I still don't own Bourne or anything associated with the movies or the books.
Ruth Webb was a strong woman. She'd given birth to three children, lost one to the horrors of the world, and buried her husband of thirty-five years. She'd been there to see all three of her children get married, and to welcome her five grandchildren into the world. She'd had a grandchild taken from the safe folds of their family, seen her safely returned.
She was a woman who believed in miracles, who had witnessed several. She dreamed and wished, hoped and prayed. And how she'd prayed, these last weeks, since seeing her son's face on the news. Her beloved David, her first-born. He'd been alive, all these years? Where had he been? Why hadn't he come home? The story on the news had been brief, but she'd heard enough.
Even as a boy, her David had lived by his own code. Rule number one had always been to protect his family. As a child, that had mostly meant protecting his little sister from their brother's taunting. Eight years older than Amelia, he'd been her hero. It was a role he'd loved and taken seriously. Even when he'd married and had a daughter, he'd never stopped protecting his little sister, who had a knack for finding herself in precarious situations.
Watching the news that day, and everyday that followed, Ruth knew her son had kept his distance, had kept his family believing he was dead, to protect them all. His sweet wife Nicky, an agent herself, would have turned over every rock in the world if she'd thought for a second her husband was alive, no matter the risk to her own life. Amelia, just as stubborn as the older brother she'd worshipped as a child, would have searched right alongside her, too, certain that David would have done the same for her. And they all knew he would have. Jack would have jumped in, too; for all his differences with David, they were brothers, after all.
And all these years, David had protected them all, knowing the risks to their lives if they looked for him. Oh, certainly, there was much she did not know, but none of it mattered now. What mattered was that her son was alive, that there stood a chance, however minute, that he might return home one day.
She heard a key turn in the lock of her front door, the same front door that had allowed entry to her home for more than forty years. Jack and his wife LeAnn were in the kitchen, along with Amelia and her husband Cody.
Thomas David, Amelia and Cody's son and the oldest grandson, was at her side. So much like his namesakes, her beloved husband Tom and her dear David, he seemed to always be by her side, always looking out for his Gram. Alex, seven-year-old Shawn David's one-year-old brother, was asleep in his playpen. After six years of failed attempts to have more children, including three miscarriages, Amelia and Cody had welcomed Alexander Owen into the world, a miracle if Ruth had every seen one.
And Jack and LeAnn's three-year-old twins, Joshua Shawn and Shawn David, were chasing poor Zeus- Ruth's aging black Lab- around the backyard, not that he seemed to mind.
Naturally, that left Nicky and Jaime to be at the door. Nicolette Elizabeth Parsons-Webb had been like a daughter to Ruth most of the young woman's life, having grown up in the house next-door. Ruth and Dominique, Nicky's quiet-mannered mother, had chuckled softly through the "boys are icky," and "girls have cooties" stages, remembering them well from their own youth. They'd watched as friendship blossomed, making their days peaceful once again. And they'd laughed hysterically the first time they'd seen Nicky and David passing nervous glances back and forth. They'd cried together the day David had asked Oliver, Nicky's father, for her hand in marriage, and they'd cried some more when the preacher finally pronounced them man and wife.
A month after Dominique quietly passed in her sleep, losing her battle with breast cancer, Jaime had been born, and Ruth had cried for her dear friend's loss. And when David and Nicky had proudly told their family, crammed inside the little hospital room to welcome the newest addition to the family, the new baby's name, Ruth had smiled, knowing no other name would have been more fitting- Jaime Dominique Webb.
And despite the fact that she'd practically been glued to the news channels for days now, it never occurred to her that her first-born would be standing alongside his wife and child when Ruth stood to greet her visitors. But there he was, after so many years.
Quiet, a rarity in the Webb house, reigned over them for several long moments as Ruth took in the much-anticipated scene before her before she rushed to her son and hugged him with all her might.
From the kitchen, Jack, Amelia, LeAnn, and Cody, could hear Ruth's quiet sobs. Curious, the four stood and wandered to the living room, becoming more and more anxious the closer they got to their destination. They could hear Ruth whispering David's name over and over again; each feared the worst, that after so many years away, David's body had been found.
Instead, they found Ruth, clinging to her oldest son while Jaime and Nicky watched with tender smiles gracing their faces. Chaos ensued for moments after, as everyone rushed to welcome the man who had finally returned home. There were questions to be asked, answers to be given, explanations to be made, but all of that was saved for a later time. Ruth had her son back, Jack and Amelia had their brother, Cody and LeAnn had their friend, Nicky had her husband, and Jaime had her father… Everything else could wait.