GROUP THERAPY - Complete (12/15/06)

[stormy]

Thanks for everyone for being patient. Hope it was worth the wait. Hopefully I'll be able to post more this weekend.


CHAPTER 91 (2:30 Saturday afternoon)

Jackson told Lisa he would need a little time in his office. She looked annoyed, but said it was fine. He didn’t have time to coddle her, so he decided he’d make it up to her later.

After some strategizing, the first person he contacted was George.

“When’s your Matrix marathon?”

George’s answer sounded hesitant. “Um, starting in about half an hour.” He took a deep breath. “Why?”

Jackson ignored the annoying question. “Who else will be there?”

After a brief pause, perhaps to consult a list, George said, “We’ve invited Rachel, and Sara, Cristina and Izzie will show up when they can, according to their work schedules. Jim said he might be here. Selena’s working. I think Kitten and Matt are busy; they didn’t want to come. I’ll introduce Cristina to everybody. She says she’s reserving the right to leave at any time if they guys get too geeky.”

“Completely justified,” Jackson sympathized. “What if they get too pushy?” He was amused at the thought.

“You mean if they’re stupid enough to make a pass or something? Heh, I think I’d pay money to see that. I’d be more worried about Darren or Jon than Cristina.”

“I’m not going to worry about any of them,” Jackson decided. “If she hurts ‘em, I’ll assume they deserved it.” He quickly switched topics. “If you don’t mind, Lisa and I will be there, too.” He hoped George heard the implied, “You’d better not mind.”

“Uh, yeah, sure. There are plenty of seats left.”

“Great. See you soon.”

<><><><>

As he’d thought, George wasn’t thrilled with the task he was given, but it had been his own idea, after all. Besides, it was likely he’d seen the movie a dozen times already. Lisa certainly seemed absorbed, though he couldn’t fathom why.

With one problem taken care of, he still had to figure out what to do about Jonathan. Even though he knew his brother wouldn’t want to see him, he didn’t trust anyone else to take care of this task. He quickly whispered an excuse to Lisa, who glared at him, then turned her attention back to the movie.

Jackson patted her reassuringly on the shoulder, and then left the theater. No one else seemed to notice or care.

Jackson found Jonathan’s room easily enough, and tried to dismiss the guard who was supposed to keep visitors out. The man tried to argue with him, until Jackson showed him his Chief of Family Security badge. “You know who I am. I’m not going to hurt him. I just want to see how he’s doing. Go get a cup of coffee or something.”

The man tried to appear dutiful rather than nervous. “It’s my job to protect Dr. Crane, sir. I’m sure you understand.”

“That’s odd, it’s my job, too,” Jackson countered. “He’s part of my family, and I want to be sure nothing happens to him.”

The guard hesitated. “I really should call Mr. Dunbar and let him know.”

Jackson folded his arms and stood there, prepared to wait. “Sure. Go ahead. I don’t know what he’s in the middle of doing right now, but I’m sure he won’t mind being interrupted on the weekend just to tell you to let me in. Hasn’t your visitor’s list been updated?”

“Uh, yes, but – sir, I really –“

”I’ll be sure to make a note of your dedication in my report.”

That seemed to do the trick. “I’ll take my break now, sir. I’ll be back in fifteen minutes.”

“That’s fine.”

The guard unlocked the door, and quickly walked down the hall. Jackson waited till he was out of sight before entering the room. He watched the familiar blue eyes widen in panic. The idiot was trying to talk, though his jaw was wired shut.

<><><><>

Jonathan stared in shock at his brother. Despite Gregory’s promise, he hadn’t actually expected Jackson to show up.

“Hello, Jonathan. Glad to see you’re awake.” Jackson’s voice was low and soothing, completely nonthreatening. “Now don’t start panicking, I’m not here to hurt you. I’m actually trying to protect you.”

While Jackson examined the camera installed in the corner of the room, then started working on something behind Jonathan’s head, he tried not to panic. He really didn’t want Jackson that near him, but he did nothing at all to hurt him, just fiddled around with his equipment.

Jackson finally turned to him.

“Listen, I don’t have much time. I’ve heard some things lately from Gregory that don’t sound too good for you. He seems to think you’ve outlived your usefulness here.”

He understood exactly what that meant. I’m as good as dead now. Wonder how he’s going to do it?

“You know we’re all expendable,” Jackson continued calmly, “but for some reason, it pisses me off that Gregory wants to kill you. Wants me to kill you, in fact. I might not like you, but that doesn’t mean I want you dead.” Jonathan flinched under the critical gaze. To his surprise, Jackson winced as he took in the various bandages, tubing, and other medical paraphernalia attached to his body.

“Sorry about all that. I guess I went a little too far.”

It was more of an apology than he’d ever hoped to get.

“Thing is,” Jackson continued, “it’s sort of my fault that you’re not any further use to Gregory, so I guess I owe it to you to try to keep you alive. Maybe we can get you some kind of help some day.”

Jonathan was still trying to speak, even though it was both impossible and painful. He wasn’t sure he’d heard right. Jackson really didn’t want to kill him?

“Don’t talk,” Jackson ordered.

Always trying to tell you what to do, isn’t he? Scarecrow purred.

Jonathan did his best to ignore his inner tormentor, so he could focus on the one standing near him.

There was a pad of paper and a pen on the table beside Jonathan’s bed. Jackson picked it up and read the top sheet. He handed the pad and pen to Jonathan, and held the pad steady for him. It was more than his father had done to help him, and he was absurdly grateful for the kindness. However, Jackson probably only saw it as efficient.

He wrote as carefully as he could.

Jackson read the message. “You want to know if you can trust me any more than you can trust Gregory? I don’t know what I can say that will convince you. I guess you’ll have to figure out who seems to be the bigger threat right now.”

Let’s think of it another way, shall we? Who is there on this island that isn’t a threat to you? To us?

Jonathan didn’t bother to tell Scarecrow to leave him alone; it didn’t do any good, anyway. He thought carefully before he wrote, and then showed the pad to Jackson.

“Yes, that’s right. If I wanted to kill you, you’d be dead already. Give me a chance to save your life, unless you really don’t care. If you want to die, maybe this is for the best. But I don’t want to have to be the one to do it.” Jackson actually sounded sincere.

It’s a trick. You know it is. He just doesn’t want you to know when, or how, he’ll kill you, but you know he’s lying. He hates your guts. What are you going to do about it?

It was so hard to think, when he was this terrified. At the moment, he could hardly decide whether Jackson or Scarecrow was really more dangerous to him. He wrote four more words on the pad.

Jackson grinned as he read the brief message. “You don’t trust Gregory? Good decision. You won’t regret it.” His gaze fixed on Jonathan again.

“I’m going to ask you something, and you need me to tell you the truth. Your life really does depend on it.

Wonderful. Just what he least wanted to hear.

“What would happen if I kill you? Would the conditioning make this f*cking headache worse, or maybe make it go away entirely?”

Jackson looked so hopeful, Jonathan was tempted to lie, except for the fact that it would spell his certain doom right that minute.

Jackson held the pad for him again. Jonathan wrote, as clearly as he could, "It will be much worse. Even if you manage to kill me, the pain will probably knock you out right afterwards. The pressure will continue to build until you kill yourself to escape the pain. Medication won’t help. You’ll be non-functional, and Gregory will probably decide you’re no further use to him, either."

He waited, hoping Jackson would make the right decision.

He saw his brother’s jaw tighten as he read. “That’s pretty much what I thought. Same goes for Gregory, right?”

Instead of writing out a sarcastic reply, he simply answered, "Yes."

“I’m going to try to buy us both some time," Jackson promised. "Hang in there.”

Long after Jackson left, he had to endure more of Scarecrow’s taunting. It was almost enough to make one beg for death, to shut that voice up. Almost.

How could he have ever welcomed that voice, all the hateful suggestions? Perhaps because Scarecrow was so often right. Or perhaps it was because he knew he lacked the courage to do the things Scarecrow was perfectly willing to do. He thought it was a shame Jackson hadn’t been saddled with Scarecrow, instead of himself. Then again…bad idea.

<><><><>

He felt Jonathan’s terrified gaze on him even after the door was shut behind him. It should have felt satisfying to make Jonathan feel some of the terror he liked to inflict on others, but Jackson was getting weary of scaring people who weren’t any real threat to him. Maybe Gregory was right, and he’d become too compassionate. If so, it was definitely Lisa’s fault.

Jackson went back to the boys’ apartment, not wanting to be gone too long. He’d have no trouble ignoring the movie and working things out in his head, and maybe he’d get lucky and Lisa would consider it quality time they were spending together. He didn’t know why this ‘relationship’ thing had to be so complicated. It seemed like he had to spend as much time strategizing about it as he ever had for any of his assignments. But it would all be worth it, once things were back to normal. He grimaced at the thought. Whatever ‘normal’ was, one wouldn’t find it here.

<><><><><><><><>

Late that afternoon, while most of his children were busy numbing their minds with loud and obnoxious “entertainment,” Gregory let himself into Rose’s room quietly, and assured himself the audio monitor had been turned off. He was positive the care-taking staff was curious about his visits to “Alice,” but they had sense enough to not ask any questions.

He stared at the woman lying so still and silent. It was disturbing; not knowing whether she could actually hear him, but he decided it didn’t really matter. He had to talk to someone, and at least she wouldn’t argue with him. After settling himself comfortably in the visitor’s chair, he began his litany of complaints.

“I tell you, Rose, this job is harder than anyone realizes. I have no one I can really trust, and no one to talk to except you. You’ll forgive me if I say your contributions are not helpful.”

He paused. “Yes, I know you’re in a coma, but damn it, it’s your own fault! You’re the one who tried to kill yourself. Since you managed to botch that job, now you’re stuck. And I’m stuck with you. I don’t know why I keep up this farce of medical care. Instead of paying all these caretakers to look after you, I could be using them in their rightful capacities to help others who really need them.

“It’s getting so I can’t trust anyone at all. I used to think I could trust Aloysius, somewhat, but I think he and that Reisert woman are scheming behind my back. Jackson thinks they’re having an affair, of all things. What a ridiculous notion. They’re plotting insurrection, I’m sure of it. Yet I have to keep Aloysius alive and relatively intact, at least until we see if the latest clone is going to survive. I need him to work on the next Jonathan clone, too, because progenitor-Jonathan is becoming a real liability. He’s not only wasting resources taking up a hospital bed, I don’t see how he’ll ever be able to take up his responsibilities again. Fairfield actually thinks he might be able to treat Jonathan with drugs, to get rid of his Scarecrow alter ego. The man is competent enough, but he persists in asking questions. Jonathan did as he was told, mostly, but Fairfield might prove more stubborn. I’m not sure I can risk conditioning him.

“Do you know,” he continued in an aggrieved tone, “he actually wants to have private sessions with Darren? Twice a week. As though that will do the boy any good. It would serve him right if Darren beats him to death with the nearest heavy object. But then I’d have to replace Fairfield, and probably have Darren conditioned as well. I plan to do that anyway, but it will be easier if I don’t have to modify his memories that much.

“It seems as though lately everyone is getting restless. They’re all talking to each other. I can’t have that. What if they start comparing notes?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “I’m going to have to get rid of Jonathan, for sure. I’m not sure whether I can make use of Darren. Perhaps he can be turned into an assassin. I can have Ryan teach him, since Jackson isn’t going to be around that long. You don’t know Ryan, of course. He’s more like me than any of my actual sons. There are times I regret – Never mind.”

He shifted uncomfortably, looking anywhere but at Rose. He really didn’t like to look at what she’d done to herself through her own thoughtless selfishness. “Jackson is rapidly becoming unstable. It’s more than his irrational jealousy of Lisa and any man she so much as speaks to. He’s developed a conscience, somewhere along the way. Or rather, Jonathan dug it up, along with various emotions, during Jackson’s therapy. I wish he hadn’t done that, but he had his own agenda. For all the good it’s done him.

“This place is falling apart, Rose. Everything used to be under control, until I started bringing our children back here. Maybe I should have left them all alone, but I was hoping they’d be able to help me, not hinder me. None of this is working out exactly like I thought it would. I’d planned for various contingencies, of course, but everyone turned out to be less predictable than I expected. And they’ve got all these allies now that I wasn’t expecting, either. I can’t let events slip out of my control. I’ve got to make them understand they can’t defy me.”

He paused, gathering his thoughts.

“For a while, Jackson and Jonathan were at each others’ throats, as I’d planned. Unfortunately, Jonathan took his sibling rivalry a little too far – or maybe it was some other type of aberration that drove him. In any event, Jackson damaged him more than he should have, and now Jonathan is practically worthless to me. I’ve still got his notes and the chemicals he was working on, but I don’t think I have anyone else currently in my employ with his gift for creating mind-altering drugs. I’ll have to remedy that soon. In the meantime, Jonathan thinks I’m going to hire a plastic surgeon for him. What a waste of time and money! They certainly haven’t done you much good, have they, Rose? I suppose they tried their best. You should have thought of all these complications before you jumped.”

He was silent for a few minutes. “I’m not sure it was a good idea having Kitten – damn it, now he’s got me doing it! I don’t think Patrick should spend any more time with you. It seems like his presence agitates you in some way, and it’s much healthier for you to just rest. I think he’s visited you for the last time, at least for a while.” He watched carefully, but she was either too deeply under to hear him, or her self-control was improving. He hoped, for her sake, it was the former. It would be regrettable if he had to get rid of her. He’d have no one who could really listen.

He sighed deeply. “I’m tired, Rose. Our children are wearing me out. Thankfully I didn’t have to deal with them when they were children, or I’d be old before my time.” He looked at his watch, and his voice turned brisk. “I have business to attend to, Rose. I can’t waste time talking to you. If you were functional, you could help me deal with our sons. You were always better at dealing with people. I have to go. I have the entire responsibility of this institute on my shoulders, and I’ve got a lot to do.” He stood up, then looked back at the sleeping woman, and softened his tone. “I’ll see you again soon, when I can.”

When he left, he made an effort to smile pleasantly at the doctor on duty, Isobel Stevens. She didn’t look happy to see him, but she made an effort to be pleasant. He cut short her babbling by telling her he was taking the rest of the evening off, and was sure she could handle anything that came up.

<><><><><><><><>

There was a break scheduled between movies, and everyone was grateful there were multiple bathrooms in the apartment, so the lines weren’t very long.

Jackson found himself listening to Adam explaining his skewed version of Chaos Theory to a fascinated George, in the nearly empty theater.

“I’m not really used to planning things out too much,” Adam explained, “but I’ve been trying to be better about that. The thing is, sometimes it’s better to not plan, just let things happen the way they’re supposed to. Sometimes the best thing that can happen is this random chaos.

“It’s like this school play I got roped into doing at school,” he continued, gesturing with his hands, “ where I built the set, and even though the small-scale model worked perfectly, everything that could have gone wrong, did. The great thing was, I wasn’t really panicking. Not after I put the fire out, that is.”

Jackson raised an eyebrow, but refrained. He was afraid he would, indeed, be given more detail.

“A fire? Was anyone hurt?” George, of course, sounded concerned for these unknown students.
“Nah. It wasn’t much of a fire,” Adam assured him. “I just grabbed a zombie mask and a fire extinguisher, and I put that sucker out, without getting in the actors’ way, too much.”

“Zombies? In a school play?”

Jackson winced. Zombies. Why not?

“I’ll tell you about the plot sometime,” Adam promised. It sounded more like a threat to Jackson, though he knew Adam was really speaking to George. “It really was awesome! The final title was, Queen of the Zombies.”

George looked almost as skeptical as Jackson felt, that such a play could possibly be “awesome.” Adam didn’t seem to notice.

“So anyway, even though people were, like, forgetting their lines, and coming on stage early, and everything was literally falling apart around them, it didn’t bother me. I mean, it should have, right? All that hard work I put into it, and it was all, like, coming apart at the seams. But there was this weird beauty to it, this total unexpectedness. So I was calmer than I’d normally have been, and kind of excited about it all, too, not having any idea what would happen next. There was a sort of comfort in knowing it was all out of my control. There wasn’t a thing I could do about it.

“The director, who should have been having a cow, right? He thought it was hilarious. He acted like it was the best thing that could have possibly happened. That was one seriously messed-up dude, yo. Kept us really hopping all the time with these crazy ideas, new inspirations all the time.” Adam changed his delivery to about five times his normal speaking speed. “Let’s change the name of the play! We’ll rewrite the story! Carlito, Carlissimo, Carly Simon, write a new song, now, now, now!” He laughed at the memory. “Poor Carl. I don’t know how many times he had to rewrite the songs, and the director could never get his name right. But I remember, the last thing the director said, it was just the right thing to get us all going. This was just before stuff started going wrong.”

Jackson didn’t think he’d ever heard Adam talk for so long without prompting. He was kind of intense when he got going.

Adam imitated the play’s director again. “Trust! Spontaneity! Love! Volume! Carpe Showem!”

George looked caught up now, too, then he blinked. “Carpe showem?”

Adam shrugged. “I guess like ‘carpe diem’. Latin, for ‘seize the day.’ Like, ‘seize the show,’ ya know?”

“Yeah, I do know a little Latin, Adam. Doctor, remember?”

“Oh, right!”

Jackson interrupted, despite his best intentions to keep quiet. “Enjoy it while it lasts, that’s another way to think of it.”

Adam glanced at him, as though surprised he was paying attention. “Unchallenged. It was great for my girlfriend,” Adam continued. “‘cause she suddenly went from being a minor zombie to Queen of the Zombies. So she had to learn all this stuff, and a new solo song, at the last minute. She was the only absolutely perfect thing that happened that night.”

Jackson blinked. Adam’s enthusiasm was contagious. He could envy that sort of rapture, if he had the time to indulge. But he didn’t. He had plans to set in motion.

