Chapter 1

John Druitt stood on the edge of the fallen bridge which once spanned from cities old to new. A warm breeze coerced his long coat into flapping in the wind and he squinted in the low evening sun making him look suitably menacing as his reputation dictated. He looked deep into the sky blue eyes staring back at him. He had never been put on the spot like this before, asked to provide a solution to an unfathomable problem.

"I really have no idea," was his reply.

"Think!"

"I don't think I'm the right person to ask."

"You are the only person to ask."

His companion muttered unintelligibly, then sighed and turned away with a frown. "Fat lot of use," he caught the words on the wind.

She stalked off to the end of the broken bridge, which would never again reach the other side of the river, sat down on the tarmac and dangled her legs over the water below. Druitt watched the blonde hair blowing in the evening breeze. He could hardly believe she had contacted him, deliberately searched him out, undoubtedly without her mother's knowledge, to ask for his help.

"What did you do... previously?"

"Well, last year I was dead so fingers crossed, anything is an improvement on that."

"Ashley."

"Sorry. It's just, it's got to be special it's got to mean something. It's not like a birthday... ya know?"

He walked over and stood behind her as he listened to Ashley thinking aloud.

"I got her a Sumerian sacrificial knife one time. The blade almost curled all the way round, it was very cool. It's the first time since I've been back, I want it to be special," she said in a small voice.

Druitt sat down next to her and sighed. The things this girl could get him to do.

"I am certain that your presence would be everything she could possibly hope for."

"That sounded lame even coming from you and even if it's true. C'mon, I'm asking you because you're the only one who can help me."

"I am?"

"You've got an inside track. Is there anything, a hint, a suggestion, anything?"

"You really want help from me?"

"Yes!"

"What if she knows I helped you?"

"Dude, she knows everything, just accept it already."

They stared into the river hoping for inspiration, as the sunlight sparkled and reflected back at them from the rippling water below.

"Lilacs," said Druitt in a decisive voice from beside her.

"Lilacs? Is there some special significance to them?" asked Ashley.

"I just know she likes them."

"OK I can do that." Ashley perked up now she had something solid to work with.

"And they have to be white lilacs, most certainly not purple."

"Are they ok? Do you like them?" asked Ashley as her mother inhaled the scent of the extraordinarily large bouquet in her arms.

"They are lovely and smell heavenly, thank you."

"I picked them myself," she said with a grin.

"What made you think of lilacs?" Magnus asked with a knowing gleam in her eye.

"I, uh, a little bird... I heard it on the wind."

"Mmm hmm, the wind. Well if you hear from the wind again, say thank you for me."

"Really? What do they mean? He wouldn't tell me."

"That, would be telling."

Ashley smirked, she'd find out one day she suspected.

"C'mon then or we'll be late. The future weapons expo has been open for ten minutes already we might have missed something really deadly!"

Magnus rolled her eyes. Some mothers were treated to a meal for mother's day or went shopping with their daughters, more than likely for clothes. The Magnus women went shopping for weapons, the more destructive the better. Ashley called from the hallway already on her way to the expo.

"Mom, don't forget your chequebook!"

Written for the new monthly challenge on the 'WWDD: The Druitt Diehards' forum. This month, 'Mother of His Child'. Come and join us Druitt fans!

Viva la resistance!