff Rayner said soberly.  Blue and red lights flashed behind him.

Caroline clutched at her husband's side, tearing streaming down her face.  "How could she?  She's only five years old.  She's blind."  

Sheriff Rayner gave her a sympathetic look.  "She couldn't have gone too far.  I have men searching the surrounding area and woods.  Dogs too."

Chris nodded.  He turned to his wife.  "You stay here with Gardenia.  I'll go with them to look."  He gave his wife a kiss and pulled away from her.  He turned back to the Sheriff.

Caroline put an arm around Gardenia's shoulders.  She leaned her cheek on her daughter's head, watching while Sheriff Rayner and Chris left.

Once they were gone, Gardenia turned to her mother.  "So, we're going too, right?"

Caroline rubbed her eyes with her hands.  "No, the police will find her.  Daddy is with them."

Gardenia snorted.  "The police couldn't find a chair with their ass.  They still haven't found Mrs. Turner's little boy.  And he's been gone a week."

"Gardenia, please don't curse."  Caroline said wearily.  "And we have to stay here, for when Andromeda comes back."

Gardenia jerked a thumb behind her.  "They left a cop car here already in case she comes back.  They don't need us to wait here too."  Her mother opened her mouth to protest, but she cut her off, speaking quickly.  She knew it was a first-rate capital offense to interrupt her mother, but this was important.  She could be grounded later.  "Look Mom, nobody knows Andromeda better than me.  I know I can find her."

Caroline looked down at her daughter.  Her face was set, eyes glittering with determination.  Her whole body was tensed, ready.  Caroline sighed.

Gardenia's face broke into a fierce grin.  "I'll go get your car keys."  She said as she sprinted into the house.


***


Andromeda tripped and fell again.  Even with her hands out in front of her, she still couldn't feel all the roots and branches that blocked her path.  She had fallen so many times that the knees of her pajamas were ripped and wet.  

She gritted her teeth and rose to her feet again.  She stumbled, but kept on moving.  

Something inside her pushed her forward, showing which direction to go.  She had to keep going.  There was someone lost.

Andromeda loved her mommy very much.  And she had never been without her warm hugs and kisses.  She had never been without that circle of arms protecting her and guiding her.  

There was someone out here that didn't have a mommy.  That didn't have those safe and warm arms.  And they wanted them back, more than anything.

Andromeda thought of her own mommy.  No one should be without their mommy.

When she fell again, she heard a whimper that wasn't her own.

There was a rustle of leaves.  Something was backing away from her, but couldn't get very far.

"Hello?"  Andromeda said.  "Are you here?"  She was here now, it had taken forever.  "You want your mommy, right?"

There was more rustling.  "Mommy?"  A voice asked.  It was tired and hoarse.  And full of pain.

"I bet she is looking for you, come on."  Andromeda held out her hand.

"Can't."  The voice said.  It was a boy's voice, she was sure of it.  "Leg's broken."  There was a long bout of coughing.  Then  "Hungry."

Andromeda nodded.  "I know."  She reached into the pocket of her pajamas and pulled out a candy bar.  "Here.  It was all I could reach."

The boy took the candy bar nervously.  "How did you get here?" he asked, before tearing into the candy bar wolfishly.

"I walked."  Andromeda said simply.  "It was tough.  The trees hurt."  She rubbed a sore spot on her forehead.

The boy made a hoarse sound that might have been a laugh.  It was followed by more coughing.  

Andromeda groped her way over to him, she reached a hand out and felt along his face until she reached his forehead.  She pressed her forehead against his, like her mother did to her.  "You're sick."  She said in an accusing tone.  "You should be in bed."  She sounded remarkably like her mother.

"I can't.  I can't move."  The boy answered wearily.  "And I've been sick since after it rained."

"You can't move cause your leg's broken?"  Andromeda asked.  

"Yeah."

"Can I help?"

There was hope in the boy's voice.  "I don't know.  C-can you help me up?"

Andromeda felt a cold hand on her shoulder.  She grabbed his arm and pulled.  Together they managed to get the boy to one foot.  The other foot he kept off the ground, close to his body.  He leaned heavily on Andromeda.  She stumbled a little under the weight, but held him.

"OK."  Andromeda said, her voice strained.  "I'll hold you up, you look out for trees."

"Which way?  It's too dark for me to see."

"Uh..."  Andromeda moved one hand off of the tree she was leaning on, she wobbled unsteadily.  "That way."  She pointed.  She braced herself on the tree again, nearly missing and falling over.

Then they made their slow, agonizing way through the forest.


***


Gardenia pressed her face against the passenger side window of her mom's car.  She leaned on the glass so much, that she had pulled the seatbelt taught.  "Gardenia, please sit back, you're making me nervous."  Caroline said, taking a quick glance at her daughter.  

