Disclaimer: Ghostbusters was created by Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd. I am neither. I created all of the original characters in this story, so that there would be a story - but I own nothing, really.
Extreme Ghostbusters: A Little Boy Lost
Part 1
12:20 am:
"Case? Are you ok? Check it out, Eddie – they must have got the Grundle."
"So where's that other one that Roland wouldn't let us blast?"
"He's gotta be around here somewhere. I wonder if he's… well, you know."
"Look – he's right there. Casey, go inside – find Roland."
The two voices seemed to fade in, becoming gradually clearer, along with the outline of – strangely enough – somebody's backyard in the darkness. Two people approached, one far shorter than the other. No, wait – he wasn't short, he was just sitting down. In a wheelchair. The other one was walking. It was hard to make out either of their faces in the darkness, but the voices had definitely been male.
"Jack?" the man in the wheelchair ventured cautiously.
Jack. Ok then. That sounded right. Jack nodded slowly, rising unsteadily to his feet, for he had been slumped on the floor. He felt like he had been unconscious for some time, though he had no idea how long, and he ached all over.
"Come on," the man in the wheelchair said officiously. "Are you ok? Can you walk? Ok, come with us – there's someone who wants to see you. She'll explain what happened to you."
"That should be interesting," the other man muttered, with an exotic accent, as Jack began to follow the wheelchair into the nearby house.
The scene inside was as perplexing to Jack as had been the backyard and the two men who appeared to know him. In a fraction of a second he took it all in. A man was there. Jack didn't recognise him at all. He was black, dressed in some kind of jumpsuit and he'd probably be tall if he was standing, rather than crouching in front of that child. The child was about nine years of age, and resembled the man considerably. There was a woman there too. Now she was familiar…
"Kylie."
It was the man in the wheelchair who spoke, in the second that they walked through the door. Jack knew that name. Still dazed and confused, he squinted at the woman in front of him as the stranger added, "Friend of yours?"
"Jack," the woman said softly, her eyes filling with tears.
"Kylie?" Jack asked incredulously.
He couldn't believe it. It really was her: Kylie Griffin, his best friend. But she looked so different… so old. Well, not old exactly, but no longer a child. For a moment, Jack looked down at himself. He was no longer a child either. He knew that time had passed, but he couldn't remember any of what had happened and he didn't understand what was happening now. But that could wait. Right now there was something more important to worry about. Kylie was running towards him, and he opened his arms to her. She hugged him tightly. Jack felt someone's eyes on him, and then the man with the accent spoke, muttering as he had before: "Why don't you just kiss him?"
Kylie appeared not to hear this. She stepped back from Jack's embrace and put a gloved hand to his cheek, as though testing whether he was real. Her green eyes were moist and she was wearing an unsteady smile that seemed to falter with emotion. "We've got a lot of catching up to do," she said, in a choked voice. "After we find your parents."
His parents. Jack thought of them, and a lump came to his throat. Find them? Why? Kylie knew where they lived. Then it occurred to him that they might have moved away. Well, clearly they had. Just how much time had passed? Enough time for him to grow into a man, apparently. The thought terrified him. He wasn't ready for that.
01:45 am:
"Jack Ryan," Kylie said impatiently to the grim faced police officer at the desk. "I tell you, it's him. I'd know him anywhere."
"You say you haven't seen him for over ten years, since you were kids?" the officer asked.
"That's right," said Kylie. "But I know it's him."
"Where did you find him?"
That was an awkward question, and Kylie didn't know how to answer it. Ought she to give some version of the truth? If so, what? Obviously she would have to omit the rather important detail of the time Jack spent as a monster. She cut a sideways glance at Roland, who was waiting with Jack. Eduardo always avoided police stations when he could; Garrett had been prepared to go with them, but accepted the decline of his offer without question. Roland, however, had insisted on accompanying them. Kylie, though she had said she didn't need him, was grateful to have him there. She found that she was comforted by his presence.
x x x
Kylie winced, beginning to feel uncomfortable. Grandma Rose was clutching her hand a little too tightly. Neither of them was crying. Kylie couldn't cry anymore and Grandma Rose was always calm in front of strangers. Jack's mommy was crying, though. Jack's daddy had his arm around her, and he was shaking his head at a big policeman who was talking to him. The policeman kept looking at the door. Kylie thought he wanted Jack's mommy and daddy to go.
"Kylie!"
