Christopher and Yvonne were enjoying their time together as a couple. Without Debbie and Alex and their drama to take up their attention, they were able to experience a few days of peace and each other's company. Neither of them had expected that their relationship would go beyond friendship, and Christopher went back and forth, thinking that his amnesia had been the best thing to happen to him.
Not too long ago, Christopher had been pursuing a shadow in the forest, a shadow which had turned out to be Mark the spy, a new ally of Alex's. In the process, Christopher had tripped over a stray root and whacked his head, causing him to lose his memories. Once reunited with his friends, it had been a long process to recover his memories. He still couldn't believe he had performed brain surgery without any memory of having gone to medical school! It was only when he and Yvonne had shared their first kiss that his memories had come flooding back.
He sat opposite Yvonne outside a small lobster restaurant on the pier. They were enjoying a heavy lunch of shellfish and hot buttered biscuits while tourists walked up and down the boardwalk. Christopher smiled, wondering about the last time he had come by and just enjoyed the sights.
Yvonne caught him looking wistful.
"What are you thinking about?" she asked.
Christopher looked at her. "Just that I'm enjoying being here. With you."
Yvonne gave him a wide smile.
Their date grew progressively more lovely. They ended the day seated on the pier, eating ice cream, and with their legs dangling over the edge as they watched the sunset. Seagulls wheeled over the sea, squawking at each other. Yvonne rested her head on Christopher's shoulder, and he wrapped his arm around her waist. Christopher did not want the moment to end.
When the sun had set, and the stars began to appear, they made their way back to Yvonne's house. Although they hadn't been together for that long, Christopher had all but moved in. Some of his clothes hung in her closet, and she had emptied a drawer for him in her chest of drawers. Christopher felt at home as he walked through the door, trailing Yvonne.
She turned around and gave him a passionate kiss. He held her tightly, not wanting to let her go. She pulled away.
"Thank you," she said, "for a wonderful date."
"My pleasure," he said. "I feel like I'm seeing a whole new world when I'm around you."
A faint blush crept up Yvonne's cheeks. "You're so sweet," she said. "I'm going to get ready for bed. Will I see you there?" she winked at him.
"No doubt," Christopher said, making his way to the living room. "Let me just check if I missed any urgent calls or emails, then I'll be up."
Yvonne blew him a kiss, then went upstairs to get ready for bed. Christopher turned on his phone, and once everything had loaded, he noticed a staggering number of missed calls, voicemails, texts, and emails. His heart leapt and he jumped to his feet, breaking out in a cold sweat.
Oh my god, he thought, panicking, there's been an emergency at the hospital! Somebody died! Maybe it was a bus crash! How many people can sit on a bus? Add the standing passengers and - Oh my god! They all needed brain surgery and I wasn't there to perform it because I was on a date at the pier!
Christopher slapped himself, pulling himself out of his brief panic.
Calm down, he told himself. There's no way you can possibly know that. You haven't even clicked on the notifications yet. Maybe you start there.
Taking a long, slow breath, he clicked on the phone icon. Sixteen missed calls all from the same person: Alex.
Christopher groaned as he opened the first voicemail.
"Hey," said Alex's voice, "Christopher, I'm sorry, I know you must have been enjoying your time with Yvonne, but we have an emergency. Lincoln kidnapped my mom!"
Christopher deleted it and moved onto the next voicemail.
"Hey again," said Alex's voice, he sounded more sheepish this time, "Christopher, I'm really sorry, and I know I just said Lincoln kidnapped my mom - I'm still catching up on everything Louis sent me - but um, apparently Riley and his weird sidekick tried to save her, but ended up kidnapping her for themselves? Please call me back."
Christopher deleted the voicemail, but didn't move onto the next one. He heard Yvonne come down the stairs and into the living room. He looked over the top of the sofa at her.
"You okay?" he asked.
Yvonne looked up at him, slightly shaken. "I had a bunch of missed calls and texts from Alex and Debbie," she said.
Christopher sat up straight. "His mom's been kidnapped?" he asked.
Yvonne's eyes widened. "How did you-"
Before she could finish speaking, Christopher said, "Alex has been calling me too."
Yvonne breathed a sigh of relief, her shoulders relaxing. "That makes sense," she said, then she started texting. "I'm telling Debbie to bring the gang here. This is serious." She looked up at him. "I'm sorry," she said, "I know this was our date night but…"
She looked away as she trailed off.
"Kidnapping trumps date night," Christopher assured her. "There'll be more date nights." And then he said under his breath, "the way things are going, probably more kidnappings too."