"Mom, I'm looking for Andromeda."  Was Gardenia's only reply.  Until "Turn here, Mom."

Caroline arched a brow.  The only turn she could see ahead was a dirt track that led into the forest.  A sign at the turn said 'No Vehicles Beyond This Point'  "Honey..."  She began.

"Mom, it'll take too long to walk, just turn here!"  Gardenia grimaced, she knew that when this was all over, she was in for some serious grounding.  But she would deal with that, for Andromeda.

Caroline sighed and turned onto the dirt track.  It had tire trenches cut into it already by the Park's Department's jeeps, but her little sedan was no jeep.  The cabin of the car rocked violently as she drove over the uneven road.

They continued on for what seemed like forever.  Caroline's teeth had rattled so much that she just kept them clenched together.  Suddenly Gardenia cried "Mom, stop!  Stop here!"

Caroline immediately hit the brakes.  But Gardenia was already out of her seatbelt and out the door.  Caroline exited the car, watching over the roof as Gardenia ran headlong at the trees.  She opened her mouth to shout a warning, but it died in her throat as Gardenia nearly collided with two figures who were coming out.  She watched as Gardenia threw herself on the smaller figure.  They slightly larger one sank to the ground in weariness.

Then she was running.  "Andromeda!"  She clutched at her daughter, slightly impeded by Gardenia hugging her at the same time.

Caroline held her daughter out at arm's length, running a critical eye over her.  Her pajamas were filthy and torn.  The knees had been completely shredded and the skin underneath had been scraped raw and bleeding.  There were leaves in her hair and scratches on her face and hands, but she had no serious injuries.  Caroline hugged her in relief.

"Momma, wait."  Andromeda's voice was muffled by her mother's chest.  "We have to get him home."  Caroline pulled away from her daughter, then looked at the young boy lying next to them, in obvious pain.  "He needs his mommy."  Andromeda said.

Caroline bent over the boy.  His left leg had been broken clean at the knee and hung limply.  His face was white as a sheet and he was dangerously thin.  "It's Mrs. Turner's boy."  Gardenia gasped, her eyes wide.  "How in the world did you find him?"  She asked Andromeda.

Andromeda shrugged.  "I dunno.  I was him in my sleep."  Gardenia tilted her head to one side and looked at her younger sister strangely.

Caroline picked the boy up carefully.  He couldn't have been older than eleven.  "Let's get him to a doctor, and call his mother."  She said.  He was so thin that she carried him easily.

She laid him in the back seat, buckled Andromeda in beside him, made sure Gardenia buckled her own seatbelt in the front, then drove off.


***


Caroline sat at her desk, lost in thought.  Last night's events still whirled around in her head.  It was too much, everything was too much.  

They had returned the boy to his mother.  The woman had arrived at the hospital hysterical, screaming "My baby!  Thomas!  Where is my baby?"

The doctors were calling it a miracle that he has somehow survived in the forest for a week without food or water, and a broken leg.  He had slept out in the rain as well, which had made his voice too hoarse to shout for help.

The boy's mother had hugged Caroline so hard that she bruised a few ribs, while sobbing her gratitude onto the front of her shirt.

Everyone exclaimed how lucky it was, that Andromeda had stumbled upon the boy after she had wandered off.

Caroline shook her head and shivered.

The night terrors.  They weren't night terrors.  Andromeda was seeing something at night.  Something she shouldn't be seeing.  Something that had almost gotten her killed.  

She glanced at the clock on the wall.  She sighed and rose to her feet.  "Come on, Andromeda, time for bed."  Caroline didn't have it in her to chase Andromeda down and put her to bed.  Andromeda must have sensed that, because she went willingly.  

Caroline tucked her in tightly, kissing her on the forehead.  Andromeda, her precious baby girl.  A tear fell from her eyes, hitting Andromeda's pillow lightly.  Andromeda's head jerked to the sound.  "Momma?"  She asked.

Caroline pulled a small white plastic bottle out of her pocket, the contents rattled lightly.  "Sweetie, I'm worried about you being in the woods last night, could you take a vitamin for me, just to be safe?"

Andromeda nodded.  "OK, Momma."

Caroline took a small white pill from the bottle, putting it into her daughter's open mouth.  "Just keep it under your tongue."  She instructed.

Andromeda made a sour face.  "It tastes bad."  She said.  Then "Oh, it's gone."

Andromeda's eyes became heavy almost instantly.  She yawned.  "G'night Momma."  She mumbled, turning on to her side and falling into a dreamless sleep.

Caroline put a hand on her daughter's head.  "Good night baby.  Sleep tight."  She kissed her forehead again and left.  She was careful not to let the door creak, even though she didn't need to.  Nothing would wake Andromeda before morning.