She turned and saw her own daddy walking towards her. She hadn't seen him for two weeks, or about that long. She couldn't remember exactly. He looked worse than he had looked the last time he was home. He looked very untidy. He still had his work clothes on, but he wasn't wearing them in the smart way that he normally did. Grandma Rose had made Kylie brush her hair before she went to the police station.
Grandma Rose let go of her hand, and Daddy pulled Kylie into his arms. He squeezed her, hard, saying her name over and over again and stroking her hair. He sounded like he wanted to cry too. Then he pushed her gently away from him and looked into her face. He was very white. He said her name again: "Kylie. Thank God you're all right."
When he said that, he looked strange, like he felt bad for saying it. He looked over Kylie's shoulder, at Jack's mommy and daddy. Kylie knew he must feel bad that Jack was gone, but glad that she was still there. Then Daddy looked at her again and asked, "Are you ok, sweetheart?"
Kylie didn't know what to say. She didn't know the answer to that question. She just nodded, because she knew that Daddy wanted her to be ok. Daddy looked like he didn't believe her, and he hugged her again. Then Kylie heard Jack's daddy shouting. Her daddy looked up and frowned. He started to walk towards Jack's mommy and daddy. Kylie turned round, and saw that Jack's daddy was shouting at Grandma Rose. That made Kylie angry, and she scowled at him.
"We trusted you with him!" Jack's daddy was shouting. "He was your responsibility! Where the hell were you? Why weren't you supervising them properly?"
Jack's mommy was still crying, and Jack's daddy still had his arm around her. Kylie's daddy walked up to them and stepped between Jack's daddy and Grandma Rose. He said, in a very wobbly voice, "Daniel… please don't blame Rose."
Kylie walked over to Grandma Rose and looked up at her. She looked very upset, like she was going to cry again. Jack's daddy must have upset her by saying it was her fault, because it wasn't. Grandma Rose had been in the kitchen, making dinner for Kylie and Jack. How was she supposed to know about the monster? How was she supposed to know Jack would open the window? It wasn't her fault.
"You," Jack's daddy growled at Kylie's daddy, poking him in the chest. "You're no better. Your grandmother's too old to take care of two children on her own. If you'd been here… if you'd take some responsibility…!"
Daddy didn't fight back. Kylie knew that he wouldn't fight back, because Jack was gone and Jack's daddy was very upset. But it wasn't Grandma Rose's fault, and it wasn't Daddy's fault either. It wasn't fair for Jack's daddy to shout at them like that.
"Stop it!" Kylie yelled suddenly. "It isn't his fault, and it isn't Grandma Rose's fault!"
Grandma Rose, Daddy and Jack's daddy all stared down at her. Jack's mommy just kept crying. Kylie hated seeing Jack's mommy cry like that. It made her wish, even more than she wished it already, that she had stopped Jack from going. Was it her fault, what had happened? Should she have warned Jack about the monster sooner?
"I… I… I…" she stammered.
Daddy put a hand on her shoulder. "It's ok, honey," he said. "You don't have to say anything."
Kylie felt more tears on the backs of her eyes. "I told him not to open the window," she said quietly.
Jack's daddy stared at her. Jack's mommy even stopped crying for a second. They both just stared at her. Kylie wished she hadn't said it. Then Jack's mommy started crying again, and Jack's daddy crouched down to look at Kylie.
"Kylie," he said sharply, but he wasn't shouting, like he had done with Daddy and Grandma Rose. He was trying to be nice to her, but his voice sounded strange and angry. "What happened?"
Kylie didn't say anything. She knew he wouldn't believe her, and then he would shout at her as well.
"Please," he begged. "What happened?"
"Are you the girl's father?"
Kylie looked up, and saw that a policeman had joined them. He wasn't as big as some of the other policemen, but Kylie didn't like him any more than the others.
"Yes," said Daddy.
"We'd like to interview your grandmother first, Mr. Griffin," the policeman said. "Then, if we may, we'd like to ask your daughter some questions. You can stay with her for that, of course."
Daddy nodded.
"Mrs. Lockyer…"
The policeman held his hand out to Grandma Rose, and she followed him down a long corridor. Kylie grabbed Daddy's hand, wondering when Grandma Rose would be allowed to come back. She wondered where Mommy was, and if she would come when she heard that Jack was gone. One of the policemen had said that he would try to call her mommy.
"Kylie." Jack's daddy was talking to her again. He sounded calmer. He didn't sound angry anymore, but sad. "Please. You have to tell us what happened."
"Daniel…"
When Daddy spoke, Kylie looked up at him. The way he was looking at Jack's daddy was so sad. He said to Jack's daddy, in that wobbly voice, "Please don't. She'll tell everything to the police."
