Chapter One: The Sins of the Fathers: Part One
August 20, 1976
Maury Parkman sat in the pew of the small Catholic church in Queens, smiling to himself as he studied his latest quarry. "She's perfect." He whispered.
Adam Munroe raised an eyebrow at Maury, shaking his head slightly. "So THAT'S what we're doing here this bloody early in the morning." He turned to Daniel Linderman, elbowing him and smirking. "Someone's in heat again, I do believe. Silly me for thinking that our old friend just wanted to get closer to God."
Daniel chuckled under his breath, regarding Maury with an amused expression, his blue eyes twinkling. "So you really think you can convince this one to slip off with you as well, eh?"
"There's not a woman I can't have when I put my mind to it." Maury concentrated on the woman sitting a few pews ahead of them, licking his lips. She was slight of build, with dark brown eyes and auburn hair. Maury watched as she listened to the priest's sermon with a rapt expression on her face, nodding at his words as she clutched her rosary. "And I love the pious ones the best, especially when they're married, and most especially when they're redheads." He nodded at the man sitting next to her. He was tall and broad-shouldered with dark hair. "He looks enough like me, right? I'll be able to get away with it if I knock her up, don't you think?"
Adam pursed his lips. "Don't be daft, he doesn't look a bit like you." Teasingly, he grinned at Maury. "He's attractive."
"You know what I mean." Maury rolled his eyes. "Dark hair and eyes, similar build, right?"
"This is ridiculous." Adam sighed. "Haven't you done this enough by now?"
"It's an evolutionary imperative, just like Danny-boy over here mentioned once." Maury nodded to Linderman. "We are the next step in the evolution of man and it's our duty to spread our DNA as far and as wide as we can."
"You have a point." Adam shook his head, trying not to smirk. "And you're certainly trying to spread yours around as much as you can."
"You'd better believe it." Maury nodded with a self-satisfied grin on his face.
"But be warned" Adam hissed in his ear "the moment you try to pass on your idiotic DNA through Victoria will be the day I tear your nuts off and feed them to you for supper. She's mine, understand?"
"She barely knows you exist." Maury shifted in his seat nervously, refusing to meet Adam's icy stare.
"For now, but she'll give in to me soon." Adam nodded as he continued to regard Maury with a furious look on his face. "In fact, if she doesn't soon enough, I'll be requiring your help in that matter."
"Sure, sure, Adam, whatever you say." Maury shrank in his pew, cowed by the dangerous gleam in his friend's eyes. "If you need my help with Vicki, you just say the word, man."
"Good boy." Maury flinched as Adam patted him on the shoulder before turning back to the woman in front of them. "So do you really think you can get this one to be your love slave for the afternoon?"
"You kidding me?" Maury nodded. "I can read her thoughts. She's praying for a child right now, begging the Virgin Mother to allow her to become pregnant. Apparently she and her husband have been trying for quite a while now. Who am I to deny her what she really needs? All it'll take from me will be a few mental shoves in her direction and she'll be all over my crotch like a fat kid on cake."
"Oh, I can't wait to see this one." Adam turned to Daniel again. "Like a fat kid on cake. I think he's thinking of his last birthday party, Danny."
"And what of the child you think will come of this little liaison?" Daniel asked Maury, ignoring Adam. "Will you even acknowledge it, bring it home to play with darling little Matthew?"
Maury rolled his eyes. "Who cares? I guess I'll try to find a way to keep the tabs on the little nipper, maybe. Hell, I haven't kept tabs on the other women I've boned to see if THEY'VE suddenly found themselves in the family way, why should this broad be any different?"
Daniel's eyes narrowed as the priest finished his sermon. The woman stepped out of her pew and walked to the altar, kneeling in front of it as she prayed fervently, her eyes closed as she nodded her head, her lips moving with her prayers. She stood and lit a candle, praying over that before joining her husband to leave the church. As Maury concentrated on her, Daniel watched as she stood up straighter, her brow furrowing. She blinked for a moment, dazed before walking out of the church, her arm linked through her husband's. "You never know which child could be different from the next." He mused to himself.
Two hours later, Maury lay on the bed of the seedy hotel room he'd gotten before going to church. Checking his watch, he smirked. "Oh come ON already!" He grinned as he heard a hesitant knock on the door. "Showtime." He stood and walked to the door, opening it as he leered at the woman standing in front of him. "Hello."
She bit her lip nervously, her voice quavering as she spoke. "I don't know why I'm here, but I saw you at church earlier and-"
Maury quickly silenced her with a finger to her lips. "Come in." He led her into the room, smiling as she offered little resistance. "You saw me and had to have me, right?"