Adam’s voice interrupted his thoughts. “So all this chaos was really, like, supposed to happen, I think. It wasn’t what any of us expected, but it made the night this incredible experience we’ll never forget. The audience was laughing hysterically, once they realized nobody was getting hurt. I couldn’t have planned it better if I’d wanted the whole thing to go down in flames, you know? Not that I did, but it was perfectly, beautifully chaotic, and I wouldn’t have traded it for a perfect performance.”

Jackson contemplated what might have happened if any of his assassination attempts had gone as badly as this ill-begotten play. Then he recalled that, because of Lisa, he had, indeed, experienced what some might call a glorious chaos. Unfortunately for him, it derailed what had been a perfectly satisfactory life. He rubbed his left temple, and wished for the thousandth time that day, that his cursed headache would go away.

[stormy]

CHAPTER 92

Although he already had too many things to mentally process, Jackson checked the surveillance footage from Alice’s room. George had, indeed, set it up correctly. He listened with fascination to Gregory’s recitation. His interest piqued with the first revelation.

Rose? Then Alice really is a false name.

It was rather disturbing to see Gregory calmly talking to this woman, who most likely didn’t even know he was there.

He rewound the tape and listened again, sure he’d misheard something.

So Lisa’s really not having an affair? What the hell does he mean by “insurrection?” I’d better tell her to be careful, and find out what she’s up to.

His father proved to be a fount of fascinating information. “The next Jonathan clone?”

Did he say clone? How many are there? Have I met any? Was the one I beat up the same one who was watching us?

Before he could fully comprehend the possibilities, he heard more alarming plans.

Training Darren to be an assassin? Over my dead body! But he realized that probably wouldn’t bother Gregory a bit.

He went back over the first part a few more times, then went on.

“Unstable?” He resented the implication. Jonathan and Darren were unstable, but he himself was perfectly sane. Things weren’t looking good for any of them.

“Our children?” So George was right. This Rose woman is my mother! He rudely shoved aside any feelings that might get in his way. Time enough for those later.

There wouldn’t be a problem now, even if Gregory did discover the camera. Jackson was simply doing his job, observing and protecting the family. Now he just had to add this new information into the equation, and see if it could help him in any way.

He wasn’t too surprised to hear his life expectancy was rapidly decreasing. He watched a few more times before concluding he’d heard everything.

Jackson made a quick decision, then went to the boys’ apartment to find George. He didn’t spare a thought to any distress George might have at being dragged out of the movie at the height of an action scene. They walked to the sitting area between George and Adam’s rooms. Jackson knew that part of the apartment didn’t have any bugs.

“What’s going on?” George asked as soon as they were seated.

“It’s time for you to make those changes you were talking about, for your special patient.” Jackson gave him a reassuring, if false, smile. “I think it’s time she woke up and rejoined the world.”

“Really? Did you hear anything good from—“

”George, you would not believe what I heard.” Jackson tried to sound calm and professional, though he was suddenly very nervous. “I’ll tell you about it as soon as I can, as much as I can safely tell you. Right now I need you, and Matt, and any other medical personnel you trust, to get to Rose’s room – Alice’s room. Immediately. Give her the medication, now, and we’ll hope it works quickly. We need as many witnesses as possible.”

“What about Mr. Dunbar? Does he know we’re going to give her the new meds?”

“Nope,” Jackson answered with a fierce grin. “He doesn’t know a thing. He’s going to be a little bit distracted very soon.”

George grinned nervously. “God, I hope I can trust you. This sounds almost too good to be true.”

“Shhhh,” Jackson said. “Don’t tempt fate.” Not that he believed in fate, or God, or anything else that might have a hand in affecting their lives, but he’d learned it was best to not be overly confident too soon.

<><><><><><><><>

It wasn’t easy, but George pried Cristina and Sara away from the movie. Jon asked him what the hell was going on. George shrugged.

“Ask Jackson,” he suggested.

Jon settled back into his seat with an incomprehensible mutter, and folded his arms across his chest.

George tried to answer a few questions along the way. They kept a fast pace, eager to see their patient.

“All I know is, Jackson wants us all to go to Alice’s room. He wants me to give her the new medication, with as many people around, that I can trust, as possible. Matt’s going to meet us there. Selena and Izzie are already working”

Cristina kept her grumbling to a minimum. “This better be good. If she doesn’t wake up, or it’s gonna take hours, I’m going back to Keanu.”

Sara was slightly more diplomatic. “I don’t mind the interruption, as long as we can help. I’d just hate to see any false hopes raised. It’s been so long...”

George shrugged. “A friend of mine once had a patient who’d been in a coma for 16 years, and he finally woke up. He was minimally conscious, like Rose is now, not in a deep coma.”

They reached the elevator, and were soon on their way to Floor 13.

“Is your friend’s patient okay now?” Sara asked.

While George struggled to keep things positive, Cristina cut to the chase. “Dead. Subdural hematoma, unrelated to the coma.”

To dispel any negative thinking, George added, “He seemed to be doing okay, actually, until then. He was talking, trying to find out how long he’d been gone, but he was lucid.”

Sara brightened. “That’s good. I like Ms. Carroll.”

They stepped off the elevator and met Izzie at the front desk.

Izzie smiled widely at them. “Hey, guys, what’s going on?” George tried to return her smile. “As soon as Matt gets here, we’re going to try to wake Alice up.”

“Why?”

“‘Cause Jackson said so,” George mumbled. “I’ll explain it later. Hey, has Mr. Dunbar been here to see Alice yet?”

Izzie confirmed he had. “He was just here a little while ago. It’s nice of him to take time out of his day to see her.”

George raised an eyebrow at the word ‘nice’. Now was not the time to argue over semantics, however. He filled them in on the plan for bringing Alice out of her coma.

“I can’t believe we’re missing Keanu for this! She’s not gonna wake up.” Cristina stage-whispered to Izzie.

“Shhhh! Even for you, that’s a little harsh.”

George got their attention with a sharp tone they rarely heard from him.

“If you really don’t want to be here, get out. But don’t tell anyone where you’ve been.”

Cristina’s eyes widened, and she perked up. “Is this one of those super-secret deals everyone else gets to know about and we don’t?” she demanded.

“Yes,” George reluctantly confirmed. “But this time, we get to know what very few other people do.”

“Oh. In that case…Keanu can wait.”

<><><><><><><><>

Jackson was pleased things were going well. As he’d thought, the emergency meeting he’d called was met with intense curiosity, rather than annoyance or excuses. Just to be sure, he’d checked his apartment for bugs, and there still weren’t any. It might be the safest place on the island to have a private conversation.

He played the surveillance tape from his little chat with Gregory. Fairfield didn’t interrupt to ask any foolish questions.

When the footage was over, Jackson leaned forward in his chair. “Do those sound like the words of a sane man, Dr. Fairfield?”

Fairfield answered decisively, “No, they don’t. All of this is most disturbing.” He fixed Jackson with a steely gaze. “What are you going to do about your brother?”

Jackson held his gaze and answered softly, “I’m doing my damnedest to keep him alive. I need a way to get past the 48-hour deadline Gregory gave me, without endangering Jonathan, myself, or anyone else.”

Fairfield didn’t seem shocked to hear that Jackson was the intended killer.

“I see.” Fairfield sat back in his chair and rubbed his chin. “So your father expects you to kill your brother?”

Jackson tensed, knowing he was taking a tremendous risk. “Yes.”

“You’ve killed other people for him?”

Jackson closed his eyes briefly, then looked at Fairfield again. “Yes. It’s an unwritten part of my job description. It falls under ‘other duties as assigned.’ If I don’t kill Jonathan, Gregory will just send someone else to do it.”

“This is all extremely disturbing, not to mention what you’ve just told me puts me in a dangerous position.”

Fairfield was not happy with the revelation, but seemed calm enough. Jackson was afraid things would turn in the wrong direction. He said something he hadn’t expected to ever say.

“I’m trying to get some help here, for all of us.”

“That’s admirable, but I really think you could do with some therapy, yourself. Not the kind your brother Jonathan used to do for his patients,” Fairfield hastened to add. “I’ve had access to files now that I never did before, except I can’t get to your family’s treatment files. What I’ve read, quite frankly, scares the hell out of me. I’m going to make some changes in this department.”

Jackson was oddly relieved to hear the latter part.

“Good. That’s just what I want to do, make some changes, for the better.”

“You’re right that it sounds as though Mr. Dunbar is becoming a threat to everyone.”

“Including you,” Jackson pointed out.

Fairfield gave him a wintry smile. “That hadn’t escaped my attention.” He reached into a desk drawer, and Jackson tensed, wondering what he might be looking for.

“Relax, Mr. Rippner.” Fairfield brought out a form, and started filling it out. “I’ll have to bring Mr. Dunbar in for a psychological evaluation, of course, at least a 72-hour hold. That should be sufficient time to determine if he is a risk to himself or others. We can’t be putting the entire Institute at risk, can we?”

“No, I’d like to ensure everyone is safe,” Jackson assured him. “Seventy-two hours?” he repeated. “Sounds like plenty of time. Do what you can to help him, will you, Doc? I’m concerned about him.”

Fairfield looked at him steadily. “Of course you are. He’s your father. I’ll evaluate him most thoroughly, don’t worry about that.”

“I’ll leave him in your very capable hands, then, Doctor. Please keep me posted, and let me know if there are any problems.”

“Of course. But I need to check his records, to find out whether you, or someone else, has his Durable Power of Attorney.”

Jackson shrugged. “Check it out, then, but he told me a while ago that if anything happened to him, I’d be in charge. I suppose I’d better contact Legal and let them know that Gregory’s going to be out of commission for a few days.”

“Yes, Mr. Rippner, please do that,” Fairfield sighed.

“One more thing, Doctor. The card key around his neck? I’ll need that, so he can’t use it to escape.”

“Very good idea. What about his regular ID card?”

“I’ll take that as well. I’ll keep everything safe for him, and they will be available to him as soon as I know he’s got full power of his faculties.”

Fairfield shot him a brilliant smile. “Very considerate of you. Now, I’d best get Mr. Dunbar’s room ready for him.”

“Ah, as I understand it, there’s one room in particular –“

”Yes, sir. I was told that room is reserved specifically for members of Mr. Dunbar’s family and their significant others. I’m certain Mr. Dunbar will feel safe there.”

“I’ll have some of the Security staff waiting, rather than the Psych ward security, if you don’t mind. I think things will go smoother that way.”

Fairfield hesitated only a moment, then nodded. “Yes, sir.”

They discussed strategy for a few minutes. Jackson thought the meeting was over, but Fairfield didn’t seem to agree.

“I know time is of the essence, but hear me out. I do want to help you, but part of that means helping you psychologically. I know you don’t want to hear that, but I can see you’re under a great deal of stress, and you obviously have many things to do. The stress is only going to get worse.” He abruptly switched topics. “Are you a man of your word?”

It was an unexpected question, but Jackson answered it easily.

“Yes.”

“Then promise me you will come to me for help as soon as you can.”

“Sure.” When Hell freezes over.

It didn’t seem like Fairfield entirely believed him. “I want you to realize that if it appears you are making the same types of dangerous decisions your father is making, you might also have to be relieved of duty.”

He should have known Fairfield wouldn’t overlook that. How much can I trust him? He didn’t think he had much choice.

“Yeah. If you think I’m turning into another Gregory, by all means, get me some help. But make sure there’s someone else here who can run this place.”

That gave Fairfield pause. “I see the dilemma, sir. But I can’t use different rules for you and your father.”

“As long as we understand each other.”

“One more thing, Mr. Rippner. I don’t have access to your file. I’ll need it, if I’m going to help you.”

Jackson didn’t like it, but could see the sense in it.

“I’ll find out where Gregory keeps it, and bring it to you. The entire file.”

“Excellent.” Fairfield gave him a short nod, then stood up to leave. He held out a hand and Jackson shook it; a gentleman’s agreement.

He sincerely hoped he wouldn’t make his father’s mistakes, or new ones of his own.

<><><><><><><><>

Fairfield immediately headed towards the drug cabinet in the Psych ward. He very much doubted Gregory Dunbar would come quietly, and Rippner had warned him the orderlies and guards might have been conditioned to protect Dunbar at all costs. He’d write the official document later, but it seemed Dunbar was even more dangerous than he’d thought.

Either the man was paranoid, a sociopath with delusions of grandeur, and quite possibly psychotic...or he was telling the truth. Fairfield had no qualms about what he was about to do. Any way one looked at the situation, it was obvious Dunbar had to have a psychiatric evaluation before he could be allowed to resume his duties. A man like that, running the entire Institute? It would be a fascinating case study, no doubt, at some future time when he had the leisure to enjoy it. For the moment, he needed to set aside his own speculation, and put Dr. Dunbar where he’d be safe, and could do no harm to others. Especially his Acting Chief of Psychiatry.

<><><><><><><><>

In his own office, Jackson wrote his report quickly. It should be sufficient for Logan, unless he’d been brainwashed to do anything and everything necessary to protect Dunbar. If it was worded carefully enough, it should let Logan off the hook entirely. Jackson would pull rank if necessary. He took the report to Logan personally. The Security Chief was off-duty, but he was perfectly willing to meet Jackson in the main Security office.

“You need to read this report immediately,” Jackson announced.

Logan took it from him cautiously. “Care to give me any clues, sir?”

“Just read it,” Jackson snapped. “It’s self-explanatory.”

Logan read the two pages quickly. “You say Mr. Dunbar wants to kill several people at this Institute, including members of his own family?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Do you have proof?”

“I do.” Jackson waited.

Logan sighed. “Sir, are you deliberately being difficult? I’ll need to see or hear the evidence before I can assign anyone to this problem.”

“You’re not going to just take my word for it?” Jackson asked sarcastically. “Good to know you’re doing your job diligently.”

“Sir, I’m sure you understand why I can’t just arrest Mr. Dunbar on your say-so.”

Jackson shook his head. “You don’t have to arrest him. He’ll be locked up safely for the next three days.”

Logan looked startled, then indignant. “You don’t have the authority to do that! If you’re holding him somewhere –“

”No, I’m not,” Jackson insisted. “He’s being held somewhere else, for his own safety, for the next 72 hours.”

“Seventy-two...” Logan was sharp as a tack. His eyes widened, and he allowed the barest hint of a grin to show. “Yes, sir, I understand. Is there anything we can do to help?”

“Come with me to Fairfield’s office, now. Bring a couple of your most trusted men,” Jackson advised. “You’ll get your evidence soon, I promise.”

“Yes, sir!” Logan was positively beaming. “Sounds like the most excitement we’ve had around here in – days, sir.”

“I’ll be happier when things are a little less exciting,” Jackson muttered.

“Er, yes, of course, sir.” Logan used his pager, rather than Jackson’s intercom, to contact his team.

Within fifteen minutes, they were all assembled, and outside Dr. Fairfield’s office. The Admin wasn’t on duty. Behind the closed door, they could hear raised voices. Or rather, Gregory’s voice was raised, and Fairfield’s was almost indistinguishable. Then Jackson heard the pre-arranged signal. Fairfield nearly bellowed, “Mr. Dunbar, you cannot continue to run this Institute!”

It was the wrong thing to say, of course, but Jackson, Logan, and the two Security men were inside the office before Gregory could actually do anything.

“What are you –“

While the Security men tried to hold Gregory’s arms behind him, he fought them.
Jackson hit him once in the solar plexus, ignoring the flare-up of pain in his head. The blow knocked the wind out of Gregory. As expected, he couldn’t get enough breath to speak.

Fairfield injected Gregory with a sedative of some kind. It had a similar effect to the one Jackson used, and within seconds, Gregory was slumped in the arms of the Security team, and in less than a minute he was unconscious. Until his eyes closed, he gave Jackson an “I’ll kill you last,” look.

Fairfield crossed his arms. “I’m afraid Mr. Dunbar is going to need to be restrained, as well as isolated, for his own good. Gentlemen, please follow me to room 13.”

“Uh, Doctor, there is no room 13 in this ward,” one of the guards ventured.

“Of course there is. It’s the VIP suite of the Psych ward,” Jackson smirked. “I’ll be in touch, Dr. Fairfield.”

No one questioned where he was going, or why. That, at least, was as it should be.

<><><><><><><><>

Lisa tried to let the movie distract her, but even Keanu wasn’t able to alleviate her seething anger. Jackson was ignoring her again. Whatever was going on, he wasn’t telling her about it, just treating her like a child who couldn’t possibly understand. After all they’d been through, he still didn’t trust her. Of course, that cut two ways. She still couldn’t entirely trust him.

Part of it, she was sure, was the headache, and the damned medication he kept taking, thinking it was going to do him some good. Maybe he was the only one who couldn’t see it was not helping the situation.

If he’d only talk to her, explain some of what was bothering him, she might be able to help. At the very least, he could confide in her, and even if she didn’t understand, she could at least listen, and try to offer some advice. But no, he had to do things his own way, alone, as he’d always done. At the moment, she wished him joy of his own company, because she certainly didn’t want to talk to him until he was more capable of being rational, calm, and at the very least, polite.

She tried to turn her attention back to the movie.

<><><><><><><><>

After contacting Legal, Jackson found they were already aware of his new status. Gregory did like to hire the very best, after all. The meeting seemed interminable, but was in actuality less than half an hour. After signing what seemed like a billion papers, Jackson was declared Director Per Diem of the Institute, until such time as Gregory could take up his duties again.

As quickly as he could, Jackson reached Alice’s floor in Medical. Matt confronted him as soon as he arrived. They walked to Alice’s room, where the rest of the team was waiting. “Are you going to let us know what’s going on?” Matt demanded.

“Are we missing anyone?” Jackson asked, instead of answering his question. He’d identified George, Selena, Dr. Gorgeous, Cristina, and Sara.

“We’re all here,” Matt sighed. “But we haven’t given Ms. Carroll the medication yet.”
Jackson couldn’t believe he’d heard correctly. “I told George to –“

“I know what he said you’d told him,” Matt answered firmly. “I need to hear it from you directly, and know you have the authority to give that order.”

“I do.” Jackson pointed out his latest badge, indicating his new status.

“Um, congratulations, sir,” Izzie offered.