Kylie bit her lip. She didn't want to talk to the police. She knew that they couldn't bring Jack back, because Jack was a monster now. She didn't know if Jack would ever be able to come back. But she knew that she had to talk to the police. They were going to make her talk to them. She didn't know whether to tell the police the truth, or to tell them that she didn't see what had happened to Jack.
x x x
"He was just kind of wandering round," Kylie said weakly. "Near my friend's house. That's my friend – over there," and she pointed at Roland.
"What were you doing at your friend's house at this time of night?"
"Is that important?"
"You don't have to tell me," shrugged the police officer. "Was anyone else with you, apart from you and your friend?"
"Um, no." She didn't want to complicate matters further – but she was going to have a job keeping track of all these lies.
"All right, Miss. I'll get someone to talk to him and then, if it really is Jack Ryan, we'll get on to tracing his parents."
Jack was taken away by two police officers, presumably to be interviewed. Kylie and Roland were shown to a waiting room, which fortunately was equipped with a coffee machine. Kylie sank into one of the uncomfortable chairs with a Styrofoam mug of black coffee, letting out a heavy sigh when the seat took the weight from her feet.
"Are you ok?" asked Roland, sitting down next to her.
"I don't know," shrugged Kylie. "It was all just so fast – I can't believe it's happened. I can't believe Jack's actually here, in this building."
"I wonder what they're saying to him."
"They're probably asking him where he's been for the last decade. He doesn't seem to remember anything. Amnesia – it'll come in handy if they ask him any difficult questions."
They were silent for several minutes.
"You can go if you want to," Kylie said suddenly. "There's not much point in waiting for me. I have to take care of Jack, and when I do go back I'll only get fired."
"What? Why?" asked Roland.
Kylie snorted scathingly. "I let the Grundle out of the containment unit, in case you hadn't noticed."
Roland looked at her. "Egon's a good guy. He might understand why we did it."
"We?" Kylie returned his gaze. "I'm not going to tell him you helped me."
"Why not?"
"No sense in us both losing our jobs."
06:25 am:
Jack found Kylie's room a little unsettling. He had been expecting movie stars and musicians on her walls rather than weird conceptual art and arcane symbols. It was an attic apartment, not particularly warm, and without many places to sit: just a desk-chair, a window seat and a sizeable double bed. Jack found that he felt slightly panicky when he tried the window seat, so he sat on the chair at the desk. Kylie had told him he was welcome to her bed if he was tired, but just lying down and going to sleep seemed to a little rude. And besides, that cat took up a surprising amount of space, and Jack got the feeling that it wouldn't take kindly to bedfellows.
Kylie returned at last, looking absolutely exhausted. She kicked off her boots and went to sit on the bed. She smiled at Jack and asked, "How are you feeling?"
"All right," Jack replied. "Did you lose your job?"
"No." Kylie shook her head. "No – Egon said that my disobeying his orders turned out to be the right thing to do, because otherwise… otherwise you might have been lost forever."
Jack just looked at her for a few moments. Kylie shuffled over towards the sleeping cat, creating a space on the bed. "Come over here," she invited. "I have to tell you this."
"Don't you want to sleep?" asked Jack.
"No. Come on."
Obediently Jack crossed the room and sat down beside Kylie.
"You were a Grundle," she began. "It's a monster that takes children and turns them into one of their own. When the original Grundle was captured all those years ago, all the children it changed returned to normal. All but one, that is. You were different, Jack. I heard this from the Grundle itself. The night you… disappeared… it changed you. Apparently it actually wanted me, but… well, that doesn't really matter now. The Grundle wasn't happy with you – you weren't receptive enough to its influence, or something. So it put you away, inside a tree – 'to gestate', it said. Shortly afterwards the Ghostbusters captured it, so you stayed where you were, until a few nights ago. You spent some time scaring kids, and I know you managed to change at least one: Casey Jackson, that kid you saw earlier."
"Is he ok?" Jack asked anxiously.
"Yeah, he's fine. You know about the Grundle getting out of the containment unit." This had been part of the explanation as to why Kylie feared for her position with the Ghostbusters – an explanation that Jack hadn't quite understood, though he didn't say so. "We trapped him all over again, of course. Casey was released, and…" – she gave him a fond smile – "so were you."
Jack just looked at her.
"Yeah, well, it's a lot to take in, I know," Kylie finished quickly.
At last Jack spoke: "Cool cat."