The woman blushed and looked away. "I just felt this need to see you, I don't know why."
"I do. It's because you're a dirty, dirty girl, isn't it?"
The woman's eyes widened for a moment. "No, I'm not, I'm-" she stammered and blushed "-I'm a good woman and I love my husband and-"
"-and you want a baby." Maury's eyes bored into hers as he approached her. "You want a baby and your husband's been rather lacking in providing one." He smirked as the woman slowly backed away from him. "What would you say if I told you that I'm willing to give you a child today, right now?"
"That's adultery!" She gasped, scandalized as she stared at him. "I would have a bastard, a child that wasn't my husband's and-" She screwed up her mouth as if she'd been given something disgusting to eat. "-I love my husband! I'm leaving right now!"
You're not going anywhere, you're going to stay here and show me just how dirty you are. Maury pushed out at her mind with his own, grinning as she stopped dead in her tracks, her hand hovering over the doorknob. You're going to turn around and come to this bed with me. You're going to fuck me like you've never fucked your husband, in the light of day completely naked instead of late at night with all of the lights off and your nightgown simply hiked up to your waist. You're going to do things with me that you'd slap your husband for suggesting you do to him, if he had the balls to suggest it in the first place and you're going to love every minute of it because in the end, you're going to go home pregnant. "Stay." Maury whispered to her. "What you want, what you need, it's not a sin."
The woman turned to him, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I just want a child."
"I know you do." Maury's eyes glittered as he studied her, his eyes skimming over her body. She was dressed in an ankle length skirt and a long-sleeved shirt that was buttoned up to her neck. He walked towards her and reached out, slowly unbuttoning her shirt as he smiled softly at her. His smile widened as she moaned softly, leaning against the door. "Come to bed." He whispered in her ear. "Show me that you're really a dirty, dirty little girl at heart."
Two hours later, Maury lay in bed naked, watching with satisfaction as the woman climbed out of bed and pulled her clothes on. "Anyone ever tell you that you've got a hot body? You really shouldn't keep it covered up."
The woman blushed and ducked her head down as she pulled her clothes on quickly. "No one's ever said that." She whispered.
"Not even your husband? What a shame." Maury sat up and crawled across the mattress until he reached her, nibbling on her bare waist as she trembled. "Do you have any idea how sexy you are?"
She closed her eyes and moaned, the clothes in her hands forgotten as Maury stroked her waist. "You think so?"
"Yeah, I do." Maury quickly let her go, smirking as she whimpered. "And you were fantastic in bed, Honey."
"You think I'll have a baby now?" She asked him as she turned to face him, her expression filled with hope.
"Who knows?" Maury stretched out on the mattress again, smiling up at her. "Maybe you should come here ever day for a week and meet up with me. We could do this a few more times just to make sure."
"Maybe." She stared at the ground. "What do I tell my husband?"
"What you told him today. Tell him you went to the movies or that you went to church to pray more for that baby you've both been wanting." Maury sat up, concentrating on her again as he pushed out with his mind. "And after you get pregnant, as far as you'll remember, you really DID spend a week going to the movies and praying for a baby extra hard. Once that pregnancy test comes up positive, as far as you'll know it's your husband's and your prayers were finally answered." Maury nodded as she stared off into space, her eyes glazed over.
"I'll forget you even existed." She whispered, her voice far away.
"That's right, Doll. You won't even remember Maury Parkman at all." Maury grinned.
"Okay." She finished dressing and turned to go to the door. She turned back to Maury, her brow furrowing. "Don't you even want to know MY name?" She asked.
"Sure, why not?" He shrugged, a bored look on his face.
"It's Virginia. Virginia Gray."
June 3, 1977
Daniel Linderman slipped into the hospital in Queens, weaving his way down the halls until he found the maternity ward. Nodding and smiling as he walked down the hall to the nursery, he spotted the man he'd seen in church, the man whose wife had spent a week rutting with Maury Parkman every afternoon a little more than nine months earlier. Smirking, Daniel nodded to the gentleman as he stood beside him at the nursery window, staring at the newborns. "Which one is yours?" He asked, smiling genially at the man.
Andrew Gray nodded to the small infant swaddled in blue directly in front of him. The infant screamed loudly, his face turning red as he squirmed in his bassinette, his dark hair sticking straight up on the top of his head. "That's my boy." Andrew whispered proudly. "The wife and I have named him Gabriel."