“Thanks.” Jackson spared one of his rare but blinding smiles, and she grinned in response.

They all tried to contain their impatience.

Jackson cleared his throat and explained, “I want plenty of witnesses, as well as a couple of surveillance devices, to document what we see here. If we’re able to wake Alice up, I think she can answer a lot of questions, for all of us. If she’s able to speak.”

George said, “Nothing in her file indicates she can’t. I think it’s more a matter of wanting to talk or not.”

“Okay.” Jackson addressed them all again. “Thing is, Gregory has his reasons for wanting your patient to stay under. He doesn’t want her awake and aware and talking. He’s been trying to keep her quiet all this time, but I have a feeling she’s going to have a lot to say after all that silence.”

A couple of people blanched at the grin Jackson gave them, so he tried to tone down the venom in his voice.

“I have some evidence to back up a theory George had about “Alice Carroll.” It’s not her real name.”

“But why would anyone try to hide her identity?” Izzie asked. “None of this makes sense.”

“I’m sure it will all make sense pretty soon. I want you all to know that we’re not going to be interrupted by Gregory. He’ll be occupied for the next few days. By the time he gets back here, I want to make sure it’s common knowledge that his special patient is up and around, or at least awake. I don’t want him to be able to hide her existence any longer.”

“So who is she? What’s the big frickin’ deal?” Cristina asked.

“I’ll let her tell you that herself,” Jackson promised. “Now, let’s tell your patient the good news.”

George looked at Jackson, who gestured for him to speak.

“Hello, Alice. I hope you’re feeling okay today. You’ve got a lot of visitors right now, but please don’t let us scare you. We’re all here to help you,” he amended.

<><><><>

She was exhausted just from listening to them, but she didn’t want them to be quiet. She needed to hear everything she could, to be sure she was safe at last.

She heard a voice that had become familiar, her doctor, the one they called “Bambi” when he wasn’t there. She tried to concentrate on what he was saying.

“...you’ll be safe, I promise.”

What would that be like? It was too much to hope for.

“Alice, or perhaps I should call you Rose,” a new voice spoke. “My name is Jackson Rippner. I think you know who I am. Trust me, you don’t have to worry about Gregory. He’s not going to be around for a while. We’re all here to make sure he can’t keep you quiet any longer.”

Can it be true?

Dr. Bambi spoke again. She couldn’t remember his name, though she’d heard it before.

“Alice -- Rose,” he amended firmly, “I’m going to give you some new medicine, in your I.V. line. It should help you. If it doesn’t work, at least it won’t do you any harm. We really do want to talk to you, though. If you’re in there, and can hear me, please say something.”

She couldn’t. It still felt as though she were wrapped up in cotton.

“Rose,” Jackson spoke again. His voice was softer than she’d expected. “If Gregory were here, and couldn’t touch you in any way, what would you say to him? What would you do? Come on, give it a try.”

No harm in trying. She raised her arm and slapped Gregory’s face as hard as she could.

“Her fingers moved!” one of the women announced.

“Did not,” another argued.

“They did. I saw them,” Matt concurred. “Come on, Alice, try again. Er, Rose.” He looked uncertainly at Jackson.

Again she hit Gregory with all her pent-up rage.

“I saw it! She did move her hand, she’s trying to communicate!”

“Shhhh, let’s not distract her.”

Everyone was silent, waiting for her. She felt like she had to do something, to not disappoint them, but was it really safe? I’ve got to try, even if it’s some kind of trick.

She fought against the fog in her mind, and the numbness in her body. There were people she had to talk to, things they needed to know. If only she could be certain Gregory wouldn’t, couldn’t, stop her.

“Ms. Carroll, it’s Dr. Crower. I’m Dr. O’Malley’s supervisor.”

That was it. Bambi was Dr. O’Malley. Bambi O’Malley? She would have giggled, had she been capable. She listened again to the doctor who was speaking to her.

“You don’t have to do anything but try to listen, try to let us know you’re there.”

He continued to talk as she fought the lethargy that threatened to drag her under again. It would be so easy to slip away into that darkness, where she didn’t have to be aware of anything. But she was tired of being hidden away in the dark, when there was so much she had to bring to light.

[cgoddess]

YES I have been waiting for this kind of action for a long time. What an evil but great place to leave the story!! Always watching for more!

CG

[stormy]

Thanks, CG! Action is not my strong suit, but who knows, there might be more down the road.

I've got quite a bit more written, I'm just fine-tuning it. I should be able to post more this weekend.

[cgoddess]

Hey remember--not all action is fighting and car chases. I have been waiting for a point like this, though, where all the things that have been building up and getting into place actually come to a head. VERY interested to hear Rose's story.

[stormy]

True! I thought I'd been bringing things together for a while, but maybe it's more obvious to me because I'm writing so far ahead of what I'm posting.

Anyway, it's getting close to the end, finally! Then I'll probably need to do some more rewriting before I post everything, but it'll be a relief to have everything laid out in the proper order.

[stormy]

CHAPTER 93

The wait seemed interminable, but had only been fifteen minutes. Everyone tried to be as patient as they could, though it was obvious most of the occupants of the room had a few dozen questions.

Jackson checked his watch again.

“I can’t stay much longer,” he whispered to George. “I’ve got to check a couple of things.”

George rubbed the back of his neck and stretched his shoulders. “I’ll let you know if anything happens, but it might take a while.”

“Page me if you need me. I’ve got to see how things are going...elsewhere.”

“You’ve got a lot of irons in the fire, huh?” George asked sympathetically.

“Yeah. I can’t tell you anything else right now, but I’m gonna be pretty busy.”

“We all are, if she wakes up soon. But it’ll be good to be busy,” he amended.

Jackson grinned. “Keep up the good work.” He spoke louder, hoping Rose could hear him.

“Rose, I’ve got to go. I’ll be back when I can. Hopefully I’ll have good news.”

There was no response, though they’d seen her fingers move, and her eyelids flutter a few times. He hurried out of the room, making his way quickly to the other Floor 13, in the Psychiatric wing.

Dr. Fairfield gave him a succinct report. “Mr. Dunbar is resting peacefully in his room. He’s secure. I daresay he won’t be too happy when he wakes up, but everyone on staff has been trained to deal with potentially violent patients, so there shouldn’t be a problem.”

Jackson hoped the doctor wasn’t being overly optimistic. “Let me know if you need me for anything. There are a lot of things going on that I’m trying to oversee.”

“I’m certain I wouldn’t want to trade jobs with you for all the money in the world,” Fairfield informed him.

Jackson shuddered. “You can keep your job; I don’t want it.”

Fairfield smiled faintly. “Then I suppose we’re really in the best of all possible worlds, aren’t we?”

“What are you talking about? Things could be a hell of a lot better, you know,” Jackson argued.

“True, but they could also be much worse. I think we’ll see some positive changes around here soon, don’t you agree?”

Jackson smiled ferally and clenched his fists. “Oh, yeah, some big changes.”

Once he was home again, he’d be able to access some information on his computer that was denied him earlier. He’d have to wait a little while for news on Rose or Gregory, so maybe it was time to investigate Capa a little bit further. He tugged the chain holding the override key again, to make sure it was still safe. That key would open a lot of doors, including metaphorical ones. There would be no more “access denied” messages now.

<><><><><><><><>

It was so quiet. Very peaceful. Restful. But he was tired of resting. There were things he had to do, people he had to talk to. Slowly, carefully, he opened his eyes. He saw the box he was in, that Lisa referred to as the Sleeping Beauty box. The thought made him smile. Lisa. Where is she? He tried to sit up, but there wasn’t enough room. He couldn’t see any kind of catch or mechanism to open the box from the inside. Because it wasn’t meant to be opened from the inside, eejit. Brilliant, yeah? Shut up. There has to be a way out.

The door opened, and he looked towards it expectantly. But it wasn’t Lisa.

“What’s going on, Cillian? The monitors are – Hm, your eyes are open.”

He recognized the voice as Capa’s. That was okay, he liked Capa, but he wanted Lisa.

Capa slid the sound vent open, as though it made a difference. He knelt down next to the tank and put his ear to the grille. “Can you hear me, Cillian?”

“Yes.” It sounded strange to him, his own voice. “Yes,” he repeated more loudly.

“Good.”

Capa was looking at all the monitors and equipment in the room. There was something very important that was missing, that Capa didn’t seem concerned about.

“Where’s Lisa?” he asked, trying to stay calm.

Capa smiled, almost paternally. “Ah. I should have known you’d want to see her. She’s off work today.”

“But I need her!”

Instead of telling him Lisa’s whereabouts, Capa changed the subject.

“You know,” Capa added, “you’re ahead of schedule. We’ll have to try to figure out why. I hope that doesn’t throw things off.”

Cillian responded by moving his arms, trying again to push up the lid of the tank. “Dunno. I’m restless. Got things to do. Way too many things to do. I want Lisa.”

“The tank is still locked. Hold on just a few more minutes, okay? I’m going to get Gabriel. He really should be here.”

“And Lisa,” he tried to call out, in case Capa didn’t think of it. Where is she? I need her now! Calm down, just wait. You need to relax. I’m tired of relaxing! Ain’t got much choice, have ye?

“Yes, you’re right, she should be here too. Just be patient a few more minutes.”

Cillian nodded. What are a couple of minutes, after all? Too long, that’s what they are. There has to be a way out! Just wait, be patient. I’ve been about as patient as I can be. I’m tired of waiting. Yeah, no kidding. But you don’t have a choice. What’s the matter with you? Can’t everyone just try to get along?

<><><><><><><><>

Capa knew he should call Gregory first, but Gabriel needed to know, too. The longer he could keep Gregory from finding out, the better. He tried to contact Lisa, but no one was answering the intercom. He couldn’t wait for her.

Gabriel sounded sleepy, but it only took a few words for him to sound fully alert.

“I’ll be there as soon as I can. Don’t do anything without me.”

Capa tried again to reach Lisa. Finally, someone answered, but it was Jackson Rippner.

“Mr. Rippner, this is Dr. Capa. I work with Miss Reisert. I need to speak to her quite urgently. Do you know where I can find her?”

Jackson sounded exasperated. “She’s watching some movies with my younger brothers.”

“Can I reach her there? I need to see her right away.”

“I doubt they’ll answer the intercom, if they even hear it. I can go get her if it’s urgent.”

“Yes, please do. I need her here in the lab, and I’d like you to accompany her. Dr. Knight will be here soon. I think it’s time we all meet. We have a lot to talk about.”

“I just bet we do,” Jackson muttered. “Look, I’m right in the middle of something important. Can it wait?”

“No.” He didn’t have time to argue with Jackson. “Trust me, whatever it is, this is more important. Please don’t say anything about this to Gregory, for all our sakes.”

Jackson seemed to find the request amusing. “Don’t worry about that.”

“Get here as fast as you can. Tell Lisa that Sleeping Beauty woke up early. She’ll know what I mean.”

“Yeah, okay. We’ll be there soon.”

Capa tried to remain calm as long as possible. He hurried back to the iso chamber to stay with Cillian until Gabriel arrived.

“It’s going to be alright, Cillian. Gabriel will be here soon, and Lisa and Jackson will both be here.” He carefully observed Cillian’s reaction to that last name.

“Why? I don’t know if I want to see him,” Cillian complained. His voice was getting stronger. “In fact, I’m pretty sure I don’t.”

Hm, stubbornness is a trait they all have in common. This won’t be easy.

“I think it’s time you two met. There’s still a lot more you can learn from him.”

“I don’t understand. I don’t want to be him. I want to be me.”

Capa closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“I’m sure you do. Rest there a few more minutes, and we’ll get you sorted out.”

<><><><><><><><>

Capa greeted Gabriel as soon as the older scientist joined them in the iso lab.

“Cillian, this is Gabriel. You should know his voice almost as well as you know mine. Gabriel, meet Cillian. I think he’s anxious to come out of the tank now.”

“I’m very pleased to meet you, Cillian,” Gabriel responded, a hint of amusement in his voice.

“Yeah, good to meet you, too, Doc. Where’s Lisa?” he complained.

Gabriel glanced at Capa.

“She’s on her way, Cillian.” As an aside to Gabriel, he quietly added, “With Jackson.”

“Good Lord. Well, that should be interesting.” Gabriel folded his arms and watched Capa unfasten the locks holding the isolation chamber closed.

Cillian’s muscles were weak from lack of use, but Capa had a physical therapy regimen planned for him. There had been a certain amount of electrical stimulation to simulate physical activity, but Cillian would need some time to be at 100% physical condition. Hopefully Lisa could help out; if not, they’d have to find someone from Medical they could trust.

With help from Capa, Cillian was soon out of the iso chamber and standing, a trifle wobbly.

“If Lisa is on her way, it might be a good idea to get you into some clothes,” Gabriel observed.

Cillian nodded distractedly, trying to get used to the sensation of not lying down.

“Have you got anything that will fit him, Capa?”

“Most of my clothes would just hang on him. However, Lisa brought some things.”

Cillian was soon dressed in jeans, a pale green t-shirt, and white tennis shoes.

“Now, we’ve got a few things to discuss before Jackson and Lisa arrive, and we need to run some tests.”

“Sit down, Cillian, before you fall down,” Gabriel advised, pointing to the one chair in the room.

Cillian sat, watching the two of them with concern.

“We can’t put off telling Gregory much longer, though I wish we could,” Capa added.

“Don’t want to see Gregory,” Cillian loudly announced. “He scares me, an’ I hate bein’ scared. He scares everyone, I guess, but that’s ‘cause he’s dangerous.”

“Er, yes, well, I wouldn’t disagree with you on any of that,” Capa said hastily, “but we’ll do our best to keep you safe from him. The problem is how.”

“Hire Jackson as his bodyguard?” Gabriel murmured quietly.

“This isn’t the time for jokes!” Capa hissed.

“I’m not joking.”

“I can take care of myself!” Cillian protested. “Don’t need no bodyguard, just give me a few minutes alone with him, and –“

“Violence is not the best solution, Cillian,” Capa admonished him.

“Though I wouldn’t mind seeing that, myself,” Gabriel added.

“Neither would I, but it’s not going to happen! Don’t encourage him!” Capa turned his attention back to Cillian. “There are other ways to get around Gregory. We just have to figure out what they are.”

“That’s true, you know, there should be a peaceful solution.”

Capa stared at Cillian. His voice was softer now, quieter.

“True, that’s just what I was –“

“But doesn’t the old bastard deserve some pain, for all he’s given us?”

Gabriel blinked. “Oh, my. Capa, I think we may have a bit of a complication on our hands.”

“Of course he does,” Cillian continued, “but there are other ways. I’d like to see him get a dose of his own medicine. Well, my own medicine, more specifically. Yeah, that’d be a real kick, wouldn’t it? But we really shouldn’t be doing anything like that to him. It’s cruel, and perhaps we should try something more compassionate and -- Stay out of this. We need a real man to handle this. Then you’re not much help, either. Be quiet, and listen to me. Er, him.” Cillian nodded at Capa.

We definitely have a problem. He took a deep breath. “Cillian, we were thinking something like this might happen. It might take a while to sort things out. Are you hearing – no. Are there –“

“How many of you are in there?” Gabriel rephrased for him.

“Uh, lessee. Me, and Jackson, Jonathan, Capa, Darren, Kitten, Jon, Jim.”

“I see. That’s all?” Gabriel asked hopefully.

Capa shot him a baleful look and mouthed, “You’re not helping.”

Gabriel ignored him.

“Um…yep, that’s it. Thing is, doc, I want the rest of ‘em to shut up. I want to be me, not them.”

“That’s you speaking as Cillian, I presume?” Gabriel inquired.

“Yeah. They don’t want to shut up, you know? No, why should we? We have every bit as much right to – No, he’s got a point. You don’t get any say in this! Yes, I do! Yes, she does. No, we need a calm, rational mind for this. Then half of you should shut the hell up.”

Cillian took a deep breath. “Please help me before these guys drive me nuts.”

Capa could see Cillian biting his lip to keep from saying anything further.

“Yes, certainly,” Capa assured him, “we’ll do everything we can. Maybe the new head of Psychiatry will be able to help.”

“No he won’t, he doesn’t know what he’s doing. I don’t want him running my facility. He’s going to ruin things.”

“Why?” Capa asked.

“Because he’s got all these rigid ethics that get in the way of true scientific discovery. The man’s a disgrace. You can’t let compassion get in the way of your work. That’s right. No, it isn’t! You have to have some compassion or you might lose your humanity altogether! Let’s all just shut up and listen for a minute. We’re obviously not going to solve things on our own.”

Out of the corner of his eye Capa could see Gabriel holding one hand over his mouth. His eyes betrayed the laughter he wasn’t about to let out.

“Yes, thank you all for that vote of confidence.” Capa tried to regain control of the situation. “This is going to be very difficult to explain, to anyone. I think we’re going to have to keep you here longer than we thought, to help you adapt.”

“But I don’t want to stay here!” Cillian whined. “I want to see what’s going on out there! Me, too!”

Capa sighed softly. “Maybe he’ll settle down when Lisa gets here?” he suggested hopefully to Gabriel.

“I doubt it.”

“Yeah, when’s she gonna get here?” Cillian demanded.

“Sooner than we’d like, I suspect. Now do be quiet just a moment, please.”

“Good luck with that,” Gabriel murmured.

Capa ignored him.

“Cillian, perhaps it would be best if you say as little as possible while Jackson is here. Lisa will be a bit more understanding, I’m sure. Let’s not upset Jackson anymore than is absolutely necessary, okay?”

He tried not to show his amusement at Cillian’s very colorful, though often contradictory, language.

<><><><><><><><>

Lisa accompanied Jackson without protest. She’d seen by the look in his eyes that it was urgent. Luckily no one else seemed to be too bothered when they left the movie. Once they were out of the apartment, Lisa stopped him.

“Where are we going? What’s the matter?”

“The science lab. You know how to get there from here?”

