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| Disclaimer: These characters are mine, and while they may bear a tiny resemblance to two of my favourite
characters from a certain show but that's where it ends ...the characters/storyline/plot etc... come from my own over-active imagination. :) This would fall into the Uber category though...I guess. Violence/aftermath of violence: Yeah...a little. Not much though. None that is stronger than the average episode of say any Star Trek series or Xena: Warrior Princess. Subtext/maintext: Yes, no, maybe so... it's possible. Depending on how it works out as I write. Language: Well, there is a bit of mild swearing ie hell, damn ect... nothing more exotic though... :) Note about the song: "Grace" is a traditional Irish/Celtic song about a band of men fighting for the liberation of their home land and one of the men's wish that he and his new bride could spend his last hours together before he was killed for treason. But, there wasn't time and he died thinking of her. Since I first heard Grace during Archiving ect...: May not be archived anywhere without author's permission. Special Thanks: Go to LJ Maas, Murphy and MK for their help in revising this part. ALL constuctive criticism, comments, suggestions gratefully accepted/answered by author at: tblakeley@xenafan.com High on a cliff overlooking the main road into the two hundred acre Warran family ranch, two riders sat astride a pair of beautiful palomino horses. One rider was a tall statuesque woman with long raven hair and pale blue eyes. The other was a tall dark haired man also with pale blue eyes. While the woman let her gaze drift slowly over the stretch of green land that made up the valley below her, the man's attention remained fixed on the woman next to him. The land below the cliff was divided by the main road. It was the main grazing land for the cattle and horses at the Warran Family Ranch. From their outlook the riders could take in the various activities of the ranch hands at work as well as providing them an excellent view of cattle and horse roaming around the large pasture. After watching the scene below for a few moments, the woman closed her eyes and allowed herself to revel in the peace and serenity of the valley. Kieron Warran watched his sister, Michaela, close her eyes and leaned her head back relaxing a little. It was the first time in months that he'd seen her almost totally at peace. He shivered slightly remembering the heated conversation earlier that morning between Michaela and their brother Marc. What had started out as a friendly sibling discussion about the future of the ranch had quickly deteriorated into a raging battle. "Marc, I'm going to expand the barn to accommedate the new additions to the herds." Michaela smiled at her younger brother as they sat opposite each other in the den finishing their coffee. "I also want to hire more hands to help out, including someone to help mom with the house and books." "Why? Everything's fine, Mikey. We can handle the influx of new calves and foals just fine..." Marc looked at the oldest of the four Warran siblings. "And mom's handling the house and books just fine. We don't need any help!" "I'm not saying you can't handle it Marc. I'm just saying that I'd like to hire more people so that we can expand the number of stallions and mares we currently have along with the cattle." Michaela sighed heavilly. "If we do go through with the expansion then we'll have to hire more hands anyway..." "If? Listen to yourself Mikey..." Marc shook his head and raised an eyebrow at her. "You said if, not when...but if!" "Yeah so? It's a figure of speach, get over it." "Why can't we wait to hire more hands until we need them?" Michaela raised an eyebrow. "Riiiight. Wait until we need them? Brillant plan oh mighty Marcus. I bow to your superior intellect." Marc looked down at the cup in his hand before looking up at his sister, who had her 'look' on her beautiful face. Michaela lifted her cup to her mouth draining the rapidly cooling liquid in one final gulp. "Look Marc, the new mares and stallions will be arriving next month, the cattle the week after the horses. If we don't start hiring now we'll be short handed." Kieron sighed causing Michaela to open her eyes and look over at him. "What's wrong, Kier?" "Nothing Mike...just thinking." She nodded and turned her attention to the activities below. While Kieron went back to his own thoughts. Michaela slowly placed the cup on the coffee table. "I'm not going to put up with another screw up like the one a couple of months ago Marc." Marc winced, remembering the incident back in December and Michaela's reaction to it. They'd been left short handed by an outbreak of the flu. Those who were able tended to the horses and cattle and tried to pick up the slack. One particular hand, John Donleavy, who had already started to crack after his wife left him, couldn't handle the pressure and added responsiblity. He took to getting his courage and strength at the bottom of a bottle of Scotch. On that fateful night, he'd drunk himself into a stupour and failed to notice that two of the horses weren't in the heated barn. They were outside in -20 degree weather. Marc held