Daniel nodded as he studied the newborn. "You must be so proud." With a mischievous twinkle he added. "He looks JUST like you."
November 2, 1977
Angela Petrelli rushed into a diner in Manhattan, shivering from the cold blast of wind that followed her inside. As she tugged off her gloves, she spotted her friend seated in a booth near the door. "Victoria!" Angela walked over to her and slid into a seat across from her. "Kaito called just before you did and told me what happened, you must be so upset!" She sighed. "But must you quit your research? You've been coming along so well with your experiments with the virus. Don't let an ass like Adam stop you!" She reached out and touched the scrape on Victoria's left cheek, clucking under her tongue. "You'll need to put something on that, make sure it doesn't scar."
Victoria pulled her head back away from Angela's hand. "Promise me that you didn't have ANYTHING to do with what Adam tried today."
Angela's eyes widened as she blinked innocently. "Of course I had nothing to do with that. What on earth kind of person do you think I am, anyway?"
"You'd better be telling me the truth." Victoria slumped in her seat, shaking her head.
"Is THAT why you called me to meet you here while sounding so freaked out and frantic over the phone?" Angela looked away. "I'm rather offended."
"That's not why I called you, I just wanted to make sure that you weren't in cahoots with Adam before I told you this." Victoria sighed as she sat up straight. "Adam's attack isn't the only reason I'm quitting the research. Angela, what I've been creating in that lab is dangerous. The strain of virus that Adam wanted is so powerful and deadly that it could easily obliterate the human population, both of our kind and the normals. I don't want something like that released. I don't want to have to tell my children one day that I caused the destruction of most of humanity, if they even lived through that destruction in the first place."
"What children?" Angela asked, confused.
Victoria lowered her head, fiddling with the menu that lay unopened in front of her. "The children I'm carrying. I'm pregnant, Angela, pregnant with twins. My doctor confirmed it yesterday morning. I heard the two heartbeats myself." She looked up at Angela, her eyes sparkling with tears. "They're Adam's."
"You can't be serious!" Angela stared at her in shock. "There's a clinic that I can take you to-"
"-I'm not getting an abortion, Angela." Victoria frowned at her. "I'm having these children-"
"-ADAM'S children." Angela hissed. "God only knows what they'd be like!"
"They're also MINE!" Victoria nodded. "And he'll never have anything to do with them. I'm going to raise them on my own, teach them to be good, strong, productive members of society while I try and curb any world-domination tendencies they'll inherit from the sperm-donor who knocked me up."
"It'll be a gamble, but if you think you can do this-" Angela sighed, her voice trailing off as she shrugged with resignation. "Is there anything I can do to help you?"
"Wanna be a godmother?" Victoria asked, a soft smile playing on her lips.
Angela laughed softly. "Adam? Really? How?"
Victoria shrugged. "It was about two months ago. He came by with a bottle of merlot and after a few glasses I just felt this need, like I was simply compelled to sleep with him."
"Maury." Angela muttered, her mouth screwing up.
"Yeah, I think so." Victoria smirked. "Adam's been after me for a while. I should have known that if I turned him down enough, he'd get his lap dog to 'convince' me to sleep with him." She sighed. "I suppose I should have kept my guard up."
"I suppose so." Angela looked around coyly for a moment before leaning forward conspiratorially. "So, was he any good?"
Victoria smiled slyly. "Oh, you have NO idea."
May 31, 1983
"UNCLE DANIEL!" Daniel Linderman beamed as he stepped out of his Mercedes and knelt to embrace the two little girls that tackled him at a dead-run.
"Hello my darlings!" He kissed them both on the cheek as he stood, smiling down at them. "How does it feel to be five years old today?"
The two girls nodded in unison as they looked up at him. He noticed how their honey-blond hair was starting to darken, taking on a reddish hue in the sunlight. "It feels good, Uncle Daniel." One of them piped up, her dark blue eyes twinkling.
"And which one are you again?" He asked, half-teasing as he stared at their identical faces.
She sighed with exasperation. "It's Justine, silly!"
"Oh, silly me!" He ruffled her hair as he turned to the other one who studied him with more interest, her eyes a shade paler than her twin's as she observed him. He was taken back for a moment as she watched him, realizing how similar her eyes were to Adam's while her twin's were more similar to her mother's. "That must make YOU Miriam!"
"Well, of course it does." Miriam nodded. "You see any other twins to Jussy running around here?"
