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“That’s Paige, stubborn as hell,” Joel stated. He pushed the door open, and his eyes instantly searched for her. She’d left early that morning without saying a word to him about her plans or ideas for this meeting and he was curious as to what she’d been up to with it.
Cord, Ed, Harry, Bobby and Jerry came in behind them stalling his chance to talk to her and he knew she’d be furious if he tried to pull her into his arms and kiss her the way he was dying to, so he sat waiting for Cord to ask where she’d been.
“Well girl what’d you want to show us?” Cord questioned as she sat still waiting for something.
“We’re missing a few people still,” she stated as the sound of footsteps bounding down the hallway sounded. Hillary, Jesse, Craig, Moose and Rabbit appeared in the doorway, and she smiled warmly at them.
“Sorry we got held up as we tried to leave the site,” Hillary apologized.
“They weren’t quite as generous as your crew, but they did make some pretty good coffee,” Craig added.
“Thanks for sending the chopper for us. Wayne wasn’t happy to see it, but we were,” Jesse stated giving her a kiss on the side of her head as he took a seat near her.
“So, what’s this all about?” Sam asked. “I’d like to get home to my wife and child before my mother-in-law completely redoes our house. Kendra would like to see you too, and as for the thing the two of you have been arguing about for the last two years, it’s never been a secret to me so it’s about time you got over it Sis.”
“Really?” Paige said as he crossed the room to her side.
“Really, I love you for being a half-way good sister to me. A really good one would have said something by now, but I get you were caught between being a sister and a friend, but you don’t have to worry about it. Let it go Paige, isn’t it time we all move on?” he said softly giving her a hug.
“We’ll see. Okay, I know you’re all wondering what I’ve been up to for the last four years and the truth is I’ve been working on the other side of the disaster situations,” she stated glancing at her old team.
“The other side?” Harry inquired. “What does that mean?”
“It means that when I was working for the team our job would be done once the situation was under control, when the people were found or the crisis diverted, we’d leave. Now…that’s when I show up. Why do you all think I have a private helicopter and pilot?” she said with a grin.
“Because it’s cool?” Rabbit laughed.
“Well, it is that but, this is what I do,” she told them clicking on the mouse and changing the screen to show them the before and after photos of one of the sites she’d worked.
“Youdid that?” Sam asked staring at the pictures of the miles of rubble from the bombing site she’d worked on three years before and then at the newly remodeled business park that’d been constructed.
“I did…with a lot of help from some wonderful builders I know but it was my concept.”
“Okay, so what does this have to do with us?” Cord questioned.
“You’ve all been cloistering yourselves in the study almost every night trying to figure out what to do and you’ve come up with what? Nothing?”
“It’s not nothing,” Ed argued.
“Really? From what I saw on Dad’s desk, no one has a clue where to go from here. You’re all brilliant when it comes to the day-to-day mining operations but none of you know how to handle this, and since you’re likely to hurt everyone around by refusing to ask for help I took it upon myself to put a little something together.”
“You put what together?” Joel asked. “Is that why you were disappearing to what use to be the valley all last week?”
“Perhaps…first thing is to get the north passageway rebuilt. Before you all start arguing that it can’t be done sit back, shut up andlisten,” Paige stated sending each of them a pointed look.
“Bossy, isn’t she?” Sam snickered towards Jesse sitting beside him.
“She’s the best though,” he replied.
“Alright Paige, we’re all ears,” her father said. “How can we turn this mess around?”
“By turning it into an advantage. I took a bit of a hike and did a bit of structural investigating of the passageways under what used to be the north passage and it won’t take as long to rebuild the road as you might expect. If you listen and follow my plan it can be functional in less than a month I’d say.”
“You went into the passageways down there…how?” Joel demanded.
“Through the mountain entrance. Relax Joel I was perfectly safe doing it. If we take some supplies in, we can reinforce the bottom passageways and then clear the debris to rebuild the road.”
“Hold on, I thought the passageways down there were blocked and that’s why you couldn’t get anyone out through them,” Craig said glancing towards her.
