The Lake

Ending A

Kate is startled awake by the sound of her phone buzzing and the chime of a notification. Next to her Bartie is curled up into a ball and whimpering, his face is wet with tears. 

Kate sits up and pulls her drowsy two year old into her lap and kisses her on the head before reaching over to rub Bartie on his back. "What's wrong, Bartie? Why are you crying?"

Bartie wipes his tears and turns his face to peer over his shoulder at his Aunt. "I..I had an accident. And a really bad dream."

"That's ok Honey, accidents happen, and don't worry the dream is all gone now."

Bartie sits up, hugging his knees to his chest, "But the dream was so scary and it felt so real."

Kate's phone buzzes again and she glances at it, "It might help to talk about it? Make it a little less scary."

They climb out of the playcastle and Bartie looks up at Kate with wide eyes as he takes her hand, "There was a monster in my dream! A monster in the lake!"

Kate gives his hand a gentle squeeze,  rubbing the back of it with her thumb. "Oh sweety, monsters aren't real. They only put them in fairytales to make the story more interesting, and to give the hero something to do." 

She leads him to the bathroom nearby to get cleaned up. "But are you sure monsters aren't real? Uncle Max told me.."

Kate chuckles as she stops in the doorway, "Your Uncle Maxwell is a big silly guy, and likes to tell make-believe stories just for fun. Never take them seriously unless he can show you pictures to prove it."

Bartie glances up at Kate with a sheepish expression, trying to sound brave and forget the scary images in his head, "Yeah.. they're just stories. Silly Uncle Max."

Kate waits outside the closed door while Bartie gets out of his wet clothes. She smiles as she watches Brooklyn toddle over to play with her toys. Thankfully the monster talk didn't bother her.

Her phone buzzes again and she picks it up with a sigh. She's surprised to see the text is from Maxwell. 

>> Help! Our boat has sprung a leak and we're sinking! 😱

Kate shakes her head, feeling that Maxwell is being over dramatic. She responds back,

>> Oh Max, what did you do now?

She's just dropping her phone down to watch Brooklyn move onto something new to play with when her phone starts ringing. Frowning with concern, she realizes the call is from Preston, their head of security. She answers,

"Preston, what's going on?"

"There's been an incident out on the lake and we're mobilizing a rescue. Stay with the children and we'll update you when we have more details."

Kate feels her heart sink down into her stomach, realizing that Max's text was serious. "But Preston.."

He doesn't respond because he's already hung up.

"Mommy, why do you look so scared?" Brooklyn picks up her stuffed unicorn and hugs it. "What did Mr. Preston say?"
 
Kate rushes over to the window and pushes open the curtains. Through the trees she can just make out the sight of Preston in the speedboat as he exits the boat house and then disappears from view.

…

Like a few hours earlier, Kate and the children are standing in the courtyard. But this time they're watching the speedboat arrive at the dock with the three men in it. Kate feels a tremendous sense of relief at seeing both of her guys looking mostly dry. But her relief fades when she sees Maxwell and Preston help Drake get out of the boat.