"You're an . . . articulate one." Daniel studied her more closely as she stared up at him unblinkingly. She and her twin sister both resembled their mother, with their delicate features and their turned-up noses. Miriam's eyes and expression as she watched him showed the keen intelligence she possessed and he thought he could see quite a bit of Adam in the calculating way she studied him. He smiled slightly as he nodded. "Quite articulate indeed."
"I know." Miriam nodded. "Mommy says that it's because she didn't baby-talk us when we were little, she talked to us like little adults."
"And where IS your Mommy?" Daniel asked. He turned, following Miriam's eyes as they darted behind him. He smiled as Victoria stepped into view from her garden. "Victoria." He walked to her and hugged her tightly. "Darling, it's been much too long."
Victoria nodded as she hugged her old friend back. "Yes, it has." She turned to smile down at her daughters. "Well, do you have anything else to say to your godfather?"
"Where are our presents?" Miriam asked. "It's our birthday and we get presents, right?"
Victoria sighed with exasperation as Linderman chuckled. "That's NOT what I wanted you to say to him."
"Welcome to our home, Uncle Daniel." Justine said in a sing-song voice.
"Thank you My Dear." He beamed at Justine. He turned to Miriam, his eyes twinkling. "And you're right as well. I have wonderful presents for the both of you, something special for two special little girls."
Daniel accepted the cup of tea that Victoria offered him, sipping it slowly as he stared out at the garden. "It's a beautiful home you've made here, Victoria."
"Thank you." Victoria sat at the patio table across from him. "Maine's really a beautiful place to live. It's peaceful, just the place to raise the girls."
"I think so, too." Daniel mused. He glanced at Victoria over his cup of tea. "How ARE the girls?"
"Fine." She nodded. As she noticed Daniel's look, she smirked. "They haven't manifested yet, as far as I know."
"I see." Daniel sighed. "They will. With two powerful parents, they'll manifest as sure as night follows day."
"Don't mention their father to them." She hissed. "They don't know much about him and that's how I'd like to keep it."
"Oh?" Daniel raised an eyebrow. "And when they ask about their daddy, what do you tell them?"
"I tell them the truth. I tell them that they don't have a 'daddy', they have a father who was the worst mistake of my life. Then I tell them that I'd make that mistake time and again because it gave me them. I tell them that their father is in jail for doing a very bad thing." She glared at Daniel. "He IS still locked up, right?"
"Of course he is, don't be silly." He stirred his tea slowly, letting it cool watching Victoria out of the corner of his eye. "He knows about the girls." As she gasped, Daniel shrugged. "Bob let it slip one day. He started taunting him about being a father and not even being able to see them."
"Idiot!" Victoria slammed her hand down on the table. "That-" She glanced over her shoulder, watching the girls playing in a flower bed, making sure they weren't listening to her "-fucking idiot! How dare he tell Adam about them?"
"He already suspected." Daniel sipped his tea. "Apparently he'd seduced you with the hopes that you would conceive."
"If he ever escapes and tries to see my girls-"
"-He won't." Daniel frowned. "But he does want to see them, Victoria."
"He can want in one hand and piss in the other. He'll never lay eyes on Miri and Jussy, not if I have anything to say about it."
"Victoria-" Daniel started to speak and closed his mouth as she glared at him, raising her finger.
"Don't. Don't tell me that he has rights or that letting him meet them is the kind or humane thing to do or-" she shook her head "-he tried to destroy the human population. If he'd had it his way, I could have died before his daughters were even born." She frowned as the girls started shrieking. "What in the hell?" She stood and screamed as Miriam backed away, a rattlesnake clinging to the calf of her small leg. "OH MY GOD!" Victoria bolted towards her daughters as the snake let go of Miriam and quickly slithered away. Miriam collapsed on the ground, shivering with pain as Justine knelt beside her. Victoria turned to Linderman, her face a mask of terror. "DANIEL!"
As Victoria and Daniel ran to Miriam's side, they froze as they watched Justine place a hand on her sister's leg. Victoria gasped, turning pale as the swelling in Miriam's leg suddenly began to subside. Miriam's tears lessened, her breathing returning to normal as Justine sat up and smiled at her mother. "I fixed Mir, Mommy! Did you see me?"
As Daniel turned away, a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth, Victoria nodded, her bright blue eyes filling with tears. "Yeah, I saw you, Baby." Her legs shaking, she slowly walked to Justine and knelt beside her as Miriam sat up and turned to her mother. Victoria hugged Miriam tightly as she stared at her other child. "How did you do that, Sweetie?"
"I just knew that I had to. I knew I could do it after I hugged Uncle Daniel." Justine shrugged. "When I hugged him, I knew that he could heal people that were hurt and now I could do it too."