"Um… thanks."
"What's his name?"
"Pagan."
"So how are you?" asked Jack.
"Me?" Kylie was surprised by the question. "I'm ok. I went through school, did pretty ok, and I just started college. You know, Jack, you're going to have to try and catch up with everything you missed. You never even got to finish first grade – the last book you read was probably Butch and his Ball."
"I'm glad you made new friends."
"Um, yeah, well… I only met them this September. Before that, you were the only real friend I had. I still can't believe you're actually here."
"Is that guy with the goatee your boyfriend?"
"What?" Kylie's eyes widened. "Oh, Jack. No."
"He was looking at me funny."
"Was he? I'm sorry – he's weird like that. It's not personal."
Though he tried not to let it show, Jack was finding it difficult to talk to her. She had changed so much – she'd grown up – but he didn't feel any different from how he had felt ten years ago. It was crazy: she was trying to talk to him like he was an adult, and he was trying to talk to her like she was a child.
"You look good," he remarked. He didn't really mean to say it, but it was something he had noticed, and in a way that was unfamiliar to him.
"Um… thanks," Kylie smiled awkwardly. "So do you."
"Yeah?"
"Sure."
"How's your dad?"
"Oh, he's ok. Still away a lot, working too hard."
"And your mom?"
"Ah, well. I assume she's absolutely fine and not missing me at all. I haven't seen her for a few years."
Jack's brow furrowed with concern. One thing about Kylie that stuck out in his memory was her distress when her mother had left, and to him the image of her tear-stained six-year-old face seemed so recent.
"It's ok," said Kylie. "I'm over it. She left a long time ago, you know."
"It only seems like months."
"Well. The world moved on. It's going to be strange for you."
"And… and what about your Grandma Rose?" Jack ventured timidly. "Is she…?"
"Dead?" Kylie suggested, her eyelids drooping. "Yes."
"I'm sorry."
"Well, she was old. She was old when you knew her."
"So…" Jack went on awkwardly. "My mom and dad. You don't know where they are?"
"No. I'm sorry, Jack. None of us has seen or heard anything from your parents since… since you disappeared."
Jack looked confused. "I don't get it," he objected. "Our dads really used to like each other, and my parents loved you."
"Yeah, they did love me," agreed Kylie. "Not anymore, though."
"Why?"
"Ah, Jack… it was difficult."
Jack was silent for a few moments. He couldn't possibly imagine everything that had happened since his disappearance. The world really had moved on, and he was daunted by the tasks that lay ahead of him. He decided not to worry too much about all that until he had been reunited with his parents. The police were taking care of that, of course. Inside Jack was still a child, and quite accustomed to letting other people take care of things. But after that, he would have a lot of growing up to do.
26 hours later:
"Get lucky last night, did you?"
Kylie's smile turned to a scowl when Eduardo greeted her in this way. She hadn't seen him, nor any of her colleagues, since Jack's rescue two nights before. She and Jack had both spent most of the day sleeping when the events of the previous twenty-odd hours had caught up with them, and then talked long into the night. Again. Kylie had been tempted just to go to sleep again that morning – an enticement to which Jack had succumbed – but she had doggedly gone to work and resolved to resume a more or less normal sleep pattern.
"Of course not," she snapped at Eduardo. He was leaning comfortably in an armchair, his legs slung over one side, reading a magazine.
Garrett and Roland were there too, the latter sitting at the table at the back of the room, some yards away from the rest of them, tapping away at his laptop. He looked up on hearing Kylie's voice and asked, "So how is he?"
"Confused." Kylie wandered across the room and leaned lightly against the edge of the table. "It's so sad. He's lost ten years of his life! He's missed out on his childhood and his education and… and…"
"Puberty," Eduardo put in helpfully. "There's a plus side."
"Well," said Kylie, "I'm sure that's very confusing for him too. But anyway, there are more important things. I mean, just what do you do when you've been as good as dead for ten years? We were in the first grade when he disappeared – he didn't even get a basic education."
"Finally, somebody who's stupider than me," muttered Eduardo.
Kylie heard. "He is not stupid!" she snapped. "He's ignorant. He's ten years behind the rest of us – what do you expect?" Angry on Jack's behalf, she couldn't resist a little dig, so she added, "You, on the other hand, are just plain dense."
"So, um, did the cops find his parents yet?" Garrett broke in hastily.
"Not the last I heard," replied Kylie.