“We can’t use the fastest way, but I think we can take the nearest elevator to that floor.” Lisa looked around for incriminating cameras. She found one, near the ceiling in the corner of the hallway, but that didn’t mean there weren’t more. She gestured to it, but Jackson didn’t seem concerned.

“Don’t worry about it; just a camera, no audio. I’ll explain things on the way; I don’t want to waste any time. Your precious Capa called. He said to tell you Sleeping Beauty woke up early. Does that make sense to you?”

“Oh, God! I hope he’s alright!” Lisa tried to keep from raising her voice, just in case they were being monitored. Nothing like being spied on all the time to make you completely paranoid, she thought.

“He sounded healthy enough to me,” Jackson reassured her.

“You talked to him?!?” Lisa asked incredulously. “He was talking?”

They reached the elevator, and scanned their badges and wrist bands. There was no button to push. Jackson put his finger to his lips, and she nodded.

The door opened, and they stepped inside. Lisa pressed the button for the science lab.

Jackson nodded his head slightly in the direction of the ceiling of the elevator. Lisa kept her lips tightly compressed as she waited till they exited the elevator. Normally it might seem like a safe enough place to talk in private, but not in this place.

As soon as they were out in the hall, Lisa looked around and turned to the right.

“You said he was talking.”

Jackson shot her a quizzical look. “Yes. He sounded pretty calm, considering it seemed to be an emergency. He wanted me to come with you.”

“Oh, okay.” Right, Capa. Not Cillian. She walked faster.

“Do you want to tell me what’s going on, Lisa?” Jackson asked, trying to keep up.

“No. We’ll have to wait and see what Gabriel thinks is safe to tell you. You’re going to have to trust me a little bit longer.”

“This is so wrong,” Jackson grumbled. “You’re not supposed to be keeping secrets from me.”

“Get used to it,” she advised, with very little sympathy. He must be very preoccupied, she realized, when he didn’t respond to that.

When they reached the lab, Lisa didn’t even have to use her ID to open the door. Capa was waiting for them. Lisa hurriedly performed introductions, hoping Jackson wouldn’t overreact. She really didn’t want to see any of them get hurt.

Jackson didn’t seem terribly surprised to see a great family resemblance in his “rival.” It was more of a weary acceptance.

“Which one are you?” he asked, staying remarkably calm.

“The oldest. Sorry,” Capa added, as though it were his fault.

Jackson shrugged. “No problem.”

He turned to Lisa. “You have any other little surprises for me, Lise?”

Capa came to her rescue. “Don’t blame her for not telling you. You know how things go here. You weren’t on the “need to know” list. Now you are.”

“Guys, we’re wasting time!” Lisa reminded them, before Jackson could start an argument. “Where’s – Sleeping Beauty?” she concluded quietly.

“With Gabriel,” Capa answered. “Come on. You haven’t seen this room, Lisa.”

“Are the monitors all off?” she asked quietly.

“There’s been a minor malfunction, in every camera and audio device I could find,” he murmured.

This bit of news seemed to cheer Jackson. “Maybe I can make sure they don’t get fixed for a while.”

“That would be helpful. We don’t have much time,” Capa reminded them. “I don’t know how long it will take for Gregory to realize there’s a problem.”

“I think Gregory is pretty busy with other problems right now,” Jackson advised him, “trust me. We’ve got a couple of days till he can do anything.”

Capa raised his eyebrow, and Lisa shrugged.

“I’d like to hear more about that, soon. Jackson, I can only tell you a little bit, and you’re going to have to leave soon. I’ll need Lisa to help me, and I don’t know how long she’ll have to stay.”

“What do you mean? Are you talking hours, or –“

”Maybe days. Lisa, is that okay with you?”

”Yes, I understand. Jackson, don’t worry. I’ll be fine. Let Capa tell you whatever he can.”

The lab intercom beeped, and Capa went to answer it. He returned after a moment.

“We’ve got to get going. Sleeping Beauty is getting very restless, and agitated.” He looked meaningfully at Lisa, and her heart sank.

“Then let’s go,” she answered firmly.

<><><><><><><><>

Jim was tired of waiting for Selena, and bored, and restless. For some reason, the movies hadn’t been able to captivate his attention. He’d hoped he and Selena could have a late dinner together, but he’d gotten a hasty call explaining that she’d had to go in to work, and didn’t know when she’d be home. As usual, she couldn’t tell him anything about what she was actually doing. He really hadn’t expected things to be like this. Once they were together again, living together, everything was supposed to fall into place. He realized she didn’t remember that they’d ever spent time together before, that they’d met before he’d come to the island, but he knew they had. His dreams were far too real to be just dreams, weren’t they? They had to be there for a reason.

Looking for some way to get rid of his frustration, he brought his easel, a fresh canvas, and his brushes and paints from the closet. It would have been better to have natural light to work with, but he didn’t want to go outside and have a bunch of security guards seeing what he was painting. He didn’t like an audience, even Selena, until he was done with the work. He concentrated on identifying his feelings, then tried to match the colors to his mood. He ended up, once again, with a lot of gray, brown, black, green and red. This one looked rather like a body laying in a pool of blood on the grass, with an ominous sky overhead. Exactly what he’d been going for.

He wondered, occasionally, what life was like outside the island. How far had the infection spread? Had it gotten out of the British Isles? He knew Jackson kept taking trips to various places...or at least, that’s what Jackson said he was doing. True, he usually brought someone back with him, but it could all be a cover-up for some bizarre plan of Gregory’s. Maybe his brothers and whoever else Jackson fetched were actually on the island all the time, and Jackson was lying about taking a plane to leave the island. He’d never seen a plane, or an airstrip. Didn’t mean they didn’t exist, because there was a lot of the island he hadn’t seen, but it also didn’t rule out the possibility that Jackson was lying. Or insane, which seemed just as likely a possibility. They were none of them models of sanity to begin with.

The second painting was almost finished, mostly black background, with a pair of vivid blue eyes glaring at him. Yeah. He added a jagged line of silver, and a blood-red splotch on the ground, in the lower right-hand corner. He’d call this one, “The Night Has Eyes.” Nice and gothic-like.

He needed something to calm him down, rather than working him up. He definitely didn’t want another headache, and he could feel one starting to build. Maybe he did need some fresh air after all. After cleaning the paint from his brushes, and putting his supplies away, Jim found a black sweater in his closet and put it on. He could always take it off if it were actually warm outside, but at the moment he felt chilled to the bone.

He marveled at how easy it was to get outside now. All he had to do was show the guard his badge and wristband, and he was allowed out. He had freedom. Of a sort. Limited by a high, electrified fence topped with barbed wire. It reminded him too much of a place he’d rather forget. Instead of exploring the limits of the grounds, he turned toward the nearest garden. He had to admit the new gardener was doing at least as good a job as he’d done. It was sort of fun working construction, but he missed the peacefulness of the garden. Ignoring the bench just a few yards away, Jim settled down on the grass and looked up at the moon. It wasn’t quite bright enough to suit him, but he could see fairly well.

A security guard came up to inquire as to why he wasn’t using the bench for its intended purpose, but he went away again when Jim assured him everything was fine, he just liked being closer to nature. He didn’t have to hear the words to understand the likely thought. They’re all crazy, the lot of them. How’d they get to be running this asylum, anyway? It was a thought that had crossed his own mind a time or two.

He didn’t know how long he’d been sitting there. He hadn’t consulted his watch when he left the building, but by the sun’s position, the sun would set in less than an hour. Fine, that meant he still had close to an hour to enjoy it. He tried to block out everything that wasn’t a part of the nature surrounding him, but he couldn’t help but listen when a couple of the guards started talking. He’d noticed in his peripheral vision that one of the guards had come out of the building at almost a run, but he figured it was none of his business. No doubt if it was something he needed to know, he’d be told. Otherwise, shut up and don’t ask questions. Right. That’s just what he was doing.

Except these fellows were louder than they realized, most likely. The name “Dunbar” caught his ear, and he shamelessly began eavesdropping.

“...say he’s been taken away, to the asylum!”

“What for?”

“Dunno. A psych evaluation, I think.”

“I don’t believe it. Where’d you hear that?”

“One of the Psych security squad.”

Jim listened with growing eagerness. If it were true...how could anyone possibly consider Gregory sane? He felt a bit sorry for the guy from Psych who’d been stupid enough to blab. No doubt he’d be up for disciplinary review soon. Jackson didn’t like gossip any more than their father did. He listened again.

“...’cause if it is, who’s going to run this place?”

“Neither one of us, that’s for sure.”

“I’d hate to be the poor bastard gets stuck with that job.”

“Probably one of the sons.” Jim tried to ignore the insult, and the snicker that accompanied it.

“They’re welcome to it. I just want my pay and no random violence.”

They walked further away, and Jim waited a bit to stand up and stretch his legs. He attempted to keep his pace leisurely, but he couldn’t wait to get back inside and find out what was going on.

[stormy]

CHAPTER 94

Jackson was worried that events at the lab were starting to slip out of his control. It was a very unpleasant thought. He tried to shake off his concern.

They entered a room located at the far end of the lab, after being scanned through a door with a radiation warning on it.

“Don’t worry about the sign,” Capa said dismissively. “It’s just there to warn people away who have no business being here.”

The room looked too much like a morgue for Jackson’s liking.

“What is this place?” he asked suspiciously.

“It’s not what it looks like. Bodies are stored here, but they’re not dead,” Capa explained briefly. “I’m going to introduce you to someone you really have to see to believe. His name is Cillian.”

“Killian? Like the beer?”

“But spelled with a ‘C’ instead,” Lisa helpfully informed him.

“I’ll explain more once we get in the room.” Capa led them to a door directly across the room from the entrance. “This is an apartment that was designed for Cillian to stay in while being evaluated.”

Jackson tried to contain his curiosity. Once they’d all been scanned through, he found they were in what appeared to be a studio apartment. There was very little furniture, but what there was seemed very solid.

The most striking object in the room, however, was the man seated on the sofa. He could have been Jackson’s twin. The hairstyle was longer than Jackson had ever worn his hair, down to his shoulders, but other than that...

The man jumped up when he saw Lisa, but hesitated when he realized Jackson was with her.

“Hi, Cillian! I’m so glad you’re finally awake and with us!” Lisa greeted him. She ignored Jackson’s stupefied look and went to take Cillian’s hand.

“What – the – fu–“

”Jackson, this is your clone, Cillian. Cillian, meet your progenitor, Jackson Rippner.”

“It’s really true?” Jackson had been hoping it was just a joke, even though Gregory wasn’t know for his sense of humor. “I was hoping he was just kidding.

“Gregory told you about the cloning program?” Capa didn’t seem to be taking the news very well.

Jackson shook his head, and glanced over at his brother. “He didn’t tell me directly. But never mind that now.”

Cillian held Lisa’s hand tighter. It reminded Jackson too much of Darren.

“What’s he doing here?” Cillian asked.

“He’s here to meet you,” Capa explained quietly. “Jackson, this is Dr. Gabriel Knight, my partner in crime.”

Jackson briefly glanced at the room’s other occupant. He’d already dismissed the man as no threat. Gabriel didn’t seem hurt when he was ignored.

“Tell me what’s going on, right now!” Jackson demanded through gritted teeth. “And how many more brothers do I have?”

“Um...Gregory has hinted there might be more, but you’ve now met all of us who are on the island.”

Jackson looked skeptically at the man who was supposedly his clone, who seemed to be watching him with equal interest. There was a very close resemblance, though he could see now that Cillian appeared to be a few years younger. He didn’t have the hardness in his eyes that Jackson often saw in his own. But the clothing he was wearing looked awfully familiar.

“Are those my clothes?”

“No, Jackson, they just look similar to things in your wardrobe,” Lisa assured him. “I made a note of your sizes and styles, and used that information to buy a few things.”

Jackson’s face darkened, and he clenched his fists. “What? That’s a violation of my privacy!” He blinked at the withering look Lisa gave him.

“I wouldn’t complain about that, if I were you,” she reminded him.

“Oh.” Right. He sighed, not liking it when his own actions came back to bite him in the butt.

“Sit down, please,” Capa invited, “and let’s discuss this calmly. And quickly.”

Lisa sat on the couch next to Cillian, who continued to hold her hand. It reminded him, again, of Darren. He had to fight the impulse to take her other hand when he sat down on her other side.

Capa told Jackson an abbreviated version of what he’d told Lisa, emphasizing the Gregory considered all his sons expendable, at least once he had “viable” clones of each of them.

“How many more clones are there? Have I met any of them?”

Gabriel shook his head. “Everyone you’ve met has been an actual, biological brother. Cillian is the only clone who’s been awakened, so to speak, who’s survived.”

Jackson had many more questions, but wasn't sure how many answers he'd get. “Does Gregory know Cillian’s awake, or whatever, now?”

“Hopefully not. I imagine if he did we’d have heard from him by now. We were rather hoping you could keep him busy for a while,” Capa added. “We’d like to have a little more time to prepare Cillian to meet Gregory.”

“Or to keep Gregory from giving him therapy or controlling him in some other way,” Jackson surmised. It made perfect sense to him. Maybe Capa and Gabriel felt about Cillian something like the way he felt about Darren. Cillian was their responsibility, and they didn’t want to see Gregory use him for his own ends, probably wrecking him emotionally in the process.

“Something like that,” Gabriel agreed.

“You won’t have to worry about Gregory for a few days.”

The look in Lisa’s eyes was disturbing. She hadn’t glared at him like that since their first airplane trip together. “Jackson! What have you done?”

“I didn’t hurt him,” he protested. He couldn’t keep the satisfaction from his face or voice when he informed them, “But for the moment, I’m the boss of all of you. I’ll explain as soon as I can.”

Capa didn't seem too surprised, just sighed heavily with a brief expression of annoyance.

“What is it with all you Dunbars that you can’t answer a simple question?” Gabriel asked, apparently thinking he would get an answer to that one. Jackson ignored him.

Cillian had been sitting uncomfortably close to Lisa – at least, in Jackson’s opinion. He hadn’t seemed terribly interested in their conversation. Now he looked from Lisa to Capa. His priorities appeared to be a bit different from everyone else’s. His voice was hesitant. “Is Lisa going to be staying with me, or with Jackson, from now on?”

“What the hell? She’s staying with me!” Jackson informed him.

Lisa managed a weak smile, and shot a “Help me!” look at Capa.

“For at least a little while, she’ll be staying with you, Cillian, to help you get acclimated. But you need to remember, she’s not your girlfriend, she’s Jackson’s. She can be your friend, or something like a sister, but nothing else, Cillian.”

It reminded Jackson very much of what he’d said to Darren.

Cillian bit his lip and looked like he was going to pout. His expression looked like a combination of Darren and Kitten, and was extremely unsettling.

Capa turned to him again. “We need to have some time to get to know Cillian, and run some tests and see how things are going. Lisa can help with that. We really don’t want o leave Cillian alone just yet, and he’s certainly not ready to meet everyone else yet. But as soon as Gregory gets his hands on him –“

Even though his jealousy was rising by the second, Jackson could see the potential problems.

“You do realize, don’t you, that I should tell Gregory?” he asked carefully, watching their reactions. “I should tell him all about this conversation, and everything you’re planning to do without him knowing it.”

Capa’s gaze was sad, and he nodded. “It’s what you’ve been trained to do. I know it would be dangerous for you not to do so. If you keep our secret, you’re endangering yourself, as well as us. But I’m willing to bet you won’t go to Gregory, because, unfortunately, Lisa is also involved.”

“And Gregory would see her as expendable,” Jackson sighed. “Yeah, I get it. Gregory isn’t too pleased with me at the moment. Might as well be hanged for a sheep as well as a lamb, right?”

Cillian looked puzzled.

“If you’re going to steal an animal for food,” Lisa translated, “you might as well go for something bigger. In England, they used to kill people for stealing animals from the King’s land. So if you’re going to take a chance on being hanged, at least make it worth the risk.”

“Gregory’s evil,” Cillian announced, as though this were news to them. “I don’t like him. He knows what he’s doing in some things – but he knows nothing about people, or their feelings. It doesn’t matter how he handles people, as long as his scientific methods are sound.” He looked as puzzled as the rest of them.

“Er…Join the club,” Jackson invited. “I don’t think Gregory has any fans in this room. But you haven’t even met him yet, right?”

Cillian shook his head. He had to lean forward and look around Lisa to see Jackson. “Not officially. But he used to come into the isolation lab and talk to me. Yeah, didn’t want him there, but he didn’t care. Sometimes Capa or Gabriel were there, but sometimes they weren’t. Said a lot of things I didn’t want to hear. I wanted to tell him what I thought of him, but I couldn’t. Don’t like feeling helpless. None of us do. Sometimes you just have to accept that you can’t control things. But you can at least try to control what you can.”

Jackson noticed the scientists looked uneasy. No wonder. This Cillian sounded like he belonged in – well, the psych ward, along with Gregory. He shuddered at the thought of anyone, besides Gregory, being subjected to that place.

“That’s one of the things we need to talk about, Cillian,” Capa was saying quietly. “But Jackson should be going now.”

“But there’s more I need to know!” Jackson protested. “I’m not going to leave Lisa here alone with that –“ He looked again at his mirror image. “With Cillian,” he concluded.

“You have to leave,” Capa insisted. “There are too many things we can’t explain to you right now. Lisa will be perfectly safe. Gabriel or I will be with them a lot of the time. Even when we’re not, though, Cillian won’t harm Lisa.”

“Never, nope, not ever. Wouldn’t hurt her, though I wouldn’t mind --” Cillian bit his lip and stopped talking.

“He won’t hurt me,” Lisa hastily agreed. “Besides, if I could kick your ass, I’m sure I could take Cillian down if I needed to.” She smiled as she said it, but there was a hint of steel in her tone.

“What? You didn’t –“

“You won’t need to defend yourself,” Cillian assured her. “I’ll never hurt you. I love you.”

“All right, that’s enough!” Jackson abruptly stood.

“Calm down, Jackson!”

Lisa seemed to realize this was the wrong thing to say.