"I see." Victoria took a deep breath and glanced at Miriam. "Can you do that too, Baby?"
"Of course I can." Miriam nodded. "When I hugged him, I realized I could heal people also."
Victoria stared at Miriam for a moment and then reached into her pocket, pulling out a small pocketknife. As Daniel looked on with interest, Victoria unfolded the knife with a shaky hand and cut her thumb, wincing as blood welled up along the cut. She held her thumb out to Miriam. "Show me, Honey."
Miriam reached out and took Victoria's hand in hers, smiling as the cut quickly healed. "See? I told you so. I can also see stuff like you can, really super-small stuff that most people can't see without a microscope. Jussy can too."
"I see." Victoria tried to smile at her daughters as she put the knife away. She reached out, placing a hand on each of her daughters' heads. "Go and play, Darlings." As the girls jumped up and ran off to play, Victoria turned to Daniel, her face turning even whiter than before. "Oh my God."
"They've manifested." Daniel whispered proudly. "Empathic mimicry, from what they've described."
"Apparently through touch." Victoria slowly made her way back to the patio, collapsing into a chair. "Good lord."
"The lord had nothing to do with it." Daniel said gravely. He turned and watched the girls run through the garden, laughing and giggling. "God, can you imagine how powerful they'll be one day?"
"Can you imagine the havoc they could wreak if they're not careful?" Victoria's voice was weak with shock and fear as she watched her daughters. "If they're not taught to respect their powers and to respect humanity as a whole-" Victoria closed her eyes as a lone tear escaped and trickled down her cheek. "-oh my God."
"Yes, isn't it glorious?" Daniel smiled proudly as he watched the twins.
May 31, 1988
"Victoria!" Bob Bishop greeted her as she walked into the Hartsdale facility with her daughters in tow. He hugged her quickly before turning to the twins, dressed in identical jumpers with their hair pulled back into ponytails. "And you two must be Miriam and Justine!"
He frowned as one of the twins rolled her eyes. "No, we're some other lady's twins that she snatched off of the street!"
"Miriam!" Victoria cuffed her in the back of the head. "What have I told you about that mouth?"
"Sorry, Mom." The girl shrugged and looked away.
Bob looked down at the twins, noticing their resemblance to Victoria. They had her rounded cheeks, wide-eyes and heart-shaped mouth. With their strawberry-hued hair and vibrant blue eyes, they were identical to one another in looks, but it didn't take a rocket scientist to see that the girls were not identical in mannerisms or temperament. It took a simple glance to tell that Miriam was the rebellious one, the dominant child of the duo. Justine smiled up at him with eyes that sparkled warmly. He smiled back at her, noticing the way she leaned against her mother, suddenly shy. Nothing about Miriam was shy at all. Bob watched her as she looked around the lobby of the Hartsdale facility, her eyes scanning every surface of the room with interest. He felt a shiver run up his spine as he realized how much she resembled her father at that moment, the calculating look she appraised everything with. He shuddered more as her unflinching gaze returned to him, her eyes boring into his as she regarded him haughtily. He took a deep breath and tried to smile at her, his smile quickly fading as she raised an eyebrow at him, a move that was classic Adam Munroe. Unnerved, he cleared his throat and turned back to Victoria. "Daniel told me that he'd finally convinced you to bring them here to see Him."
Victoria grimaced and stroked Justine's hair, twining a strand around her finger nervously for a moment. "They've been getting into a bit of trouble in school lately, Miriam especially. I decided that perhaps they needed to see what would happen to someone who didn't follow the rules, someone like us, like them."
"We're different, we shouldn't have any rules." Miriam pouted.
"It is BECAUSE we're different that we should follow the rules even more than normal people." Victoria sighed and shook her head as she looked up at Bob. "I want them to meet him and see what happens when you think that being special means that you make your OWN rules." Victoria looked sternly down at her daughter. "Unless you want to end up like the man you're about to meet, you need to start minding your p's and q's, both of you."
"Yes Mama." Justine nodded, looking raptly up at her mother.
Victoria smiled down at her daughter, then looked at her oldest child. "Well?"
"Fine." Miriam sighed. "The sooner we see him, the sooner we can leave and go to FAO Schwartz."
"Well then, follow me." Bob led them down a hallway, glancing back over his shoulder at Victoria as they followed him. "Have you heard? I've been given a promotion in Odessa."
"I've heard." Victoria nodded. "Congratulations."
"Thanks." Bob smiled at her. "I thought I'd fly up here though for this. It's been too long, Victoria."
