Healing Rain by Karen-Anne Stewart

beautiful silver ring with tiny emeralds making a delicate leaf pattern around the top, handing it to her. “This was Kas’ mother’s ring, it’s not worth much money-wise, but she loved this ring, it was her grandmother’s, and she always said she wanted to pass it on to her daughter one day, if we had one.” Cliff’s eyes shine, tearing up as he takes the ring from her palm, slipping it on the index finger of her right hand, “She would be very happy to know that I gave it to you, honey.”
    Raina doesn’t know what to say, part of her feels terrible, not wanting to take away something that evokes such beautiful memories from Cliff, but she would never hurt him by denying his gift. She looks at the ring on her finger and is hit fully with the meaning behind it. She throws her arms around her father-in-law, tears streaming down her face, “I don’t know what to say.”
    Cliff wraps his arms around her, pulling her in for a warm fatherly hug, “I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
    Raina steps back, wiping away her tears, “I’m sorry, I can’t seem to control them lately,” she whispers, embarrassed.
    “There’s no need for you to control them,” Cliff assures her, remembering Kas’ recounting of the horrible details of her childhood. He looks at her and can’t fathom how her own father could hurt her so badly. She is such a wonderful young lady, kind, caring, and she loves his son deeply, which makes him love her even more. “C’mon, kiddo, let’s get back to the party.”
     

     
    Erik grabs Raina’s hand, pulling her from the elevator as soon as the doors open, “I need you to work your magic on a laptop Derrick’s team confiscated.”
    “Good morning to you, too, Erik. Yes, I did have a great weekend, thank you so much for asking,” Kas calls out to Erik jokingly as he is completely ignored by Erik hurriedly dragging Raina towards his office.
    Raina grimaces when she sees the dilapidated machine, “What happened to it?”
    “It got caught in some crossfire. I’ve gotten as far as I can get with it.”
    Dexter walks in as Raina studies the hard drive. She smiles at him shyly, still feeling a little uncomfortable with him giving her job back so easily after she had resigned, by e-mail no less. She has never been that irresponsible before, and she had apologized accordingly when Dexter had visited them the day they got back. He didn’t look at it the same way she did when he had held up a copy of her e-mail, telling her that there is no way he would have accepted her resignation, not when she’s one of them. He then wadded up the paper and threw it straight into the trash. She was immensely relieved, she loves working with all of them, even when the job is heartbreaking at times. Mixed feelings swarm through her at his knowledge of her situation, but she is very grateful that Dexter hasn’t told anyone else about her troubled past.
    “Can you translate for Lawson in about an hour, he has a young girl he’s bringing in who only speaks Mandarin?”
    “Sure,” she replies, inwardly cringing at the thought of working with Lawson again. The last time didn’t end up so pleasantly.
    The hour passes quickly as she begins recovering data from the battered hard drive, leaving Erik impressed again. She glances at the clock and grimaces. Erik laughs, knowing that Lawson is not an easy agent to work with. “Suck it up, buttercup. The quicker you get down there, the quicker you get it over with.”
    Raina smirks at him and heads downstairs to the first meeting room, knocking on the wooden door. Lawson opens the door wordlessly, and Raina smiles kindly at the scared, Asian girl sitting at the far end of the table. Seeing her tender age, sorrow and rage fill her. She takes a seat next to the child, briefly closing her eyes at the sight of the bruises on her arm.
    “Ni hao,” Raina greets her gently, then introduces herself before asking the girl’s name. Raina spends the next half-hour talking