up his hand in protest. "Now Michaela...that won't ever happen again. We've..." "You've what? Tell me oh wise and powerful little brother. Just how are you going to manage to keep it from happening, huh? Go on Tell me?" "Michaela..." Marc hesitated not knowing what to tell her. Michaela shook her head. "Save it Marcus. You don't know how to stop it from happening and I don't want to hear the excuses. I'm hiring the extra hands and there's nothing you can do about it...it's my ranch after all." Marc couldn't dispute the fact that when their father died ten years ago he'd left the ranch and a sixty percent controlling interest in all his businesses to Michaela as the oldest. With two provisos. One, that her four brothers would each own five percent of the stock, their mother would keep her fifteen percent, with the reamaining five percent being owned by a corporation called GMCB INC., and two being that the five siblings each lived on and worked the ranch together as a family. "....and I don't want a repeat of what happened in November." Michaela raised an eyebrow at her brother. "Are you listening to me Marc? Or are you off in your own dream world?" Marcus sighed. "Michaela I know how you feel about the horses, believe me." He got up from his chair and knelt down beside her placing a hand on her arm. He definitely knew how much she love the horses, he'd watched her help train them often enough. She treated each horse as if it were her best friend. "The hell you do." Michaela growled, looking into her brother's darkening blue eyes. They all got the unusual shade of blue eyes from their mother, but it was sometimes unnerving to them to have eyes so like their own staring back at them. As her anger at the incident grew, Michaela's own blue eyes darkened and narrowed as she glared at Marc. She ranted at her brother dressing him down and telling him exactly what she thought of his ablilities as manager of the ranch. Kieron shook himself, wishing that it wasn't him who had to be peacemaker between Marc and Michaela. The two of them were like oil and water. Although they loved each other Marc's pride would never allow him to admit when he was wrong and Michaela was not known for suffering fools or being gentle and calm. In fact those who knew her knew that she had a nasty temper, a short fuse and an uncanny business sense which sometimes led to her appearing to be aggressive and uncaring. Only rarely did a few carefully chosen people whom she let get close to her see a different side of the tall raven haired beauty. When she let go of her tough exterior for a little while she became a caring, gentle person. The only times she could really let her guard down and let the mask slip away were when she was at her ranch and when she rode her horse 'Ireland's Pride', who was arguably the best friend Michaela had next to her family. Michaela carefully slid down from the saddle, wincing as a shooting pain travelled down her back and her left leg. Kieron winced in sympathy. He knew on damp days her still healing injuries bothered her and that she might never be totally pain free. Michaela stood still for a moment letting the familiar pain wash over her senses, then took a deep cleansing breath of the clean country air. "It's beautiful out here isn't it boy?" Ireland tossed his head slightly and snorted in agreement. Michaela chuckled as she reached up and patted his neck gently. Kieron smiled broadly as he watched his sister and her horse. Shaking his head, he turned slightly to watch the hands round up a few of the grazing horses as they prepared to move them toward the training ground. As she reached into her saddle bags to retrieve an apple for Ireland, Michaela absently allowed her mind to drift back to the events of eight months before that made her close her heart firmly and made her vow to herself not to trust anyone that much again. Back to a time when she and her then partner Cara Beckman ruled the corporate world as co-owners of one of the largest Software and Security firms in the world, Warriors Inc. With Michaela's knowledge of computers, her years as a home and business security systems specialist combined with Cara's talents as a fundraiser made them an unbeatable team. Although Michaela, with her family's connections and money, could have done just as well without the blonde timebomb. September 1, 1999 Cara Beckman strolled down the corridor of the building that housed the headquarters of Warriors Inc. toward the office of it's CEO, founder and co-owner Michaela Warran. Cara's long blonde hair was draped over her shoulders casually in the laid back style she prefered and the seductively tight red dress that she wore clung to each curve. She had known that her time at the giagantic Software and Security Corporation was nearly at an end the moment she'd hung up the phone in her office after talking to Michaela. Cara grinned as she remembered the conversation. She snapped out of her reverie as she reached the door to the CEO's office. "Ohhhh, this is going to be sooooo much fun!" Cara muttered as she entered Michaela's outer office. Cara nodded to Montgomery "Monty" Hallis, Michaela's private secretary and personal bodyguard. "Michaela's expecting me!" "I