"Yes, it has." Victoria nodded. "How's the wife?"
"She's good." Bob sighed. "We have a daughter now as well. She's six. Her name is Elle."
"That's great." Victoria glanced over at Bob. "Has she-?"
"No, not yet." Bob shook his head. "I'm waiting to see what happens though. I'm sure she'll manifest before long, just like your girls there." He watched the girls as they walked ahead of them. "How much do they know?" He asked Victoria.
"Enough." Victoria nodded. "But they don't know who he is." She mentioned pointedly.
"Who IS he?" Miriam turned around and stared at her mother, intrigued.
Victoria blushed and looked away from her daughter's penetrating gaze. "Just an old friend."
As they were led down a maze of hallways, Victoria's heart pounded as she thought about her daughters meeting their father for the first, and as far as she was concerned, only time in their lives. She looked over at Bob. "He knows that he's not allowed to touch them, right?"
"I've told him repeatedly." Bob nodded. "I told him what they can do and I've told them that he's not allowed near them. He knows that he will be punished if he even THINKS about touching them."
"What'll he do if he touches us?" Miriam asked.
"Is it like a bad touch?" Justine stared up at Victoria, her eyes widening. "Like when you told us to stay away from strangers?"
Victoria shook her head. "It's not like that, Baby. I just don't want you girls to get his power."
"What kind of power is it?" Miriam turned around again, her eyes narrowing as she studied her mother. "Is it something cool?"
"It's not a power either of you girls need, so stay away from him, got it?" Victoria's voice was suddenly harsh and jagged as she reprimanded her daughter. At the surprised look on Miriam's face, Victoria sighed and shook her head. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be so-" she sighed "Honestly Miriam, why do you ask so many questions? Why can't you just take what I tell you at face value?"
"You always tell us that we'll never learn anything if we don't ask questions." Miriam shrugged. "I'm just trying to learn stuff."
"You don't need to learn about this man, trust me." Victoria's heart stopped as she heard singing down the hall, then began to race as she recognized the voice.
Thank heaven, for little girls
For little girls get bigger every day
Thank heaven, for little girls
They grow up in the most delightful ways
"Who's that?" Miriam asked, her eyes sparkling with interest. "Is that who we're going to meet?" Before Victoria or Bob could answer her, she bolted down the hall, running toward the sound of the voice.
"Miri, wait!" Victoria called after her, suddenly regretting ever bringing her daughters anywhere near this building.
Those little eyes so helpless and appealing
One day will flash and send you crashing through the ceiling
Miriam stopped as she reached a window and turned to look inside of it. A young, blond-haired man lay stretched out on a couch, his arms crossed behind his head as he watched a kung-fu movie on television with the sound turned down. His cell was well-decorated and looked almost like a bedroom, except for the fact that the only ways into the cell were either through a heavily bolted, thick steel door off to the side of the room, and a small slot in the glass wall she stood in front of, to allow access for a food tray. Miriam cocked her head to the side and studied him closely as he stopped singing and turned to smile at her. His pale blue eyes sparkled as he sat up, raising an eyebrow at her. "Hello."
Miriam frowned as she watched him. "Hello."
"Which one are you, Miriam or Justine?" The man asked.
Miriam shook her head. "How did you know my name?"
"Isn't a man SUPPOSED to know his daughters' names?" Adam purred.
"ADAM!" Victoria caught up to Miriam and glared at him through the glass of the cell. "How DARE you tell her that!"
Adam chuckled softly as he tried to look innocent. "I'm sorry, I thought she and her sister knew." He winked lasciviously at Victoria. "Hello Victoria Darling, you are still just as stunning as ever." He grinned as Victoria ignored him, pulling Miriam away from the glass wall of his cell. "And I thought I was the one who wasn't supposed to age."
"You're not my father, you can't be. You're too young!" Miriam smirked. She looked up at her mother, rolling her eyes. "How are we supposed to believe anything THIS one has to say? He's obviously a big, fat liar!"
Victoria sighed and knelt beside Miriam, Justine leaning against her while stealing furtive glances at Adam. "He's really your father, Honey, yours and Justine's."
"OH! So you're MIRIAM!" Adam chuckled. "Oh, I've DEFINITELY heard about you. You're the one that takes after me the most!"
Ignoring Adam, Miriam shook her head at Victoria. "He's too YOUNG to be our father. Now YOU'RE lying too!"