Eduardo pulled a face and remarked ominously, "Oof…"
"What the hell is your problem now?" Kylie demanded, rounding angrily on him. "If you can't think of anything helpful to say then - "
"Don't yell at me," snapped Eduardo. "I'm just worried, that's all."
"Worried?" Kylie asked guardedly. "Why?"
"Well, the cops have had plenty of time to trace Jack's parents. A day and two nights – they should have done it by now. All they need is a name; they have access to everything there is to know about everybody in the country. It's terrible."
"It's been a long time – they could be anywhere by now," Kylie said uneasily.
"That shouldn't bother the cops – not unless they changed their names or skipped the country or - " – looking up from his magazine, Eduardo stopped short when he caught sight of Kylie's anxious expression. "But they're almost definitely not dead," he added hastily. "That would be on file."
"Almost definitely," echoed Kylie, her shoulders sinking. "Great, thanks."
"It'll be ok," Roland smiled reassuringly. He reached out and put a hand on Kylie's arm, and Eduardo bristled visibly. "Kylie, don't you or any of your family have any idea…?"
"What happened to Jack's parents?" Kylie finished for him, and then shook her head. "We lost touch very soon after Jack disappeared. It ended badly. He was at my house when it happened, remember. His father held Grandma Rose and my dad responsible and I… well, they were both pretty pissed at me as well."
"Why?" asked Roland, looking concerned. "You were just a kid."
"I don't wanna talk about it. And besides, I don't really remember it that well," Kylie lied, just to make sure that he wouldn't be tempted to push. She decided to move the conversation along: "I hope Jack's ok – I left him at my place alone with Pagan…"
Watching her, Eduardo saw that she was addressing Roland as though they were the only two people in the room. Garrett had switched on the TV some minutes ago and was now watching a basketball game – he would definitely be absorbed in that until it was over. It was almost as though he didn't care about the Jack situation. He did care, of course – it was just that Kylie only seemed to want to talk about it with one person. Slightly nauseated by the scene, Eduardo swung his legs onto the ground, threw down his magazine and strode towards the kitchen.
Unsurprisingly, Slimer was raiding the fridge. He greeted the newcomer with a broad smile and his arms outstretched, but Eduardo was in no mood for that. "Don't even think about it," he cautioned, as Slimer drew near.
Slimer, in his child-like way, looked dejected as he turned and floated slowly from the room, his shoulders hunched. Eduardo couldn't find it in his heart to care. He went to the open fridge to see what was left, and found a few sodas. He cracked open a Coke, and reflected bitterly on the Ghostbusters' most recent case. Before Kylie had arrived that morning, Garrett and Eduardo had finally heard Jack's full story from Roland. Garrett was extremely touched and sympathetic, but all Eduardo could feel was resentment towards the closeness Roland and Kylie seemed to have developed over the whole fiasco. It wasn't as though he, Eduardo, wouldn't have been Kylie's confidant, had she asked. He would have lent her a sympathetic ear, and he would have defied Egon's orders – or whatever it was they did – with far more willingness than Roland had probably shown.
Eduardo sighed deeply, trying to dispel such thoughts from his mind. This was getting silly. Everywhere he looked he found a reason to be jealous of somebody over that girl: Egon, Jack, Roland… it'd probably be Garrett next. He had even been jealous of Pagan once, and that had got him into a lot of trouble, which probably served him right for envying a cat, he concluded bitterly. And for all of it, was Kylie really worth it? She was only a girl, after all.
At that moment she walked in. "Are you ok?" asked Eduardo, catching sight of her drained expression.
"This is serious, you know," Kylie returned coldly.
"I know."
"I want you to stop making snide little comments and… and implying that his parents have disappeared and no one knows what happened to them. Excuse me." She walked over to the fridge, and Eduardo obligingly stepped aside. "Because it really isn't funny."
"I'm sorry."
"You should be, because it isn't going to be easy for him, you know." The fridge door was obstructing the top half of her body, so that Eduardo couldn't see her face. "It's not just his education he's behind on – it's his whole life. When you made that stupid remark about me getting lucky last night, you were pretty much asking me if I'd slept with a seven year old."
Eduardo raised his eyebrows. "He's not interested, then?"
"No."
"What if he was?"
"What?"
"Well, are you disappointed?"
"Disappointed?" For some reason she was still in the fridge. "I've got my friend back. Why on earth would I be disappointed? I wasn't expecting him to fall in love with me or anything."
In spite of the words, Eduardo thought that she did sound disappointed. He could very well be imagining that, though. Then, without meaning to at all, he said quietly, "He'll come round."