***
While Christopher and Yvonne were preparing to host a series of unexplained guests, Ken Stokes and Louis were trying their best to get a head start on the search for Flora. Ken had made a few calls to some of his friends at the Department of Justice, and even the local law enforcement. Flora was now registered as a missing person, and they had a certain amount of freedom in searching for her.
There was just one problem.
"How are we going to keep Gideon from finding out about all of this?" Louis asked suddenly, looking up from the fliers he and Ken were making. The fliers had a picture of Flora on them, along with the relevant contact information.
Ken looked down at the fliers and cringed. They had already printed a fair few thousand of them. They couldn't just dispose of all of them.
"That's a very good question," Ken said, standing up. They were in the basement, surrounded by the various consoles and computer monitors which made up the body of SCOT, the artificial intelligence program Alex had designed to keep the house in the woods safe from harm.
"We can't keep these in the house," Louis said, holding up a flier and emphasizing Flora's image. "He's bound to find them sooner or later."
Ken made a thinking face and started to pace around the room. He came to one of the monitors, which showed Gideon out in the garden, tending to the rose bushes that lined the fence. He stood there for a few moments, thinking. Louis watched them, then turned his attention back to the fliers.
This started off as a really good idea, he thought. Why did none of us stop to think about Gideon? If he finds out his wife is missing, he's going to go insane and start throwing himself into the fray to find her.
Louis liked Gideon. Alex's father was such a genuine person, albeit oblivious to the world around him. The house could start flooding from an irreparable leak, and Gideon Ambrose would start swimming. If he found out that Flora had been kidnapped, and was registered as a missing person, there was no telling how far he would go to find her. For Alex's sake, as well as Gideon's, Louis and Ken had to find a way to keep him from finding out.
Louis stood up and went over to the monitor where Ken was standing. Louis watched as Gideon Ambrose took care of the roses.
"He really likes gardening, doesn't he?" Lous commented.
Ken folded his arms and smiled proudly. "Those roses," he said, "were my suggestion. Alex wasn't too fond of the idea of a hedge maze, so we settled on some roses instead." He pursed his lips and thought for a moment. "The hedge maze would have been more fun."
A thought occurred to Louis.
"That's it!" he said suddenly.
"What's it?" Ken asked, getting excited. "Kid, what have you got?"
Louis chuckled. Watching Gideon in the garden, the answer seemed so obvious.
"Look at him," Louis said, smiling broadly as he pointed at the screen. "What if the way to keep Gideon occupied is to just give him something to do?"
Ken's eyes lit up. "Hey," he said. "That's not a bad idea." He turned to Louis. "What were you thinking? Get him tickets to a bunch of sports games? Send him on another tech-free vacation?"
Louis shook his head. "Much simpler than that," he said, crossing his arms.
About a half hour later, Louis and Ken found themselves in the garden, watching Gideon in real life as he tended to the roses. He was muttering softly, and humming. It took Louis a few minutes to work out that Gideon was singing to the roses. Rather, he was trying to sing to the roses. Louis wiped a hand over his face and looked at Ken.
"You sure this is going to work?" Ken asked.
"No," Louis admitted. "But it'll keep him busy, and it's something he's happy to do, at any rate." He gestured to Gideon, who was on his knees with a pair of thick gardening gloves on his hands as he carefully tended to the beds.
As Louis approached, Gideon looked up. A broad smile broke out across his face.
"Good afternoon, Louis!" he said. "Pull up some grass. I could use some help with the roots!"
Louis returned the smile and knelt down.
"Any news from my son?" Gideon asked. "How's Paris treating him?"
Louis bit his lip, nervous. "Actually," he said. "He's on his way back."
"Such good news!" Gideon said, pulling away some dirt from the roots of a rose bush and packing in some sour-smelling mulch. "When can we expect him back?"
This was the part Louis was nervous about. "We actually got a bit of bad news," Louis lied. "Alex and Debbie both picked up a nasty bug at some point in the last couple of days. They're going to go to Yvonne's to recover so they don't get us, you, or Flora sick."
Gideon pulled away from the rose beds and gave Louis a disappointed look.
"Will we be able to visit?" he asked, concerned.
Louis shook his head, and Gideon's face fell.
"I'm sorry," Louis said quickly. "From the sound of it, it's nothing serious, it should only be a couple of days at most. In the mean time," he inclined his head toward Gideon. "I was thinking that we could re-landscape the garden. Make it look nice, for when they do get back."
At that, Gideon's face lit up. He shot to his feet and started looking around the garden, exactly as Louis had hoped.
"I," Gideon said, "am going to plant so many bushes!"