"Your mother's not lying in the least." Miriam turned to glare at Adam as he leaned against the glass wall of his cell, his arms crossed as he smiled down at her. "I might look as young as springtime, but I'm actually as old as Methuselah, older yet." He knelt down until he was eye level with Miriam. "I'm over four hundred years old, my pet. Your darling mum wasn't the cradle robber, I was."
"Four hundred years old?" Miriam scoffed as she walked to the glass and crossed her arms in front of her chest. Adam smiled as he realized how similar her stance was to one he'd just taken. "That's silly! How can ANYONE be four hundred years old?"
"By not being able to die." Adam smiled softly at her as Justine joined her at the window, both of them staring at him, wide-eyed. "That's my power, you see. I can heal from practically any injury, save decapitation or a gun shot to the head. After a while, my body stopped aging."
"Wow." Justine whispered softly. "So you're going to live forever?"
"If I'm a good boy and stay away from guns and swords, yes." Adam's eyes darted from one girl to the other, scrutinizing both of them. "Good lord how you both look like your mother. It's remarkable how beautiful you both are. You could both be her doppelgangers." He pointed to Miriam. "Except for you. You have my eyes."
Miriam sighed. "How can I have your eyes and not Jussy?"
"I don't know, but you do." Adam shrugged. "And I understand that not only are you both identical in looks, but you are identical in powers as well. If you touch someone, you absorb their power, correct?"
"Adam-" Victoria's voice was edged with a warning.
"That's right." Justine nodded. "If you have a power and we touch you, we have it then too."
"Forever?" Adam asked.
"I guess so." Justine shrugged. She turned back to Victoria. "Why are we here again?"
"Adam, you were told what to talk about with them before they arrived." Bob reminded him.
"Fine." Adam sighed as he turned his gaze back to his daughters. "I understand that the two of you have been misbehaving a bit lately."
"Just me, mostly." Miriam rolled her eyes. "Justine just gets blamed most of the time because everyone's too stupid to tell us apart."
"I can't see how anyone who met you for more than a moment or two would have ANY trouble remembering who was who." Adam chuckled as he regarded Miriam with an amused expression. "So you've been the naughty one, eh?"
"Yeah, so?"
"What exactly have you been doing?"
Miriam gave him a bored look and shrugged. "I don't do my homework and I talk back to the teacher. I've gotten detention five times in the last month." She announced proudly.
"I have too." Justine frowned and looked away. "Because Miriam told the teacher to shut the hell up and she thought it was me."
Adam bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. "Why on earth would you tell a teacher that?"
"Because she just keeps repeating the same things over and over in class. A noun is a person, place or thing. We. Get. It. Move ON already! I got bored and she just kept droning on and on and on in class so I finally snapped and told her to shut it. I'm too smart for that class anyway. Jussy and I both are. At least in detention when I'm given extra work, I have something interesting to do. And then, when we go outside to play, the teacher keeps making everyone get together to play the same stupid game. I'd rather just skip rope and do what I want to do, not what she wants the rest of us to do. I get more exercise doing that anyway than dodging some stupid ball that an overgrown mouth-breather tosses at me because he can't work up the nerve to tell me that he likes me." She sighed. "Not that it would matter if he told me anyway, I'd rather die than be that schmuck's girlfriend."
"Quite the opinionated little mite, isn't she?" Adam glanced up at Victoria.
"Mom's always taught us both that we have to have an opinion on something. She's also always taught us to learn as much as we can." Justine nodded. "She said that the more we know about the world, the better we'll be able to navigate in it when we get older."
"And she's absolutely right." Adam nodded. "But you also need to follow the rules."
"Why?" Miriam's nose crinkled up in disgust. "The rules were made by people who aren't like us. Why should the rules apply?"
"Because if you don't follow the rules, people like them will find out that people like you and I and your twin sister and your mommy and even Mr. Bishop there exist." Adam noticed the sly way Miriam's eyes cut towards Bob for a moment. "And when they find out that we can do things they can't, they're going to get scared and jealous. Normal people fear what they don't know or understand, my dear. Do you know what they do when they get scared?"
"Stupid things." Miriam nodded.
"Like lock people away, or kill them." Justine whispered.
"Exactly." Adam nodded. "And there are dangerous people out there in the world, both with powers and without, who would love to take advantage of two powerful little girls like you. That's why you must be careful and you MUST follow the rules. I didn't follow the rules and look what's become of me. I've been locked away by my own peers."
"What did you DO, anyway?" Justine asked.
Adam smiled softly at her. "I tried to make my own rules and play God. No man, no matter who he is or what he can do is allowed to do that. I tried to hurt a lot of people by making my own rules, that's why I'm locked away." He nodded to both of them. "And I'll be locked in here for the rest of my life."