At that moment Kylie pulled her head out of the fridge, slammed the door shut and spun round. Eduardo hadn't really been aware of what he'd said, but he had the feeling that it had angered her. He opened his mouth, trying to think of a way to make a joke of the whole conversation (yeah, she'd hate that, but old habits die hard), but he froze when he saw her throw herself against the fridge, bury her face in her hands and shake her head despairingly. For a moment he thought she must have been crying, which could have been awkward, but when she spoke it was obvious that she wasn't.
"Oh my God, Eduardo, it's terrible," she muttered bitterly.
"What is?" asked Eduardo. He had to lean pretty close to hear the muffled words.
"All of it. Jack disappeared, Eduardo, for more than ten years! There was so much pain and sadness when it happened – we all just assumed he was dead – and just imagine what his parents went through!" Suddenly she lifted her head from her hands, and looked directly at Eduardo. "And you know what the worst part is? It shouldn't have happened! God knows how many children were changed by the Grundle, but they all changed back! They all had their lives! But Jack… well, you know."
"You got him back," Eduardo pointed out.
"Well it's not good enough!" She looked angry now, with fists clenched and eyes blazing. "Somebody should have found him! I mean, whose responsibility was it?"
"I don't know."
"Well, hey, here's a thought: maybe it was the Ghostbusters' responsibility! Egon, and the rest of them – shouldn't they have made sure every child really did change back? There must have been a strong PK trail leading to that tree at some point – probably on the very night they caught the Grundle, because he told me Jack hadn't been there long when he was captured."
"Who told you?" Eduardo asked confusedly.
"The Grundle, of course!" snapped Kylie. "It should not have happened. Can you imagine what we went through? Do you know what it did to me?"
Eduardo quietly took in Kylie's slightly eccentric appearance, but refrained from making a comment. Instead he said, "You can't blame them."
"Can't I? It was their mistake."
"Well… maybe." He couldn't be bothered to argue. "But being mad at them isn't exactly gonna do any good now, is it?"
Kylie looked at him for a long moment, and then let out a deep sigh. "I guess not," she conceded. "It's just… he's lost so much."
"At least he came back."
"Yeah."
"You're grateful for that, aren't you? Some kids disappear and never come back."
Kylie nodded. "I know. I just wonder… what happens next."
"Well," Eduardo half-shrugged. "We'll find out."
x x x
They found his mother first – that very afternoon, in fact. Kylie heard the news when she returned home to find Jack pacing the room.
"Why aren't you with her right now?" she asked, astonished. "Surely you want to see her as soon as you can."
"I do," Jack nodded vigorously. "She's on her way over here."
"On her way over here from…?"
"Sacramento."
"Oh!"
"That's quite far away, isn't it?"
"Well, yes," Kylie had to admit. "It's in California. That's right on the other side of the country."
"Thought so." Jack slumped down on the edge of Kylie's bed and looked at his hands. "It's going to be weird, isn't it?"
"Well… perhaps," said Kylie. "But she's your mom – she must have been… there's no way to describe how she must have felt when she heard you'd been found."
"She's married to somebody else."
"Oh. Right."
"He's called Ted Beaumont," Jack went on expressionlessly, still looking at his hands. "She married him four years ago. They've got kids, but the cops wouldn't tell me about them. I have to wait for her to get here, then I guess she'll tell me." At last he looked up, a grin splitting his features. "I can't wait to see her."
"Of course. Jack, this is wonderful news," beamed Kylie.
"Will you come with me to see her?"
The smile vanished completely from her face, and her voice became a strangled croak as she asked, in panicked tones, "What?"
"Kylie, please." He stood up and gazed beseechingly down at her. "I'm so nervous."
"She's your mom," reasoned Kylie.
"Well yeah, but… I can't travel through Manhattan all by myself. I'm not ready for that yet. And besides, I want Mom to see you. You're the one who found me."
"Yeah…"
"Kylie?"
She raised her eyes to meet his gaze. He wasn't smiling anymore. He looked anxious, like the child he was inside.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Don't you have any idea what happened to my dad?" Jack asked quietly.
Kylie shook her head. "I'm sorry, Jack – I really don't. I didn't even know he and your mom weren't together anymore. I haven't seen them since… since the night it happened."
"Right." Jack sat down again. "So… will you come with me tomorrow?"
Kylie let out a deep sigh. How could she possibly say no to him? "Yes," she said, forcing a smile, her stomach twisting itself into a tight knot. "Of course I will."
To be continued…