“Please, sit down again, Jackson,” she tried. She patted the couch beside her. “I don’t want you two fighting over me. This is ridiculous.”

Jackson barely heard her words. “You don’t even know Lisa. How can you love her?”

Cillian returned his glare. “I know her well enough to know how much she cares about me. Yeah, she deserves better than you. She sure does. Just shut up now, all of you!”

Cillian held his hands over his ears and closed his eyes.

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil? Jackson cynically wondered.

“Cillian!” Lisa hissed, “You’re not helping!” She tried to backpedal by saying, “I’ve been spending a lot of time talking to Cillian, and reading to him, while he was still in stasis. He was able to hear a lot of it, I guess.”

“Pretty much everything you said, even when you thought I couldn’t hear you,” Cillian answered promptly. “Everything Gregory said, too, though I tried not to listen to him. I don’t like him,” he reiterated, “and I don’t think he’s going to like me. No, he definitely won’t. It’s too bad, because I’m not going away, but it would be nice if he’d just accept me.”

“How can he not like you?” Lisa asked brightly.

Jackson rolled his eyes and fought the urge to retch.

“Lisa, this can’t happen,” he reiterated. Why couldn’t she understand that?

She glared at him, and edged a fraction closer to Cillian.

Jackson clenched his jaw.

“I know you don’t like the idea, Jackson, but you can’t always have things your own way,” Lisa insisted. “I have to consider what’s best for Cillian. What’s best for everyone.”

“That’s my job,” he protested.

“Then why don’t you concentrate on that? Let me help Cillian, and you can work out what you need to do for everyone else.”

He looked around the room at the others, then sighed, resigning himself to the fact that there was no privacy, unless they went into the bathroom to talk. It looked like it would take a crowbar to wrest Lisa’s hand from Cillian’s grip. Might as well just talk to her like no one else was there, then.

“I’m worried about you staying with him. You don’t know what he’ll do.”

“I’ll let you know if I need any help,” Lisa promised. She sounded sincere. “But honestly, I don’t think Cillian’s going to hurt me. Ask Capa what he thinks, if you don’t trust my opinion.”

“It’s not that I don’t trust you,” he protested, “but this is out of your league. And mine. We don’t know anything about clones, or what they’re likely to do, or –“

”I know quite a bit more than you do, and I’m not worried,” Lisa repeated. She looked to Capa to back her up.

“What do you think, Capa? Is Cillian likely to hurt me if we’re alone together?”

“I very much doubt it. Then again, can you trust Jackson not to hurt you, if you’re alone together?”

“Of course she can! You can’t compare me and that – clone!”

“Obviously, he can,” Lisa pointed out. “And to answer your question, Capa, at this point I’m not sure Jackson is any safer than Cillian.”

“What?” Jackson sounded stunned.

“You’re been kind of scary lately. It’s like you’re pathologically jealous of every male I talk to. I don’t know what that’s about, but I really don’t like it. It’s not just that you don’t trust any male, but you obviously don’t trust me, either.”

Jackson thought Cillian was listening rather too closely.

“Now is not the time to talk about this,” he hissed. “We can talk about it at home, later.”

“Sure. In a few days, after Cillian is more settled. I’m sure you’ve got other urgent things to attend to. You always do.”

He realized she had a point. He did have other things to be concerned about. If she, Capa, and Gabriel could handle the clone, he’d be free to concentrate on other things.

<><><><><><><><>

Rose felt the lethargy leave her. She was unencumbered by cotton padding, finally free.

She opened her eyes to find she had quite an audience. They all wore white lab coats. She looked around in confusion.

“Alice, welcome back!”

She looked at the sad-eyed young man who had spoken. Surely he was too young to be a doctor. He moved closer, and took her wrist in his hand. She looked down and winced. She could tell he was taking her pulse.

“Whoa, look at those eyes! It’s like – Who is she?” Cristina demanded.

“Rose,” she answered, her voice hoarse. “Rose Dunbar. Are any of you my children?”

Most of the room’s occupants stared at her, agape with shock. The tall, blond man, who towered over the rest of them, spoke into a small, handheld device.

The young doctor who had first spoken had soft, unruly brown hair, and the pleased expression of an Irish setter. “Um, none of us here. But it looks like Matt – Dr. Crower – is getting in touch with one of your sons now.” He made a note in her chart.

The blond doctor nodded, and pocketed the device.

“So are you really Mr. Dunbar’s wife? Gregory Dunbar,” the brown-haired doctor spoke again, the one who reminded her of an eager puppy.

“Yes.” Rose cleared her throat, and one of the young women offered her a cup with a straw in it.

“Please drink slowly,” the lovely blonde advised, “so you don’t get sick.”

Rose sipped slowly, enjoying the cool, clean taste of water, then tried to speak again.

“How long has it been?”

Dr. Puppy Eyes answered her. “Almost 20 years. We’re glad to have you back with us, Rose. I’m Dr. O’Malley.” He gestured to the Asian woman to his left. “This is Dr. Yang. Dr. Crower over there is our resident, but I’m in charge of your case.”

“I’m Dr. Stevens,” the blonde added. “This is Selena Warren, one of your nurses, and Sara Daniels is your other nurse.”

“But where are my children? I thought – wasn’t Jackson here?”

Dr. Crower cleared his throat. “He’s on his way. In the meantime, there are some tests we should do. We don’t all need to be in here now, I don’t think. Those of you not on duty now can go back to what you were doing.”

“But – I’d like to stay,” Dr. Yang said quietly.

Several of the others looked surprised.

“Selena, you’ve had the most experience with comatose patients,” Dr. Crower noted. “I’ll need your help. Sara, you can go now. Dr. Yang, we’ll fill you in on things later, but for now, we have enough doctors on staff.”

“Yeah, go back to your Keanu fest,” Dr. O’Malley said kindly. “No point in missing out if we don’t need you here.”

“Keanu fest? What in the world –“

”Ah, movie actor. Some people were watching several of his movies,” Dr. O’Malley explained. He addressed the doctor and nurse. “I hope I don’t need to tell you, don’t say a word about this to anyone yet. The family needs to know, but it’s not up to us to decide when to tell them.”

“Yeah, yeah, no sh– Yes, Dr. O’Malley,” Dr. Yang said, with such false sweetness in her voice Rose expected her to choke.

Dr. O’Malley turned his back on his sarcastic intern. “Now, let’s run a few simple tests, and see what your reflexes are like.”

The two women who had been dismissed reluctantly left the room.

Rose resigned herself to some tiresome, but necessary tests. As a scientist, she knew the hard data of her condition would have to take precedence over her emotional or mental state. It didn’t mean she had to like it.

<><><><><><><><>

Lisa’s mind was racing, and so was her heart. Every time she saw Jackson, he made her more nervous. It must be the headache, and the medication, and all the usual self-imposed stress. Even so, his behavior wasn’t acceptable, for someone who claimed to care about her.

At the other end of the spectrum, she now had Cillian, who wanted to be by her side constantly, was very affectionate, and aware of her every expression and gesture. It would have been downright creepy, if he weren’t so endearing. He was more like a half-grown puppy than a vicious guard dog. Which meant he might still be trainable.

She stifled a sigh. This wasn’t quite what she’d hoped. For some reason she thought Cillian would be a distillation of the best of Jackson’s traits, and the best of his brothers’. Unfortunately, he seemed to have inherited some of their worst traits, as well. He seemed to realize right away that he wasn’t what she’d hoped. Capa had told her he’d explain things in more detail, as soon as he and Gabriel had time to analyze some tests they’d run on Cillian. He’d warned her, though, about the quick switching back and forth of personalities, and contradictory speech patterns.

“What’s the matter, Lisa?” His voice startled her, and reminded her she should be paying more attention to her duties.

“Don’t you like me?”

“Of course I like you, Cillian. But I still hardly know you.” She hoped that would be enough to ease his mind.

“That’s okay, we’re going to be spending a lot of time together. Capa said you’re gonna stay with me till I’m ready to meet the civilized world.”

“Or the rest of your family, at least,” she murmured.

His laugh startled her. “Well, it’s not like they’re strangers, ya know? I mean, they’re right here with me, sort of.” He clamped his lips shut, apparently not wanting her hear the various opinions being expressed in his head.

“I’m sure Capa will be able to explain it better,” she said carefully, “but as I understand it, you might have some personality traits, even memories, of your brothers…I guess that’s the right term. Anyway, the thing is, they’ve all been through a lot since the time their genetic material was taken, then added to you. Just the last few weeks have been really hectic. You might find them a bit different than the ones you think you know.” After a moment she asked uncertainly, “Did that make any more sense to you than it did to me?”

“I think so.” He let go of her hand and started pacing the small apartment. “But it’s still going to be really weird to talk to them. I hope I can get everyone in my head to settle down and let me talk.”

His voice lowered and he clenched his fists as he stalked about the room.

“I can understand why some of my – predecessors – went nuts, and couldn’t handle all this extra sensory input.”

“How are you doing on the external things, like light and sound?” she asked, hoping to divert his attention.

“Not too bad, though the light is a little too bright.”

“Oh, I think there’s an adjustment for that.” Lisa located the dimmer dial and lowered the light a bit.

“I’m just really restless,” he confessed. “I don’t like being cooped up in here with nothing to do.”

“I know it can’t be much fun. Maybe Capa or Gabriel will be able to find something for you to do. In the meantime, are you hungry?”

He seemed to be thinking about it.

“Yeah, I guess I am. It’s gonna be weird to eat real food, sort of for the first time.”

“Then let’s start with something simple,” Lisa sympathized. “I’m really good at making scrambled eggs…”

He gave her a wide grin. “Sure.”

He followed her into the kitchen, but when she politely refused his request to help, sat down at the table to wait.

Lisa didn’t want to admit how nervous it made her to be followed around, though she knew he didn’t mean any harm by it. After all, it wasn’t like he was stalking her or anything.

She hoped Capa and Gabriel would finish their discussion soon.

[cgoddess]

Dear gods, it's turning into a bit of chaos, isn't it? It's fun!!

[stormy]

Yep! More to come soon, probably this weekend.

[stormy]

CHAPTER 95

Jackson hadn’t bothered to call ahead, he just showed up at the door. It was one of his less endearing traits.

Kitten stifled a sigh. It was bad enough Matt had to leave on the one day off they had together. “Hello, Jackson. This is a surprise.”

He shook his head. “I’ve got a better surprise for you. Let’s go!”

“Wait! Go where?” She saw from his expression she wasn’t going to get an answer. “I like some surprises. This is a nice one, isn’t it?” she added cautiously.

“Yes, I’m sure you’ll think so.” His broad smile shocked her. Was he merely practicing one of his, “I’m really a nice guy, honest,” smiles, or was it genuine?

“Well –“

”Come on, you look fine. Matt will be there,” he added persuasively.

“Oh, well, then, in that case.... All right, then.”

She had to almost run to keep up with him. Though their legs were approximately the same length, she was hindered by a dress and heels, and had to walk more demurely.

Jackson looked back and groaned. “Oh, for – Okay, I’ll slow down.”

“Sorry, dear. Perhaps I should go back and change shoes.”

“No, no, those are fine. I’ll slow down.”

Kitten really wanted to ask more details, but thought it unlikely he’d answer any questions. He was definitely picking up some bad habits from their father.

“You’ve got a lot on your mind, haven’t you?” she asked kindly. “I mean, more than usual?”

He shrugged. “Yeah, but at least some of it’s good news. For a change.”

“How’s your headache?”

He thought for a moment. “Not bad.” She was sure he was lying, but thought it best to not push him any further. He took her hand, and practically dragged her along, in his eagerness to get wherever they were going.

The hospital wing was familiar, and when she saw the elevator, she gasped. “I thought you didn’t know about this elevator?”

He grinned like a little kid. “Matt showed me. I’m starting to learn all sorts of interesting things. Look what I’ve got!”

He lifted a black, plastic rectangle from the chain around his neck. In shape it resembled a card key, but it didn’t have the usual letters and numbers on it.

“What’s that?” Kitten asked warily.

“Gregory’s override key.” He used it to open the elevator, and forced it to admit both of them.

“No! How’d you get that?”

“I’ll explain later. I’ve got a lot of stuff to do in the next few days.”

“Did you steal it?”

"Technically, no."

That didn't sound too reassuring, but she didn't question him. No doubt he'd tell her the truth, if and when she needed to know it, as usual.

He quickly punched the numbers “1” and “3” into the nine-digit keypad, and the elevator started to rise.

Kitten tried to contain her nervous excitement by focusing on Gregory’s probable anger. “Isn’t he going to miss it?”

“I’m sure he will, but it’ll be too late,” Jackson answered, with entirely too much delight for her liking. Not that she didn’t trust Jackson more than Gregory, but considering how very little she trusted Gregory, it wasn’t saying much.

“Almost there,” Jackson said soothingly.

“Are we going where I think we’re going?”

“You’re not stupid, Kitten, so I’m going to assume you do know where we’re going.”

“But –“

”Shhh. Just wait.”

Kitten preceded him out of the elevator, and immediately headed towards Alice’s room.

“Slow down!” Jackson demanded. “I need to warn you –“

Before he could complete the sentence, Kitten was scanning herself into the room.

She was startled to see Matt, George and Selena there. Even more shocking, Alice was awake.

“You must be Kitten!” Alice said, her damaged face lighting up. “You have no idea how I’ve enjoyed your company.”

“Mommy?” Kitten gasped.

“Yes, dear. My name is Rose Dunbar, not Alice Carroll.”

Kitten would have launched herself at the bed in her eagerness to hug her mother, but Matt held her back.

“Kitten, please, stay calm. Rose needs to rest.”

“But Matt, you know how much this means to me!” She could barely contain her excitement. This was really her mommy, she knew it had to be, it just had to!

“I do, believe me, I do,” he soothed. “But Rose is exhausted. You can visit with her soon.”

“But –“

”The doctor is right, Kitten, I am tired.” Rose’s tone was kind, just the way Kitten had always hoped her mother would sound. “That doesn’t mean I don’t want to talk to you; I do. I’m sure we’ll find plenty of time to really get acquainted. I’m looking forward to it.” Kitten could see she was trying to smile. Rose’s words were a little hard to understand, slightly slurred, but perhaps that would improve in time.

Rose's eyes turned to Jackson. He stepped closer, so she could see him more easily. “And you must be Jackson. I recognize your voice.”

“I am,” he answered, his voice betraying the slightest quaver. Kitten wasn’t sure anyone else heard it.

Rose smiled at him. “I’m looking forward to getting to know everyone. Thank you for whatever part you’ve had in this, in making me feel safe.”

Kitten thought she saw the barest hint of color on Jackson’s cheeks. “You’re welcome, ma’am.”

“Call me Mom, or Mother, or whatever pleases you,” Rose invited.

“Um, okay.” He declined to call her anything yet; typically cautious, Kitten thought.

“Before you go, though,” Rose continued, “Kitten, I want you to know, from everything I recall of what you’ve told me, you’re just the daughter I always wanted!”

Jackson seemed to think he had to straighten out a misconception. “But Kitten’s not –“

Rose tried to wink at her too-literal son.

“I always wanted a girl.”

Kitten wanted to cry with happiness, but forced herself to stay calm. She contented herself with gently patting Rose’s hand. “Oh, Mommy! I’ve missed you so much!”

“I know, dear. We’ve got so much to catch up on. We all do. But I think there will be plenty of time now.”

Jackson confirmed this. “We’ve got the better part of three days before Gregory can possibly interfere. By then it will be too late. There are too many witnesses now that you’re alive. I’ve got all this on tape, so Gregory can’t deny it.”

“Why don’t you walk Kitten back home,” Matt suggested to Jackson. “You can visit with Rose later, too, but right now she needs rest, and space.”

Kitten didn’t like the faint implication that she might need assistance in leaving the room, but since it was Matt who suggested it, Kitten kept her thoughts to herself.

<><><><><><><><>

Jackson didn’t want to take the time to go back to the family wing, but he could see Kitten was upset. He particularly didn’t want to deal with a weepy Kitten, but he could see he had no choice. He couldn’t just walk off and leave her.

Kitten didn’t speak until they got to her door. Jackson could see she was barely containing her tears.

Jackson opened his mouth, but before he could get a single word out, about how terribly busy he was, Kitten flung herself into his unprepared arms. She clung to him like a life preserver, sobbing on his shoulder.

He stifled his initial response and just held on lightly, until the sobs gave way to a couple of hiccups, then a few sniffles. He handed Kitten a clean handkerchief as she disentangled herself.

“Are you gonna be okay?”

Kitten mopped her face clean, then nodded. “I’m fine, really. I need some time to think about this. How long have you known?”

He was sure her unspoken addition was, “How long have you been lying to me?”

“I just found out,” Jackson assured her. “George had some suspicions, but I didn’t know until today. I’ll explain it all later, I promise, but I’ve got things to do –“

”Places to go and people to see,” she finished. She waved at him dismissively. “Go on. I’ll be fine. Take care of whatever it is. I just hope there aren’t any more surprises like that one.” She held a hand to her mouth and her eyes widened. “I didn’t mean that! I meant –“

He nodded. “I know. It’s still a shock. There are some other things going on that I can’t tell you about now, but I think it’s just as well. You’ve got enough to deal with.”

“But –“

”Later, Kitten.” He smiled to take the sting out of his words, then turned away before she could change her mind. He heard the door lock behind her, and let out a sigh of relief. There were many, many times he wished he’d never met this crazy, bizarre, entirely too complicated family of his, but it was too late now.

<><><><>

The elevator ride to the Genetic Engineering lab seemed to take forever, but at least it gave Jackson time to sort his thoughts out a bit. Lisa would be so happy. It might make up for some of his recent coolness towards her. He’d have to make her understand it wasn’t her, he was just too busy to be polite all the time.

He had to use the override key to get into the lab. Dr. Capa scowled at him.

“What are you doing here? I thought I told you Lisa needs to spend some time here. And how did you get Gregory’s key?”