"Meaning you'll be locked in here forever." Miriam said, her voice grave.
"Exactly. A life sentence for someone like me is very dreadful indeed, don't you agree?" He smiled again as the two girls nodded. "So now you see why you should behave yourselves?" As the two girls nodded again, he sighed wistfully. "What I wouldn't give to hug you both, just for a moment."
"Absolutely not!" Victoria gasped. "Adam-"
"-I know! I know!" He stood, holding up his hands. "No reason to make these two immortal just so I can know what it's like to receive a hug from my children." He winked at the girls. "Immortality's not all it's cracked up to be, anyway. Now, run along and behave yourselves, promise? I'd hate to have to look across the hall one day and see one or both of you locked away because you didn't listen to dear old Daddy." As the girls nodded again, he clapped his hands together. "Now, run along. Your mum and I have a few things to say to one another that you two don't need to hear."
"You gonna kiss or something?" Justine giggled.
"You gonna fight?" Miriam's eyes sparkled for a moment at the prospect.
He turned to Justine. "Unfortunately, no." He turned to Miriam. "And heavens no! Why on earth would I ever fight with your mum?"
"Because she kept us from you for ten years?" Miriam reminded him.
"Trust me Darling, I had it coming." Adam sighed. "Now, run along. Daddy loves you."
"If you're expecting us to say it back, we won't because we don't know you enough to love you." Miriam took Justine's hand and slowly walked down the hall to wait by a set of double doors, glancing back over her shoulder as Victoria approached the glass wall.
"Thank you, Adam." Victoria nodded. "But did you HAVE to tell them that you were their FATHER?"
"Do you honestly think they'd believe that 'follow the rules' horseshit if it had come from Joe Blow, My Darling?" Adam smirked. "Not that I think Miriam's going to listen to me one whit. You've got your hands quite full with that one, I must say."
"She has a good heart." Victoria glared at him. "She gets that from me."
"OUCH!" Adam laughed. "You really do look well."
"So do you. You realize this is the last time you'll ever see them, or me?"
"God how I'd love to kiss you goodbye, then." Adam breathed. "I think of you all of the time, remembering that night we spent together-"
"-the night you got me drunk and had Maury probably hanging around outside of my apartment door, pushing me to fuck you?"
"He wasn't there the next morning when we made love again and you said I was the best you'd ever had." Adam winked as Victoria looked away, blushing.
"Don't ask to see them again. Your request won't be granted." Victoria whispered before turning and walking down the hall to her daughters, Bob trailing behind them.
Miriam watched her mother and Bob approaching and glanced behind them towards the glass wall where her father was jailed. Her eyes widened for a moment as she saw something slowly jut out of the food tray slot. Glancing up at her mother, she took off running, ducking and dodging Victoria and Bob's hands as they reached out to stop her and galloped quickly towards Adam's cell to grasp the hand that he had slipped through the slot. The moment she touched her father's hand, she gasped and shuddered, squeezing it as she looked into Adam's eyes. He winked at her. For the first time that day, Miriam finally gave a genuine smile, winking back at him before she was tackled and knocked to the ground by Victoria, her hand wrenched out of Adam's grasp.
"OH GOD!" Victoria struggled to stand as she helped Miriam to her feet. Clutching her daughter's shoulders, she shook her violently. "WHY DID YOU DO THAT? WHY DID YOU TOUCH HIM?"
Victoria's blood ran cold as Miriam calmly looked up at her. "Because I want to live forever."
"Happy Birthday, my Darling Daughter!" Adam crowed as Bob stomped angrily to the cell.
"You're going to pay for that!" Bob shouted. "Kiss this cell goodbye and say hello to Spartan living!"
"It was worth a lifetime of bare walls." Adam beamed. "I got to give my daughter the only gift I could, eternity." As Victoria grabbed Miriam's arm and began to haul her towards the door, he called out to his daughter. "Be sure to pass that on to your sister!"
Bob yelped as Miriam reached out with her free hand, giggling as she grasped his bare hand for a moment before Victoria could pull her away. "Why you little-"
Miriam's giggles turned into peals of laughter as she reached Justine and grasped her hand, passing the newly acquired powers onto her twin. Justine gasped and turned to Bob. "You can make GOLD?"
"MIRIAM!" Victoria moaned as she opened the door to let her daughters through it. Turning to Bob, she shook her head. "I knew I never should have come here."
Bob mopped his brow with a handkerchief, shaking his head. "Those two are going to be trouble." He grumbled.
