*****056:

Rafe

On the way to the studio I noted that Felicity wore the necklace. I thought we had put it up, telling her it was a Sunday only necklace. But apparently not.

We took the VW, and just bodyguard Kodey. Pretty sure a car full of others followed. Not security, although there might have been some, but agents, techs. Jeff and Mutt were together. Abbie and Jeremy, with Levi.

I talked to the kids about the accident. I knew that every traumatic event needed to be processed, and my reaction to every little detail would set the stage for how they processed. Mainly they hadn't even known what hit them. The impending crash had not been noted till it was over and Angie's yelling had alerted them to danger. The crash itself had felt jarring, but they hadn't had time to feel true fear.

"You have to have papers now," Felicity said smugly. "Papa had to have papers after he was in a ax-i-dant."

"Papers for what?" I asked her since she seemed to know what she was talking about.

"For the ax-ee-dant." She changed the pronunciation in case I'd misunderstood her.

"What do the papers do? Were you in an accident with Papa?"

"No." She shook her head importantly, "But Papa had to open his box with my key to get the papers about the ax-ee-dant."

"Did you get hit by another car?" I asked her, feeling my heart beat start to accelerate. This little girl was full of memories too far in the past to be relived all the time.

She rolled her eyes, exasperated, but glad that Virgil and I were paying close attention to her. She was the diva after all. She cocked her head and put a finger to her chin, batting her eyes. Oh, Felicity! You're too cute for words, I thought.

"No. I told you. Papa did. And he had to get right to the papers. He keeps his papers in a box in Grandpa's too-dee."

My shoulders slumped. What the heck was a too-dee? Even in Spanish I didn't have a clue what that meant and assumed it was something she either made up or couldn't say correctly. Perhaps it was slang or a word only she and Gomez knew.

"What's a too-dee?" Virgil asked for me, as I was too muddled to do the obvious.

"A too-dee!" She repeated with more emphasis, clearly thinking this wasn't one of those times we could misunderstand her.

Virgil looked at me and shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know what's a too-dee."

"Me neither," I responded, and we both turned back to Felicity.

"What is a too-dee like?"

"It's a like a room with a picture."

A room with a picture. "Where's the box in the room?" I held my breath.

Felicity rolled her eyes again. "In the picture!" She clearly felt everyone should already know this. Exasperation fairly oozed out of her skin.

I leaned forward. "Hey, Kodey, can you take us up in the Hills? I have a friend there I would like to check in with before we hit the studio. I'll tell everyone else to just go on. This won't take that long." I pressed group text on my phone and told them to go on to the studio, hit send. Then I called someone I hadn't spoken with in quite a while.

Kareem answered on the second ring. "Rafe!" His accented voice was clear. He was after all, a production wizard, complete with magic tricks and a rabbit in his hat.

"Hey man, how's it going?"

"It's going, man."

"Are you at home, dude? I was hoping to stop by."

"I'm actually not at home, come on down to Salem Isles, I'm working on a project you'd really love."

"Is Murdock home?" This was his current partner. Kareem believed in sharing the love and did so regularly with whomever he chose. Currently, he was "with" Murdock Minato, a world class pianist and cellist from South America. He was also used to my change of subject or my random not answering his queries.

"Yeah, he should be, why?"

"It's not you I need, it's your house, specifically your gallery."

"The gallery? Cool. What for?"

"To show the kids, we were talking about galleries today, but of course, I can't just show them an art gallery with all the paparazzi that follow us. So I thought of you."

He laughed. "By all means, do so. Murdock should be able to show you in and tell you about the acquisitions."

I heaved a sigh of relief and after a few more polite chit chatty things, we clicked off. I told Kodey where to take us and then relaxed back.

"Virgil, have you ever seen an art gallery?"

****