Jackson held his temper in check. “I’m keeping it safe for him until he needs it again.” He kept his tone barely civil. “I just have something I need to tell Lisa. I really think she’ll want to know.”

“What’s that?”

Jackson looked pointedly at Gabriel. “This is family-only information. I don’t think Dr. Knight needs to know, but you do.”

Gabriel stiffened.

Capa straightened his back, bringing himself up to half-an-inch taller than Jackson. “There are no family secrets you can’t tell Gabriel. As far as I’m concerned, he’s more a father to me than Gregory’s ever been. If you can’t say it in front of him, it may be too upsetting for Lisa to hear. I don’t want her to be distracted right now.”

Jackson took a deep breath and tried to relax.

“Okay. Here’s the deal. There’s this special patient of Gregory’s, that he’s kept isolated for about 20 years.”

Gabriel moved closer, his face intent. Capa looked at him with concern. “What?”

The older man shook his head. “Please go on.”

Jackson didn’t like having his story interrupted, but he cleared his throat and continued. “Anyway, this woman has been kept in a secret location in the hospital, that most of the staff don’t know about. She used to work here, I guess she was one of the Institute’s founders. I didn’t know there was anybody else but Gregory.”

“Oh, God...she’s still alive?”

Jackson turned to face Gabriel. The man’s face had turned ashen. What the hell?

“Yeah. In fact, they just brought her out of a coma. She’s talking. She’s surrounded by doctors at the moment.”

“Gabe, are you okay?” Capa helped the older man sit down. He blinked a couple of times. “Wait. Is this the woman you were in love with?”

“In love with?” Jackson echoed.

Gabriel nodded, apparently unable to speak.

“I don’t think so,” Jackson continued slowly. “But I guess Gregory was in love with her, at one time, or maybe he still is.“

Gabriel held up a hand to stop him. “He never loved her. He’s not capable of loving anyone.”

“Wait a minute,” Capa interrupted. “Are you saying –“

Jackson explained, ”She’s my – our mother. Gregory’s wife. Rose Dunbar.”

“I’ve got to see her!” Gabriel stood, somewhat shakily. “All these years.... Why didn’t he tell me?”

“Probably ‘cause he’s a sadistic bastard,” Capa answered automatically, sounding a bit dazed. “Our mother?” he repeated in a whisper.

“I don’t get it,” Jackson complained. “What’s the deal here? What have you got to do with --”

Gabriel snapped, “I don’t have time to explain now! I have to see Rose.”

Jackson rubbed his temple. His headache was increasing by the second.

“You can’t see her right now. She’s with a bunch of doctors, and Kitten just saw her. Uh, our brother Patrick,” he explained to Capa.

“I know who Kitten is. I know who all of you are,” Capa replied calmly.

Jackson was getting tired of half-answers. “Then why don’t I know anything about you? Has Lisa always known you’re my brother?”

Capa looked at him pityingly, as though he’d failed some simple test. “What do you think? Could she have possibly not noticed the resemblance?”

He didn’t like this implication at all. “Then she’s known all this time that I have another brother, and she didn’t tell me?”

“What does that matter?” Gabriel asked irritably. “I need to know where Rose is. Is she well?”

Jackson looked at him askance. “I guess as well as you can expect, after a 20-year coma. And a hell of a long fall before that,” he added.

Gabriel winced. “I know. I was the one who found her, and called Emergency Response. I was told she didn’t make it.”

That’s gotta hurt. Typical Gregory, though. Morbid curiosity compelled him to ask, “Did Gregory know you were in love with Rose?”

“Oh, yes, he knew,” Gabriel replied bitterly. “Worse, he knew she was in love with me. He didn’t understand, though, that we would never jeopardize the project. He was concerned the gene pool had been contaminated, but we never – it was purely emotional. We never physically expressed our feelings.”

“And Gregory was jealous? Of that?” Jackson asked incredulously. “Why? If he didn’t love her –“

”He didn’t,” Gabriel insisted, “but he still felt very possessive of her. I believe he saw her as something else he owned, like the Institute, or this island.”

Capa interrupted. “He didn’t want her, but he didn’t want anyone else to have her?” he surmised.

“Not exactly. He wouldn’t believe us that nothing had happened, or would happen, to interfere with his genetic engineering. This place didn’t always have constant surveillance in every corner. Rather like locking the barn after the horses have gotten out,” Gabriel observed. More quietly, he added, “I still don’t know if she jumped from that window, or was pushed.”

Jackson cleared his throat. “From something I overheard Gregory say to her, when he thought no one else was listening, he’s convinced she jumped. And ruined his plans,” he added.

“So she jumped, and you found her?” Capa asked.

“Yes.” Gabriel swallowed and blinked rapidly, then continued. “Maybe Gregory was angry she hadn’t finished the job, or that I called for help. He told me she died before she could get to the hospital wing. Very soon after that I had my ‘accident.’”

“I always wondered about that,” Capa mused. “You never said very much about it, just to be careful not to cross Gregory.”

“What kind of accident was it?” Jackson asked, intrigued now, despite his own anger and confusion.

Gabriel explained matter-of-factly, “The kind where Gregory’s goons broke my knees. The cover story was that I fell down some stairs. It took a long while before I was out of that wheelchair, but of course, I received enough physical care that I was still able to work during most of that time.” Gabriel’s voice was bitter, and the look of hatred on his face made Jackson blanch. “I just have a bit of a limp now, but then, I’ve had a long time to recuperate.”

“And all this time my mother was right here, and none of us knew it?” Capa asked plaintively.

“You know how Gregory likes to play games with his secrets,” Jackson spat. “I’m sure he got quite a charge out of all this.” He shook his head. “I need to talk to Lisa. I’ve got to tell her about this.”

“I think Lisa is the least of your concerns right now,” Capa said firmly. “I’m sure you’ve got a lot of other things to do.”

“But what about Rose?” Gabriel insisted. “I have to see her!”

“I’ll take you to see her, Dr. Knight,” Jackson promised, “as soon as I can. Or maybe somebody else can escort you, I don’t know.”

Capa shook his head.

“We’re not allowed out of the science wing.”

“Not allowed?” Jackson repeated. “Not ever?” Even for Gregory, it sounded like a bizarre restriction.

“No. Unless things have changed – “

Jackson closed his eyes and counted to ten. “Some things have changed, yes. Let me talk to Lisa, for just a few minutes, then I’ll take Dr. Knight to see...Rose. They just sent Kitten and me away, because they don’t want to exhaust her with visitors. But maybe they’ll make an exception.”

Gabriel closed his eyes and bit his lip. “No, you’re right. I’m being selfish. Her health is much more important than anything else. I just hope she realizes I didn’t visit her because I couldn’t, not because my feelings had changed.”

“I think Gregory made a habit of talking to her, about all kinds of things. If he didn’t say anything, she probably guessed he was keeping you from her.” Jackson didn’t know why he was wasting time trying to console a man he barely knew, when he had his own problems, but it nagged at him that he would probably be going crazy if someone had told him Lisa was dead, and kept her from him for twenty years. The thought was unbearable.

“Let me see if Lisa can talk to you for a few minutes,” Capa offered. “Gabriel, will you please go in and ask her to come out here? You can keep Cillian company while she’s gone.”

Jackson rolled his eyes. “Don’t tell me he’s as bad as Darren.”

Capa shrugged. “He is Darren, partly. And he’s got some of your...passion...for Lisa. So don’t judge him too harshly, if you don’t want to take a good, hard look at your own behavior.”

“What right have you got –“ Jackson shut his mouth. “Just let me talk to her.”

“Very gracious of you,” Capa observed dryly.

In less than a minute Lisa was sitting on a stool at one of the pristine white counters, listening to his story. He could tell she was trying to be patient, but she had that fake smile, like the one she used on “guests with special needs.” In other words, royal pains.

“I’m happy for you, Jackson,” she finally interrupted, “but happier for Kitten and your other siblings who have more parental affection than you. I’m a little distracted now, so I can’t really talk, or listen. I’ve got important things to do. But this way you’ll have plenty of time with your mother, to get to know her.”

Jackson was stunned that Lisa wasn’t more excited for him. She was brusque, almost cold. And very definitely distracted.

“But Lisa, this is important to me!” He stood up, and tried to intimidate her with his height.

“I’m sure it is,” she responded coolly, not looking the least bit threatened, “but I’m busy, and I’d appreciate it if you’d leave me alone and let me do my work in peace.”

He was so taken aback he was half-way out the door before he shook off Capa’s rather insistent arm.

“Fine, I’m going. I just thought you’d want to know.”

Lisa’s expression softened just a bit. “Thank you for telling me. I really am happy about it. But you need to go now. You’re upsetting Cillian.”

Jackson glared at the clone, who was now standing at Lisa’s side, and looked equally annoyed to see him.

“What’s he doing here?” Cillian managed a good imitation of Jonathan at his most contemptuous.

“He was just leaving,” Lisa informed him.

She turned and led Cillian back to his living quarters while Jackson watched in stunned disbelief.

She’s mine, damn it!

“Don’t take it too hard,” Capa sympathized. “She’s got a lot of responsibility right now, and Cillian is at a very delicate stage. I’m sure you know how seriously she takes her work.”

“Yeah, I know that,” Jackson snapped.

“Hurts when the shoe is on the other foot, doesn’t it? Now please, don’t come back up here without giving us some warning.” The look Capa gave him would probably have been intimidating to most people, but Jackson maintained his dignity.

He wondered how, and when, he’d lost control of this situation. He didn’t have to put up with this kind of treatment; he had better things to do with his time, if he wasn’t wanted. He hadn’t yet checked out Gregory’s computer.

<><><><><><><><>

The marathon was almost over, and its audience had dwindled to just a faithful few. When “Matrix Revolutions” was over and Jon brought the lights up, he saw the theater was practically empty. Besides himself, Darren, Adam, Sara, Rachel and Cristina were the only ones left.

“Where’d everybody go?”

Sara and Cristina exchanged uneasy glances.

“Yeah, where’d you go earlier? You guys couldn’t have been in the bathroom that long,” Adam complained.

“Sorry. If I told you, I’d have to kill you.” Cristina looked like that prospect wouldn’t upset her a bit.

“Everybody says that around here,” Adam sighed. “But nobody means it, right?”

Darren snorted. “If Jackson says it, believe him! He’s a stone-cold killer, my brudder.”

“Quiet!” Jon hissed. “He’s just kidding, ladies.” Now’s not the time to tell potential girlfriends those kind of family secrets. He willed Darren to pick up on his thoughts.

“No, I think everyone around here means it,” Cristina argued. “Lots of top-secret stuff going on here. Ow!” She turned to Sara. “What? What did I say?”

Sara turned her attention back to the boys. “Hey, awesome movies! Thanks again, guys, for inviting us! I’m sorry we had to be rude and leave, but it was job-related stuff.”

“That you can’t tell us about, right,” Darren finished for her. “Okay.”

“Hey, is anyone else starving?” Adam asked. “I could sure go for some pizza right about now. We can order from –“

”No, we can’t,” Cristina sighed.

“Aw, that’s right!"

“Besides, they don’t make it right here,” Cristina continued.

“That’s for sure,” Rachel muttered.

“They try,” Sara insisted.

“Let’s stick with the frozen ones,” Jon suggested. “Let’s see what else we got.” On the bright side, there’s no competition from George, or – hm, not exactly competition, maybe, but we do get the girls to ourselves.

“Lisa had to work too?” Darren asked, his disappointment evident. “I miss her.”

“Dunno.” Adam shrugged. “Probably. Your dad doesn’t seem to respect the weekends, yo.”

“Doesn’t respect nobody’s feelin’s or their plans,” Darren added.

Jon didn’t want to spoil the mood, so he changed the subject to a less annoying distraction. “So, the fight scenes were pretty awesome, huh? I guess Keanu didn’t do too bad.”

“Didn’t do too bad?” Cristina echoed. “What do you mean? What moves! Damn, he’s hot!!”

Immediately, there were a chorus of female voices all singing Keanu’s praises.

Oops, bad choice of distraction! “Anybody want to help me heat up the pizzas?” He waited in vain for a female volunteer. Or any volunteer.

“Okay, I’ll do it,” he finally concluded. “Adam, find some decent music, okay? We can listen to somethin’ while we eat.”

He’d hoped for something a trifle more romantic than the White Stripes, but he supposed it could have been worse. He could have let Darren choose.

<><><><><><><><>

Jim checked Jackson’s apartment, since he was the most likely to know security-related doings, but he wasn’t there. On the off chance he’d be at the movie, he went to Jon and Darren’s apartment.

Under normal circumstances he might have invited himself to eat with them, as his brothers and their companions seemed to be having fun. None of them appeared to be worried about anything.

“Sorry to interrupt, but I’m looking for Jackson.”

“Haven’t seen him lately,” Darren offered. “He’s been in and out. I think there’s somethin’ going on, but he won’t tell us.”

“Big surprise,” Jim sighed. He wondered why two of the ladies were looking covertly at each other. He tried to recall if either of them worked in Psych.

“He seems awfully busy today.” Jon scowled and began tearing his napkin to shreds. “Said he and Lisa were gonna watch the movies with us, but he’s hardly been here. George took off, too, and Lisa went somewhere with Jackson.”

Jim rolled his eyes, then stifled the comment he was about to make. “So, um, anyone heard anything interesting lately?”

Adam looked up. “Interesting how? Is somethin’ going on that no one’s telling us?”

“There’s always something going on no one’s telling us,” Jim replied. “Never mind.”

“I, um, saw Mr. Rippner a little while ago,” Sara offered hesitantly. “Ow!” She looked at Cristina, who was glaring at her. “Never mind. I don’t know where he went.”

Jim stifled the urge to throttle the lot of them until they told him something.

“Okay, you guys have a good time. See you later, yeah?”

“Sure,” Adam agreed.

Jim didn’t pay attention to the various responses, but strode out as quickly as he could, to find some kind of answer.

[stormy]

CHAPTER 96

Kitten was tired of being left out of the loop. No one told her anything unless they absolutely had to. It simply wasn’t fair. She wasn’t stupid, or as naive as people liked to think. Just because she preferred to try to look on the bright side of things didn’t mean she wasn’t aware of the darkness. She just preferred having at least a candle with her at all times.

She wanted desperately to talk to Matt, but she’d have to wait till he came home. It was more important that he take care of Alice – Rose – her mother. Her mother. After all these years of wondering, searching, thinking she’d found her, then being told it was all a lie. Gregory had refused to answer any of her questions, as though her mother was were the least important thing in the world. His world, at any rate. Or maybe it was just one of his sadistic games, to keep from her the information she’d most like to possess.

Now she recognized that her “promotion” and “compassionate caretaking” was just another way Gregory had found to hurt her. He had to be aware of the irony, it had to be deliberate. She didn’t like to think anyone could be that cruel, but some people just were. Not for the first time, she wondered what made him this way, what horrendous things he might have endured that made him hate everyone so much. It was probably one more question for which she’d never have an answer.

Everyone kept things from her. Matt couldn’t talk about his job; Lisa couldn’t tell her anything about her new job, or her new boss. She’d been told as little as possible in order to do her own job. Even George had become more secretive, though she hoped it was because he was trying to protect her, if he suspected Alice’s identity. Much better to think that than to worry that he was just one more cog in this vast conspiracy. The only one who told her some details, occasionally, about what he did, was Jackson. How ironic, when he was one of the people most likely to enforce the “don’t ask questions, don’t gossip, don’t get involved” rules. She believed him that he’d just learned the truth about Rose.

Why did Gregory have to be so damned secretive about everything, aside from it being some kind of cruel joke? Why was he so incredibly paranoid? Was he even capable of trusting anyone, loving anyone? For that matter, had he ever trusted, or loved, Rose? Kitten felt such pity for Rose, not only for losing so much of her life in a half-aware sleep, but for possibly enduring a marriage to a man who didn’t love her.

Once again, Kitten felt blessed that Matt had come into her life. He was just the sort of man she needed, and wanted. Best of all, he loved her, he truly did. He sometimes brought her flowers, or sweeties, for no reason at all. She hadn’t ever had to ask him if he would, he just did it because he wanted to. She understood why he couldn’t give her a puppy; Gregory didn’t tolerate any animals inside the Institute, other than the poor things that were experimented on in the science department. She’d only learned of that, she suspected, because Gregory knew how much it would upset her to hear about it.

If it weren’t for Matt, she didn’t know how she’d cope. He’d been the first real friend she’d had there. From the first time they met, when he had to examine her in his professional capacity, he’d been kind and nonjudgmental. She hadn’t had to explain, he’d just accepted that she was who she was. She suspected he very much wanted to be who he really was, but circumstances on the island wouldn’t quite allow it. Something in his past had scared him, really scarred him internally. Maybe someday he’d feel free enough to come out from behind his fear and let her see his real self.

For that matter, she wished everyone in her family could be their true selves, instead of always hiding behind masks of some kind. She shuddered to think about the literal mask Jonathan liked to hide behind. Now he’d probably have to hide behind a different kind of mask until his face could be healed, if it ever could. Rose was another one who’d had to hide, for years. Did she know, had she seen, what her face looked like? No doubt she’d been beautiful once, before her face had forcefully met the ground. Would she, too, want a mask of some sort, or would she insist others accept her exactly the way she was? Kitten wondered if she, herself, would be brave enough to wear her own face if it were so badly damaged. She shied away from the thought. It was pointless to dwell on such things. Much more important, really, to think about all the things she wanted to say to her mother, now that she had the chance. As soon as Rose had enough strength to accept a lengthy visit, that is. Hopefully they’d have many such visits, and could get caught up on all sorts of things. Kitten felt on the verge of being accepted, completely, by the person she most needed acceptance from. Rose would never reject her, or tell her she had to change, and be someone else. Try to be Patrick, for example. Patrick was all right, but rather boring, compared to her glorious Kitten-self.