know," Montgomery glared at the tall blonde as he knocked on Michaela's office door. "Come in!" Michaela's low smokey voice boomed. As Monty lead her into the office Cara noticed four uniformed Police Officers scattered about the room and a well dressed couple she had never seen before clustered with Michaela in front of her desk examining a folder. "Ah good, your here." Michaela glanced up from the report she was reading. "I suppose you're wondering why there are four armed Police Officers in my office." "Yeah, I guess you could say that. I'm also just a little suprised." "Really? Well let me explain...you see I've had accounting on the phone for the past three weeks trying to explain to me why we're losing money, when I know damn well we should be making it." Michaela paused her pale blue eyes turning to ice. "I've also had R & D and Production trying to explain why lucrative contracts, new gaming software, top secret prototype robotics projects and more have suddenly been disappearing from our computers and design labs and showing up in the hands of our competition." Michaela took a step to the right and leaned back against her desk hands clasped in front of her. "Care to speculate what they came up with?" 'Maybe this won't be so much fun after all' Cara swallowed hard. The look she saw in Michaela's eyes made her shiver. "Uhmmmm...I haven't a clue." "Oh I'll just bet you don't," Michaela snorted, her anger rising to the surface. "What the hell do you take me for? An idiot?" Cara's mouth opened and closed twice. For the life of her she couldn't figure out what to do or say next. Michaela's rage was fightening. "Do you know what they found when they examined the computer logs? Do you?" Michaela continued to rant. "They found that my dear sweet partner...ha ..." She snarled. "Had tampered with the log records and stole the information. As for the bank accounts ...we discovered that there were several big transactions that I appearently approved of on paper but guess what? I never signed off on them in reality, hell I never even knew about them." Michaela straightened to her full height of 6'0. "Isn't that rich?" Michaela shook her head. "One week ago I turned the investigation over to the police and they found out that more information and money was missing than I originally thought. Over eighteen million dollars, in projects and cash was diverted from Warriors Inc too a Swiss bank account." Cara looked down at the floor. Her jaw clenching and unclenching with emotion. She was scared. 'What the h hell do I do now? I never thought that she was smart enough to catch me?" "All I want to know now is why? Why did you think you could steal from the company? You didn't have to? Hell you own half the damn company. So why? Tell me why?" Cara looked up into ice blue eyes. "You want to know why? Fine, I'll tell you. One word...five letters." She paused enjoying the confusion she saw on Michaela's face. "GREED! Pure and simple. I wanted it all and I would have had it to if it weren't for your meddling." Michaela's mouth dropped open in shock. "Greed? That's what this was about? My God...you stole from me and this company, forged my name to official documents and all you can say for yourself is you did it for greed? You're insane." "Well..." Cara thought for a moment revealing in Michaela's surprise at her revealation. "Pay backs are a bitch dearest!" The tall blonde laughed evilly. "Besides, it wasn't just about greed...I needed the money and it was there. So I took it." Michaela's eyebrows rose. "I don't believe this...I just don't believe this." The only thing holding her back from lunging at the insane woman before her was the fact that Cara would pay for her crimes. Michaela nodded to the two plain closed officers beside her. "Detective Reynolds...get her out of here!" Reynolds nodded solemnly to his partner and motioned for two of the four uniformed officers to cuff Cara and take her away. "Ms. Beckman, you are under arrest for Missappropiation of Funds, Fraud, Grand Thieft and ..." Reynolds ran through the list of charges as the officers approached her with handcuffs ready. Cara's eyes went wide as she realised that she was in big trouble. Her gaze drifted from one cop to another finally resting on the woman responsible - Michaela. As the biggest burliest of the police officers grabbed her arm to put on the cuffs, Cara started to struggle with him managing to reverse the situation and get him in a choke hold. She took his gun from his holster and tightened her hold. Waving the gun around wildly as she backed up against the wall she shouted, pulling the stunned cop with her. "Back off now!" The other cops, who had drawn their weapons, looked at each other and then backed off a step guns still aimed at her clearly stunned by the turn of events. Michaela equally stunned approached the mad woman with caution. "Cara, don't do this. The charges are bad enough without you adding to them." "Get away from me!" "I can't do that Cara. You know I can't," Michaela said taking another step towards her. "If I let you hurt these people - I'll be no better than you are." Another step closer. "And I don't want to be anything like you." 