Hopefully Rose would be able to find her own inner beauty, and use it to project past the outward appearance, so her family and everyone else could see her for the wonderful, kind, nurturing person she really was. If there was anything Kitten could do to aid in that transformation, she would do it – but really, it would be Rose’s journey to take, wouldn’t it? Kitten sighed. Life on the island was so very complicated, much more so than it really had to be. Maybe someday things would all settle down and they could really be the family they should be, the family she wanted.

<><><><><><><><>

Jonathan still didn’t understand why Jackson had visited him, or why he hadn’t killed him when he’d not only had the opportunity, but a direct order to do so. None of it made sense. Well, except for the part about him being expendable. There was a time he’d have laughed at the notion that his father could callously order his execution, that the old man wouldn’t need his brilliant mind and well-honed pharmaceutical skills, but now he knew better. Although Gregory demanded loyalty from all of his subjects, not least his sons, he didn’t feel compelled to give any in return.

So it was no surprise that his father now viewed him as an unfortunate inconvenience, but, wonder of wonders, Jackson apparently felt he was worth more alive than dead. Or at least, he didn’t want to be the instrument of Jonathan’s demise. Could it have been genuine guilt, when he saw the extent of the damage he’d inflicted? Jonathan considered himself an excellent judge of human nature, but Jackson hardly qualified as human, so he was hard to read. He pretended like he cared about some people, and maybe they bought it. Maybe he even believed it himself. Jonathan knew the truth, however. He recognized a fellow sociopath when he saw one. Neither of them were quite as bad as Gregory, perhaps, but it seemed like pragmatic Jackson had begun to develop something like a conscience. No doubt prompted by Lisa, but she hadn’t been there in the room with them, when Jackson had refused to kill him.

Now, had Gregory asked Lisa to kill him, that might have ended differently. In fact, he’d probably be too dead to even be thinking how intriguing it all was. He half expected Scarecrow to come up with some scathing remark, but there was no dark, hollow voice annoying him at the moment. Where does Scarecrow go when he’s not annoying me? Is he asleep, or what? I know it wasn’t anything I did. I haven’t been able to force him out for a while. He mentally shrugged, since physically doing so would have hurt. He figured he might as well enjoy the peace and quiet while he could.

<><><><><><><><>

Lisa wondered when things would slow down and life would go back to normal. As normal as it could get on the island, anyway. Capa and Gabriel were discussing God knew what, while she was babysitting Cillian. Well, he wasn’t a baby, but he was one very confused man. She’d thought Darren was clingy...

They had decided the rest of the family would have to wait a while to meet Cillian. He hadn’t reacted well to Jackson, and Lisa thought he might find his new “family” a bit overwhelming. She certainly found them a bit much, at times.

Cillian was talking excitedly, but she was having trouble keeping up with him. He not only switched subjects frequently, but also personas. Sometimes she could recognize them, but not always. The worst were the arguments.

“Jonathan” seemed to provoke the rest, and most of them wanted “Darren” to shut up, as they couldn’t understand him. “Jackson” wanted to take over, not surprisingly, but that wasn’t a popular idea with the rest of them. It was exhausting just listening to him, and she suspected it was even worse for Cillian himself.

“But I want to see everything! Gee, what a shame. You’re stuck here. It’s not so bad here, is it? Let’s just wait here for a while till we’re all calmer. At least Lisa is with us. Right, so don’t confuse her or scare her.”

That last one was definitely Jackson. Lisa wasn’t surprised to find that she was getting a headache.

“What’s the matter, Lisa? Are you in pain?”

She smiled at Cillian. His concern pleasedher. “Just a little headache. Don’t worry about it. I’ve just got a lot of things on my mind.” She giggled as she added, “But then, so do you.”

“Yeah. It’s kinda noisy in here.”

Lisa knew he wasn’t talking about the apartment.

Someone knocked on the door. Lisa assumed it wasn’t Jackson; at this point, he probably wouldn’t bother to knock. She was relieved to see Capa.

“How are things going?”

She wasn’t sure if he was addressing her or Cillian, so she waited to respond.

“Okay, I guess,” Cillian shrugged. He gestured with his free hand. “Just kinda restless. I want to see what’s going on out there. But I know I have to wait. But I want to get out of here!”

Capa shook his head. “I’m sorry, Cillian, but we need to give you a little time to get acclimated. I don’t want you to feel like a prisoner here, but I must insist you stay a while longer.”

Cillian’s free hand tightened into a fist. She could feel the tension in his body.

“Please, Cillian,” she said soothingly. “We want what’s best for you. You’ve got a lot to adjust to, and things out there –“ She gestured at the door. “This island isn’t the most calm, serene place on it’s best day. Can you just take it easy for a little bit, and give yourself time to acclimate?”

“Sure, Lisa, I understand. Why should I wait any longer? I’ve missed out on my entire life so far! Shut up, idiot, there’ll be plenty of time to catch up with things. Lisa’s right. Please, everyone calm down. Can’t we all just get along?”

Lisa felt as though there were a ping-pong match going on inside Cillian’s head, with several players. She was glad she didn’t have to listen to his interior dialog. To make it worse, there were several accents to contend with, and even sitting right next to him, she had trouble hearing the softest voice; that was the one that sounded like Kitten. She sighed quietly. It was going to be a long few days, or week, or – She wouldn’t let herself think it could possibly be longer. Cillian wouldn’t need a babysitter much longer...would he?

<><><><><><><><>

After a couple of aggravating hours trying to locate his brother, Jim gave up and just settled on the floor outside Jackson’s apartment. Sooner or later he's got to come home, right? He’d called the intercom a few times, but there was no answer. Lisa wasn’t home either, but if she came home first, at least she’d let him come inside and wait in comparative comfort. He’d almost fallen asleep when he heard sharp, fast footsteps approach. Jim sat up straighter and rubbed his eyes, trying to look and feel alert.

“What he hell are you doing here?” was the friendly greeting he got from his wayward sibling.

“Hullo to you, too,” Jim answered. “Waiting for you, obviously. Where’ve you been?”

“Can’t tell you.” The response seemed automatic. Jim enjoyed the comical look of confusion on Jackson’s face. “Huh, actually, I can. Come on in.”

Intrigued now, Jim glanced around the apartment. It seemed much larger than it had when Darren was there, but maybe part of that was because the tent was gone. There was now actually space to walk around the living room without tripping over either a tent or a sprawled teenager.

“Are you and Lisa enjoying havin’ the place to yourselves?” he asked, wondering how he and Selena could possibly have survived a Darren-invasion.

“Yeah, sure.” Again, the response sounded automatic. Jackson was definitely distracted.

Jim settled onto the couch. Jackson brought him an open bottle of beer without asking if he wanted one, then sat on the chair nearest him.

“Thanks.” Jim took the offered bottle, and had a long draught, giving himself a moment to savor the taste before he got distracted. He looked at Jackson, who had a bottle in front of him, but hadn’t drunk from it.

Jim peered suspiciously into his own bottle.

“There’s nothing in here, is there?”

Jackson grinned weakly. “Nah, that’s Jonathan’s trick.” He seemed to notice his own bottle for the first time. He took a quick swallow, then stood up again. “Be right back.” He disappeared into the bathroom.

Jim waited as patiently as he could. When Jackson reappeared, he looked more purposeful and focused, but a telltale hand rubbing his temple gave him away.

“‘Nother headache, or the same one?” His voice wasn’t without sympathy, but he couldn’t help but be wary.

“Same one,” Jackson replied shortly. “So, what’s this rumor you heard?” He sounded relaxed and casual, but Jim knew better.

“Just a sec. You still taking those pain pills?”

“Yeah.” Jackson drank more beer. “Your point?” he asked after a pointed silence.

“Just thinkin’ they don’t seem to be doin’ you much good.”

“Better than not taking anything.” Jackson’s answer was tinged with impatience. “Now what was so important?”

Jim sighed and tried to make himself more comfortable. His neck was sore from falling asleep while sitting upright. He’d rather suffer in silence than ask Jackson for a pain pill, however. He wasn’t sure he wanted to see the reaction.

“Okay. A few hours ago I was outside, minding my own business in the garden. Couple of the guards were talking nearby, and I don’t think they knew I could hear them.” He repeated what they’d said. He watched Jackson’s jaw tighten.

“So, is it a rumor?”

To his shock, he received an answer. “No, it’s true. Gregory’s being evaluated by Dr. Fairfield. Somehow, I don’t think the good doctor is going to find him sane and safe to be around others.”

Jim rolled his eyes. “No sh*t. Took long enough for someone to do somethin’ about it.”

Jackson didn’t meet his gaze, but looked into the bottom of his empty bottle. “Yeah, it did.”

Jim let him sort through what he wanted to say.

“Okay, here’s the thing,” Jackson finally began. “Gregory’s getting even more dangerous than he has been. I’ve overheard some things that really scared me.”

This admission really startled Jim. He wondered what Gregory had come up with that was enough to scare Jackson.

“I can’t tell you everything yet. I’m still trying to figure out what’s safe to tell you, or the others.”

Jim was getting tired of being patronized.

“I’m not a kid, you know. Have you taken over Gregory’s role of deciding who gets to know what?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m doing. Just in case he does get out in the next few days, I don’t want to expose you or anyone else to information that might be dangerous for you.”

Jim started picking the label off the bottle as he tried to control his temper. “So who made you God’s right-hand man while the big guy is busy?”

Jackson almost choked on a laugh. “God’s own lawyer, as a matter of fact. Believe me, it’s not something I really want to do, but no one else knows enough about what’s going on. It wouldn’t be safe. I’m not on some kind of power trip.”

It sounded to Jim like he was trying to convince himself of that. Any way you looked at it, it wasn’t an answer that filled him with happiness or a sense of calm.

“You’re higher up the Security food chain than any of us,” Jim conceded, “and you seem to know more of Gregory’s secrets.”

Jackson hesitated, then told him part of the truth. “More than I’d like to know, believe me. I was just recently put in charge of Family Security. There’s some things I wish I could tell you. It would be nice to get another opinion. But until I know more myself, I need to wait.”

Jim was about to object that he was quite capable of stating his own opinions, he looked at Jackson’s face again. This time his brother was staring at him intensely, and the look made Jim very nervous.

“I need to talk to you about one thing, though. I was going through Gregory’s computer, and I found some really disturbing stuff.”

“I’ll bet.” Jim wondered at the nature of things Jackson would find disturbing. Then the rest of the words hit him. “Hold on. You hacked into Gregory’s computer?” He had no interest in the hateful things himself, but had some idea how difficult that might be.

“No.” Jackson shook his head. He had a devilish gleam in his eye that made him look like almost Darren’s age. “Check it out.” He reached inside his shirt collar and pulled out a key card, threaded onto a thin silver chain.

Jim stared in fascination at the card, which was clearly different from his own.

“Is that what I think it is?” He was startled by the awe in his own voice. If it’s what I think, Jackson is the last person who should have it. No, Jonathan would be worse. Or Darren. Or – Well, maybe he’s really the best person to have it. But if it’s actually –

“Override key,” Jackson explained quietly.

Jim’s heard sped up. If I had that key, I could go anywhere on this island. I could open any door, check out –

“There’s a slot in Gregory’s computer for this card. Without it, everything is locked down. But I was able to get in, and –“

”Wait, the computer in his office?”

“Yes,” Jackson confirmed. “I haven’t had time to check out his home computer yet. He’s got to have one,” he added.

“That key would let you into Gregory’s apartment. Never been there, have you?”

Jackson shook his head. “Don’t know anyone who has.” He stood up abruptly. “Want another beer?”

Tempting as it was, Jim wanted to keep his head clear. “Naw. Thanks. Wonder what’s in there?”

“I’m not sure I want to know,” Jackson answered. “But I’ll probably have to take a look, just to make sure there’s nothing we ought to know about.”

“Yeah, like our mother’s body bricked into the wall or something,” Jim added morbidly.

Jackson whirled around, almost tripping in the process. “What? No, nothing like that.”

“You seem awfully certain,” Jim observed cautiously.

Suddenly that mask was back in place, the one Jackson wore when he was being particularly sneaky. “He doesn’t seem like the type, does he?”

“No.” Jim sighed, and settled back onto the comfortable couch. “But God knows where else he might have up there.” He looked wistfully at the key again.

Jackson shook his head, as if trying to clear it from a distraction, and put the key back inside his shirt. “It’s bad enough the stuff I already know about. Not sure how much more I can handle. But the thing I found that you can maybe help me with –“

Jim leaned forward again eagerly. “Yeah?”

Jackson slowly exhaled. “How much do you know about viruses and biological weapons?”

Jim had been waiting for this question ever since he woke up.

“I know some of ‘em are highly contagious, and deadly,” he offered. He hesitated to add, “What I saw – experienced – I can’t begin to describe how dangerous something like that can be, that Rage virus.”

“Rage? What, exactly, did it do? And what were the symptoms?”

Jackson seemed to be ready to really listen.

Jim did his best to explain the rage virus. “They were doing research on aggression, I guess trying to determine how to trigger it. Dunno all the details of what they did, the scientists, but what I saw, and Selena told me – “ He sighed, and started over.

“Selena doesn’t remember any of this, and I don’t think she really believes me. What I remember happening, when you all insist I was in a coma, was meeting Selena when some of the Infected tried to attack me. She wasn’t the same as she is now. The Selena you know is pretty calm and tranquil compared to this warrior-woman I knew.” Jim laughed as he recalled some of the things Selena had said and done, horrifying as they’d seemed at the time. “Anyway, she told me a little of how the disease spread. They had news on the telly, for a while. It was all over England, and she said they’d heard it had spread to the States, and maybe other continents. Dunno if that’s true or not.”

He could see Jackson was getting a little impatient. He tried to answer the questions more directly.

“Thing is, this was a blood-borne virus, yeah? So it spread really easily, if any infected blood got into you in any way. Even a drop in your mouth, or eye –“ He stopped and blinked, and tried to force the lump in his throat to go back where it came from. “Just that little exposure could infect you. That’s all it took. You had 20 seconds, if you saw someone get infected, to kill them. After that, they were as likely to kill you as spit at you. And that’s all it would take, really. But imagine someone on something like PCP, or crazed out of their mind, with all this extra adrenaline, and all they want to do is tear you apart, just for being there.” He took a deep breath and continued.

“Selena killed this guy she’d been with when I first met her. I barely got to know him, but he seemed a decent enough bloke. Just a little scratch on his arm when some of them tried to get into the house, and she had to – “ He choked back bile. He really didn’t want to think of Selena like this. “She had to kill him, and it was horrible. She had to keep hitting him with this machete –“ He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. He heard Jackson get up and walk away.

His eyes snapped open and he started to ask what the hell Jackson’s problem was, but he saw his brother was bringing him a bottle of water. He took the bottle in a shaking hand, but couldn’t drink until his throat cleared a bit. He was grateful Jackson was being so patient.

After a few minutes he drank about half the bottle, then continued. “Then there was this guy we got to know, who was a friend, and kinda like a father, you know?” Jackson didn’t respond, and he continued, recalling Jackson had no good reasons to see this as a good thing. “Kinda guy you’d want for a dad,” he tried to explain. “Had a girl, young teenager. Hannah.” He blinked again, but reminded himself he had to stay calm. It was important Jackson understand the nature of this virus.

“Anyway, Frank got just a little bit of blood in his eye, somehow. Didn’t see it happen. He knew what it meant, and he really tried to warn us to stay away. He realized we’d have to kill him. I was going to do it, if I had to, but someone else shot him first.” He decided to leave the rest of the story for another time. “Once this stuff gets in your system, in your blood, it turns you into something like a zombie, like the walking dead. Seemed like the Infected had no real reasoning left, you know? Understood just the bare basics to keep functioning, it seemed.”

Now for the most difficult part of it. He kept his voice as calm and steady as he could.

“Why do you want to know?”

[punctuator]

“Once this stuff gets in your system, in your blood, it turns you into something like a zombie, like the walking dead. Seemed like the Infected had no real reasoning left, you know? Understood just the bare basics to keep functioning, it seemed.”

Wow-- uh, that's really scary. Actually, it sounds like any given day here in Cubeland. Me, I was under the impression that the rage virus-- oh, I dunno-- left people all insane with agony and fury and stuff while they hemorrhaged internally and vomited blood. "Like the walking dead": yep, something that'd make people walk would make for a hell of a scary biological weapon. Man, if they ever amp it up to "ambling," we'll be in for it. Oh, well....

[stormy]

Perhaps you missed this part, a couple of paragraphs earlier:

“Just that little exposure could infect you. That’s all it took. You had 20 seconds, if you saw someone get infected, to kill them. After that, they were as likely to kill you as spit at you. And that’s all it would take, really. But imagine someone on something like PCP, or crazed out of their mind, with all this extra adrenaline, and all they want to do is tear you apart, just for being there.”

[stormy]

CHAPTER 97

Jackson didn’t know for certain why he was asking Jim. A more logical person would be Capa, or Matt. Even Jonathan. If he could talk, that is. Someone who knew science or medicine would be a more logical choice. But there were Jim’s crazy ravings to consider, though maybe they weren’t so crazy after all.

“I think Gregory might have something equally nasty,” Jackson began. “I have no idea how many chemical weapons he’s got, what Jonathan or other researchers have come up with. I just know there are too many places in the Science and R&D areas where you can’t go because of HAZMAT or radioactive warnings. Maybe they’re just meant to keep people out.”

Jackson didn’t want to think about it, but he had to. “Gregory’s got hundreds of files on his office computer, and most of them have really cryptic names. I’m not sure I even trust the ones that seem to be more obvious, like, “Personnel” or “Family Issues.” In fact, I really should take a closer look at that one, as soon as I have time.” He looked at his watch, and wondered if Lisa would be coming home at all that night. Didn’t matter. He probably wouldn’t be getting any sleep, and wouldn’t have time to talk to her. But it would be comforting to know she was there.

Jim was leaning forward, listening intently. “I’m not as concerned about that one as the viruses. That’s something that could hurt, or kill, a lot more people. I’m not as worried about our little family as I am the rest of the world. Something tells me we’re safer here than everyone else is if Gregory has any plans to – “ He stopped and considered his own words. “Do you have any idea if there is anything out there that Gregory did release?”

Jackson shook his head. “I have no idea. All I can say is I haven’t heard anything about any kind of illness or quarantine that seems to be man-made. There’s nothing that’s been devastating entire populations, or anything like that.”

“Hm. When was the last time you left the island?”

“When I brought Darren back.”

“That was, what, about six weeks ago?”

“Something like that, yeah.”

Jim shifted restlessly. “Even if nothing got out before... D’you know if anyone else has left the island?”

That gave Jackson pause. He hadn’t heard about it, and normally he would have, but if someone had gone on some secret mission for Gregory, he might well have been kept out of the loop.

“I don’t know for sure. I’ll see what I can find out. It’ll take me a while to go through all the files. I’m not sure who else I can trust to check them out.” Maybe Capa, but I have a feeling he’s going to be busy for a while. It bothered him that he couldn’t tell Jim, “Oh, by the way, we have another brother. And our mother’s alive, how ‘bout that? Not well, but alive. There’s also a clone, of me, that Lisa’s babysitting. And how’s your day going?” He wanted to confide in someone. Lisa and Capa knew, and that Dr. Knight, who he still didn’t trust, but they were all preoccupied with his clone. He shied away from thoughts of just how preoccupied Lisa might be.

He shook his head to try to clear it of so many distracting thoughts, and unconsciously rubbed his head. Maybe Kitten was right, all this tension wasn’t helping his headache.

He saw Jim was getting more impatient by the second.

“I don’t know anything about computers. But there’s got to be something I can do!”

“Maybe there is,” Jackson offered. “I want to talk to one of the doctors, and at least one of the research scientists here, and have them start looking into exactly what’s going on in the R&D area.”

“What’s that mean? R&D?”

Jackson rolled his eyes, but realized Jim might not have had a reason to know. “Research and Development. Sounds harmless enough, doesn’t it? But it covers a lot of ground. I don’t know how cooperative the staff are going to be, or how much brainwashing they’ve had.”

“We have to start checking it out now!” Jim stood up and began pacing. “Who knows what’s going on that we don’t know about?”

Jackson wished he’d paid more attention when his father had tried to talk to him about his research. “I do know Gregory said some of the things they’re developing are illegal in some parts of the world. I’m guessing some of them are illegal everywhere.”

“But what about – Do we have any idea what Gregory’s politics are? I mean, whose side is he on?”

“What do you mean, side? He’s not allied with anybody, that I know of, any specific government or country, though I think he deals a lot with the U.S. and Europe in terms of medical developments and vaccines and –“

”Oh, sh*te! Who knows if he’s helping people, or hurting them?”

“Or experimenting?” Jackson put his head in his hands a few moments as he thought of some of the implications, but it really didn’t help. “I know a lot of what Jonathan does is really irregular, in terms of psychiatric care. I know for a fact he experiments with his patients, and –“ He bit off the word “us.” No sense giving Jim even more cause for panic. “I don’t know about the medical staff at the hospital.”

Jim had gone pale. “Matt told us some things – he didn’t want to, but Kitten was asking some questions one night when they had dinner with us, about me and Selena getting married, and having kids.”

“Gregory doesn’t approve of children,” Jackson interrupted. “He does his best to see there aren’t any here to distract anyone.”

“Do you know how far he goes? Matt told us.” Jim’s hands tightened into fists, resting on his knees.

Jackson couldn’t meet his eyes. “Yeah, I know. It didn’t bother me a lot at first. But if he’s interfering with people’s lives that much –“

”Who knows what else he’s done?” Jim interrupted. “And if he doesn’t give a rat’s arse about anyone here, how safe is the rest of the world going to be?”

Now Jackson was able to look at him straight on. “That’s why I want you to help find out what’s going on. You seem more concerned than anyone else about some kind of pandemic getting out. Whether they’re just dreams, or something else, you’re probably the one with the most experience with the potential disasters. Or at least you’re the most in tune with – “ He stopped and leaned back in his chair, exhausted. “I hardly know what I’m saying any more.”

“When was the last time you slept?” Jim asked in concern.

The question came out of left field, and Jackson had to think about it.

“Slept? I dunno. Last night, I think.”

“When was the last time you ate?”

“Uh – I had lunch with Kitten today.”

“But did you actually eat anything?” Jim persisted.

“Stop interrogating me!”

“Just answer the question!”

Jackson decided to humor him, if it would get the conversation back to more important topics.

“Not much. Why?”

Jim shrugged. “I’m worried about you. You look like hell. You might want to consider a good meal and a long night’s sleep before you do anything else.”

“I don’t have time for that!” Jackson snapped. “I’ve wasted too much time here as it is. I’ve got to go –“

”Yeah, you’ve got a million things to do. I can see that. Let me take over for you for a little. I’m not nearly as tired as you.”

“No. It’s not that I don’t trust you, Jim, but I can’t trust anybody, enough, right now.”

Jim sighed impatiently. “You can’t do it all on your own. Even at your best, you’re only one man, you know.”

He looked puzzled when Jackson started laughing. The problem was, Jackson wasn’t sure he could stop once he started. There was too much going on, and no real outlet for all the things he was thinking and feeling.

When he could breathe again, he choked out, “You’re right,” and then managed to pull himself together. “But I still have a lot of people to talk to. I’m trying to organize things so I do have people in place to help, that I can trust as much as possible. Then I’ll try and rest.”

“Maybe I can talk to some of them for you.”

“I’m not sure if they’ll listen to you. No offense, but you don’t have the authority around here that I do. Some of these people have to listen to me whether they want to or not. You, they’d tune out, or kick out of their office.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, brother.” Jim scowled balefully at him. “You haven’t inherited this place yet, you know.”

Jackson met his gaze evenly. “Not yet. But I am in charge, for the next –“ He looked at his watch. “Two-and-a-half days.”

Jim bit his lip. “Better the devil you know, I guess.”

“Gee, thanks, brother, for your vote of confidence.” He was too tired to be very insulted. “Listen, I’m going to need to talk to Matt. I’ll make sure he listens to you. And there’s someone else you might have to meet, but I might have to talk to him first.”

“Jackson, do you have any idea what you’re doing?”

Jim shook his head in denial of Jackson’s reaction. “It’s not an insult. I’m sure you’re a good manager. But I think this is a little beyond what you’re used to dealing with.”

“Oh, yeah. Plotting government takeovers is a piece of cake, compared to this.” He hoped Jim would realize he wasn’t just being sarcastic.

Jim looked shocked. “I hope that’s a joke.”

“It’s not.”

Jim stood up. “Then I guess you are the best man for the job. Let’s go talk to Matt and see what he can do.”

“Let me give him a call first and warn him we’re coming.”

Jim grinned. “Ah, yes. Old-fashioned custom. Some people still like it.”

<><><><><><><><>

Matt had finished his examination of Rose, and concluded she was in surprisingly good shape, all things considered. It was unlikely she’d ever be able to walk again, but with luck they might be able to get her into a wheelchair.

After leaving Selena to stay with Rose, in case she needed anything, Matt and George retired to George’s office to work out a plan.

“What do we do now?” George asked plaintively. “They didn’t cover this in med school.”

“What, dealing with a formerly comatose patient?” Matt asked in surprise.

“No, no, that’s not what I’m talking about. All this secrecy, and now going behind Mr. Dunbar’s back.”

Matt leaned back in his chair and thought for a few moments before he spoke. “You know, nothing about this job has been by the books. I mean, from the very beginning, since I started working here. I don’t like the way a lot of things are done, but there’s only so much you can do to try to change things. I think we’ve done something good here, and I honestly believe it’s benefiting Rose.”

“Oh, I’m not questioning that, sir, it’s just that I feel a little guilty about the whole thing.”

George’s intercom buzzed, and he answered it.

“Oh, Mr. Rippner, hi. Um, everything’s going pretty well with --“

”George, I don’t have time for an update. I’ve got to talk to Matt now. I’m bringing Jim with me. We can talk later about – other things.”

“Got it.”

“Stay there, I need to talk to both of you. Have someone stay with Rose, and keep the door closed. Get rid of anybody else.”

George really didn’t like being told what to do, especially in that tone of voice, but he supposed Jackson was actually his boss’s boss’s boss, so he’d better do as he was told.

“Yes, sir,” he said, conveying quite a bit of feeling in those two words. The connection was abruptly cut.

George leaned his elbows on his desk and put his head in his hands. “I’m doomed. I’m never going to survive here, with all these stupid secrets, and their stupid chain of command, and --”

“Get used to it.” Matt wasn’t as unsympathetic as he sounded, but George needed a reality check. “Things might have been a little more lax at your previous job, but this is the way most of the world operates. No matter how good you might be in your field, there’s always going to be somebody to tell you what to do.”

“Somebody’s ass to kiss, you mean,” George grumbled.

“In so many words, yes,” Matt sighed. “Just do your job, do your best to help your patients, and stay the hell out of the political side of things as you can. Believe me, there are some people you don’t want to cross. And even Gregory has to answer to somebody, sometime.”

“I guess.” George heaved a sigh of frustration. “But I’ll never be able to keep track of who knows what, and who’s not supposed to know Rose is Alice, and she’s awake, and she’s Gregory’s – blech, that poor woman!”

Matt studied his fingernails. “Maybe she loved him.”

George stared at him incredulously. “Really? I don’t see how she could.”

“Maybe there’s more to him than we’ve seen. Or, more likely, it’s more complicated than we’re ever going to know. It’s none of our business. We’re supposed to heal her body. Her spirit, and emotions, those are for other people to deal with.”

“Yeah, but you can’t just ignore people’s feelings!” George protested. “Where we used to work, we’d get kinda caught up in our patient’s lives, you know? Sometimes you have to know more than what’s in the chart in order to know how to treat someone.”

Matt kept his opinion to himself. From what he’d read in O’Malley’s file, and Stevens’ and Yang’s, for that matter, the hospital they’d worked at had been quite lax about protocol. Then again, he remembered how involved he’d gotten with some of his patients back in Trinity. Sometimes you just couldn’t keep your distance, if you thought there was anything you could do to help.

“I guess it’s a judgment call. You do what you have to in order to treat the patient physically, and hope to God you’re not doing anything that’s going to scar them emotionally. But this situation isn’t our problem, beyond seeing that Rose gets the best possible medical care. She’d got plenty of people besides Gregory to consider her emotional well-being.”

George blinked, and muttered something under his breath.

“Excuse me?” Matt wasn’t sure he’d heard what he thought.

“Sorry. I was just thinking about how this is going to affect everyone. You know how Kitten feels, better than I do, I’m sure.”

“Yes, I’ve been thinking about that,” Matt confessed. “I wish I could take the time to talk to her, or rather, listen, but it’ll just have to wait.”

“I hope they all see this as a good thing, that they’ll finally have the chance to meet their mother.”

They both thought about that in silence.

<><><><><><><><>

Rose contemplated the sudden turn her life had taken. She’d been struggling, for years, to come to full consciousness, but every time she came close, she saw those damned roses. Everywhere she looked, they were there, mocking her. Roses on the wallpaper, in the pictures, and freshly cut roses in the lovely pink vase she’d bought shortly before she married Gregory. He just had to let her know he was still there, still suspicious, just waiting for the opportunity to hurt her again. He was incapable of forgiving anyone for any type of mistake, let alone the horrendous sin he thought she and Gabriel had committed. What an idiot Gregory was. Neither she nor Gabriel were so stupid, nor so lust-driven, that they would have compromised the integrity of the experiment. They were content with what they could manage to have, rather than tormenting themselves about what they couldn’t.

She briefly allowed herself to imagine what life would be like if she’d married Gabriel instead, or if she were finally free from Gregory. Would Gabriel even want her any more? Could he still care? Or had he moved on, finding someone else he was free to love? She hoped he’d be willing to speak to her, even if it were only to say he no longer cared about her. But that wouldn’t happen. Gabriel wasn’t capable of cutting off his feelings the way Gregory did. Yes, that bastard did have feelings, or the vestige of feelings that he’d never allowed to fully develop. It was all too easy for him to separate his emotions from every other part of his being. She’d never quite mastered that trick, though she’d tried. She was grateful now that she’d never succeeded. If she’d lost the ability to love, to care, to appreciate beauty and joy, there would be no point in living, especially in a body she couldn’t control. She might be desperate enough to – well, yes, try again what she’d failed to do before.

There had to be a better, more effective, and more dignified way to do it. No doubt there were people at the Institute, even members of her family, who could suggest a better way. She never wanted to feel that desperate again, though, to have that desire to stop feeling anything. The only way she knew how to do that was to stop being, to cease to exist. Perhaps drugs or alcohol could have given her a temporary sense of anesthesia, but the pain would always be there when it wore off. That was the problem with emotional pain, it would persist until you confronted it and tried to deal with it. You could try to push it aside, ignore it, hide from it or numb yourself to its influence, but it would always be there, waiting, ready to confront you again when you were at your weakest.

She was tired of being weak, afraid, and helpless to command her body to do the simplest things. She would find a way to become strong again, whatever it took. These doctors and nurses seemed very nice and compassionate, as well as competent; perhaps they could help her find a way to make herself physically stronger. There were, supposedly, mental health professionals here as well, who could, in theory, help her recuperate emotionally and psychologically, but how would she know which ones she could trust? Gregory had effectively poisoned her mind against psychotherapy, certainly pharmaceutically-enhanced therapy. Him and his damned drugs, and his experiments... She’d had no idea, until he told her, how far he’d taken his desire to satisfy his curiosity about the ways in which people could exert control over one another. The Institute, as it had become, was nothing like what they had discussed when they’d first conceived it. From what Gregory said, it was now a travesty of what it could have been, what she’d hoped it could be. He’d effectively sabotaged that dream, along with so many others.

Then there were their children.... At first it seemed logical enough to go along with Gregory’s nature-vs-nurture theory, but as she lost one after another of her children to unknown parents, unknown situations, ot became harder to bear. At least she hadn’t had to put up with Gregory’s physical intrusion into her body. In vitro fertilization was, indeed, a blessing, as he’d so often observed. It was amusing to think he was as repulsed by her as she was by him. Now if she’d met Gabriel first, her life would have gone so differently. Maybe they’d never have come up with this grand plan, this genetic engineering breakthrough, but, good God, they might have actually had a chance to be happy.

Now, from the comfortable distance of hindsight, she could see what a fool she’d been, to listen to Gregory’s lies and believe them. To put her trust and faith in a man who didn’t have the faintest idea what those words truly meant. She might have had a chance at true happiness, or at least the pursuit of it, according to the laws under which she’d been raised. To Gregory, happiness was a myth people were better off dismissing, much the same as Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. Well, she hoped Gregory was satisfied with his cold, hard calculations, equations and empirical facts. He was welcome to them. At the moment she was more intrigued with exploring the idea of faith. Let Gregory have science, the whole of it; he was welcome to it. She wanted something more satisfying, something she could actually feel.

Although both Dr. Crower and Dr. O’Malley had told her to rest and relax as much as possible, she was tired of resting. She’d been doing nothing but that for the last twenty years. It was time to take a more active part in her life, rather than watching it pass her by. Or worse, sleeping through it, unaware of all the opportunities she’d missed. Perhaps she was being given a second chance. If so, she wasn’t going to dismiss it and wait for something better to come along. In her case, anything at all was actually something better than what she’d been experiencing.

With some effort, she could feel a smile tugging at her lips. She tried to remember what it felt like, what it had looked like. Perhaps that was a good place to begin.

<><><><><><><><>

When Jackson and Jim arrived, Jackson explained things as quickly as possible.

“Matt, I want you to talk to some people at R&D, and some of the scientists, and find out what they hell they’re doing there. Put Jim to work doing whatever he can to help. He’s got some really good ideas as to what Gregory may be brewing up.”

George was still shocked by what he’d heard. “But how can stuff like this happen? Isn’t this all illegal?”

Matt gave him a pitying look, and George flinched under the one Jackson sent him.

“I’m guessing you can authorize all this?” Matt asked, trying to sound casual.

“Yeah, he’s the boss of all of us right now,” Jim explained morosely.

Jackson held up the override key. “As long as Gregory’s away, I’m in charge.”

George bit his lip, hard.

“I’ll introduce you to some people, Matt, who might be able to help,” Jackson explained. “The scientist I’d trust the most is really busy right now, but we’ll see who he can recommend. I also want you to talk to Dr. Fairfield,” he continued, still looking at Matt, “and help him out any way you can. He might need medical advice, but I’m not sure.”

After very little debate between himself and Matt, George decided to keep Izzie and Sara on Rose’s case. He knew Cristina would enjoy the research more than Izzie. Besides, Rose needed someone with some warmth, and a good bedside manner. That let out Cristina.

“What about Selena?” Jim asked loudly. He didn’t want her to be left out of things.

“I think she should work with you,” Matt suggested tactfully, “if that’s okay with everybody.”

No one had any objection.

Jim gave them a huge grin. “Thanks, George! I think she’ll feel the same way about it that I do. We’ve got to do something.”

After a few more minutes of discussion and instructions, Jackson strode off on his next mission. George was relieved to see him go.

“Okay, Saruman is out of the picture, for now, but I think Gollum’s got the ring of power,” George sighed. “Have we got a Frodo here?”

Matt wisely kept his mouth shut, and Jim just chuckled. “Don’t look at me, mate, I’m too busy.”

He had one more instruction for George.

“That leaves one doctor and one nurse for Rose. I don’t think she’ll need round-the-clock care. I’d like to see her moved to the regular ward, soon. Once she’s had a little time to get used to things, she might not want to be so isolated.”

George agreed.

Matt clapped Jim on the back. “Let’s go. We’ve got a lot to do.” He hoped Dr. Fairfield would be easier to deal with than his predecessor.

<><><><><><><><>

Jackson was weary to the bone. He needed an accomplice, someone who could be trusted with some of the tasks he really didn’t want to handle. He knew who would be perfect for the assignment; the only problem would be deciding what was safe to say, and what would be wiser to keep to himself, for now.