'Another step. Just another step...if I can get close enough I can...' "Really Kayla?" "Don't call me that!" Michaela ground out through clenched teeth. Cara knew how much she disliked that nickname. "Well that's just too bad Kayla. 'Cause you see you made me!" "The hell I did!" Michaela took final step, which placed her in front of the raving woman. "I didn't make you forge my name to those documents...I didn't make you steal from your own company...." Michaela suddenly lunged at Cara and made a grab for the gun. "Nooooooo..." Cara screamed as they struggled for possession of the gun. The gun went off... Michaela snapped back from her thoughts as the echo of the gun going off rang through her head. "God..." She mentally shook herself and looked down at the apple she held in her hand. Frowning she held it out for Ireland and the horse snapped it up gratefully. "Why the hell did I ever think I could trust her?" She asked Kieron as she rubbed her back as the pain intensified a little. Kieron's eyes filled with sadness as he answered. "She was your best friend Mike, always had been. We all loved her like a sister, Mike. If we couldn't trust her then who could we trust?" Two pairs of sorrowful pale blue eyes met as brother and sister searched each other's faces for answers neither of them had. Michaela was the first to break away, turning her gaze to the ground beneath her. Even after the nightmare of a trial, Cara's suicide the day after she was sentenced to life in prison and her own nightmarish recovery, Michaela still thought about that day and how she might have been able to change the outcome. Shaking her head, Michaela climbed back onto Ireland's back and preparing to lead the way back to the barn when the sight of the sun catching on metal caught her eye. She turned her head toward the main road and saw a car heading down toward the main house. "Odd...I wasn't expecting anyone. Were you Kier?" Kieron shook his head. "Then who the heck would be coming way out here?" "Beats me Mike," Kieron stated. "I don't know of anyone who would be coming here today. Mrs. Beckman isn't coming until next week, mails been and no sales people come out this far." Michaela smiled fondly at the mention of Mrs. Beckman. Cara's mother, Jennifer Beckman and their mother Melissa Warran had been best friends since birth. The two had been practically raised together by their repective aunts after the deaths of their parents in a plane crash. Melissa and Jennifer's friendship stayed strong throughout the years and when their oldest children, Michaela and Cara, had been born one month apart the two had built up a close relationship much like their mother's. Cara's trial had been hard on the two older women, their friendship had been strained but never broke. It had only grown stronger and Jennifer was a frequent visitor to the ranch, much to the delight of the entire Warran clan, Michaela included. Michaela genuinely liked Jennifer, who was very much like a second mother to her. At first, she'd blamed everyone for Cara's actions but after a talk with her mother and Jennifer she'd realised that no one was to blame but Cara. "There's only one way to find out. Let's go!" She urged Ireland into a gallop and headed back to the barn with Kieron trailing behind her. Grace Beck drove down the dirt road toward the Spanish villa-style house praying that Michaela Warran wouldn't recognize her or identify her with her older sister, Cara. It had been awhile since she last saw her. Ten years to be exact. Grace had been twelve at the time, Michaela and Cara had been twenty-one. Enamored of her big sister and her friend, she had followed them everywhere. Now years later, she was still enamored of Michaela or Mike as she'd called her, but after what Cara had done Michaela might not want anything to do with the young college student. During Cara's awful trial and all the subsequent publicity Grace's mother, Jennifer Beckman had kept her two youngest children out of the limelight. So Grace hadn't had a chance to tell Mike how sorry she was that Cara had hurt her. When her mother had first mentioned that Michaela was looking to hire another pair of hands at the ranch, she'd jumped at the chance of seeing her again. Grace had even shortened her last name, in hopes of getting through the door. Now as she pulled up in front of the house, she wasn't so sure that it was a good idea to be there. Grace walked up the stairs and nervously raised her left hand and pushed the doorbell. To be continued........ |
| If you have any questions or comments about this site please feel free to email me Special Thanks go out to Barron who provided by the some of the graphics on this page. Check out Barron's Xena Page. And to  for the horse graphics.Note: Names, characters, pictures, and all other related material to Xena: Warrior Princess are the property of Renaissance Pictures or Studios USA who are the Copyright © holders. No infringement intended, nor implied. All rights reserved. Names, characters, pictures, and all other related material to Babylon 5 are the property of the Copyright © holders. No infringement intended, nor implied. All rights reserved. All other material on this web site is the property of T. M. Blakeley. Unless otherwise stated. |