A/N: Takes place immediately after the previous chapter. Thanks to everyone for the reviews and story alerts.

Never Doing That Again

Alice Carter looked at her father. She knew he was particularly vulnerable right now, and it was probably her only chance to get him to talk about his past. She desperately wanted to understand him and how he became the man she knew. "First things first, Dad, you said you've been through this before. I want to know about the other baby, and I want the whole story. Start at the beginning and tell me what happened."

Jack took a deep breath and steadied himself. This was a part of his life he had tried to forget. "I was 16 years old when I ran away from home and joined the military with my best friend. We lied about our age, not that anyone cared. There was a war going on and they needed warm bodies. It didn't matter where those bodies came from. I told my friend we were doing it for the adventure, but that was a lie. The beings we were fighting were the worst kind of monsters you could imagine. They didn't just kill people when they invaded; they took prisoners and tortured them just for the fun of it."

"I wasn't being virtuous. I had my own reasons for wanting to fight them. A few years earlier, these monsters had invaded my home. There was no reason for it. We had nothing anyone would want. Many people died that day; the less fortunate were captured and never seen again. We knew what would happen when the invasion started, but we had no way to protect ourselves. I was out with my father and brother when it happened. Mom was at home."

"Dad told me to take Gray and run. I was supposed to take care of him while Dad went to get Mom. I don't know how it happened, but somehow I let go of Gray's hand while we were running. One moment he was with me, the next he was gone. I ran back to look for him, but I never found him. He wasn't among the dead. When I got home I saw Dad's body. I had to tell my mother, as she cried over my father, that I had lost my little brother. I don't think she ever forgave me. I ran away so she wouldn't have to see me anymore. I joined the military to fight the monsters that tore my family apart and to find my brother. I'm telling you all this so you will understand why I was so desperate to stay."

Alice was shocked. She had no idea something so traumatic had happened to her father when he was so young. There was one thing that bothered her, though. "You really believe that your mother blamed you for the aliens taking your brother?"

"Of course." Jack seemed confused by the question. "It was my fault. I was supposed to take care of him and I let go. How could she not blame me?"

"So, she never actually said she blamed you, did she?"

"She wouldn't, she's my mother."

"Exactly, that's why I'm positive she didn't blame you. You were just a child yourself. If she blamed anyone, it was your father. He never should have left you. Even if he was sure your mother would die or be captured if he didn't go to her, he should have stayed with you. Instead, your father left a child to protect himself and an even younger child from an enemy he felt a grown woman stood no chance against."

Jack was angry. "My father was a good man! He loved us; he didn't abandon us. He thought Mom needed him. If I hadn't let go, we would have made it to a safe hiding spot together."

"Maybe, or maybe you both would have been taken. How do you think your mother would have felt if she had lost both of her children that day? I'm not saying your father was a bad person, but he made a mistake. If he had asked your mother what to do, she would have told him to forget about her and to keep you and your brother safe. Mothers are supposed to sacrifice themselves for their children, not the other way around. I'm sure he loved your mother very much, but I'm also sure that what he did wasn't what she wanted. If he had lived, she probably would never have forgiven him."

Jack was silent for a moment. He wasn't sure he really believed that. Alice wasn't the first person to tell him it wasn't his fault, but he just couldn't accept that. He didn't really want to think about it anymore. "It doesn't matter, anyway. That was a long time ago, at least for me. Even if Mom didn't blame me, I blamed myself. I needed to find Gray, and I didn't know how else to do it. Unfortunately, a very important general took a liking to me. It was either give him what he wanted or be sent home for being underage. They probably could have put me in prison for lying about my age. I just did what I had to do until the day it all fell apart."

"My best friend and I were out on patrol when we were captured by the enemy. They tortured him and when they had gotten all the information out of him, they killed him. They made me watch. Then they left me in the middle of nowhere with no provisions to either die or somehow find my way back to my unit. I did manage to do that, but I was in pretty bad shape. I was being treated by the medics when they discovered I was pregnant. I was too far along for them to end it and, when they realized who the father most likely was, I was shipped off to a secure medical facility."

Alice was horrified. "So they knew what he was doing to you and they did nothing to stop it? Then they had the nerve to punish you for it?"

Jack was more pragmatic than Alice. "The general was very important for the war effort. He was vile, but he got results. I was nobody. I didn't matter except when I had indisputable evidence growing inside me. They couldn't let his reputation be tarnished. At the very least he might have been sent home. He could have faced court martial for what he did if I could prove it. He wouldn't have done anyone any good in prison. So I was given a choice, stay in the medical facility until the baby was born and let them find it a good home, or refuse to cooperate and my baby wouldn't survive its birth. I was young and already pretty sick after what I had just gone through to get back to base. No one would believe the death was anything but natural."

"I was incredibly sick the whole time. I would have had to be in a hospital anyway. I was on strict bed rest the last couple of months. When they baby was finally born, they just took it away. I don't even know if I had boy or a girl. As soon as I had recovered enough, they sent me home. I kept my mouth shut like a good little soldier, and all my mother knew was that I had joined the military and had been injured in the line of duty. A couple of years later, I joined the Time Agency and the rest is history. Or not, since none of it has actually happened yet."

Alice didn't know what to say. There was so much she didn't know about her father. He seemed so calm about the abuse he had suffered, as if it was just something that had to happen. Such tragedy in his life, and they hadn't even gotten past his teen years yet. She understood why he preferred not to talk about it, but she really needed to understand who he was and how he got to be that person if she was ever to completely forgive him. Unfortunately, she sensed that this was just the tip of the iceberg. She didn't like that she was obviously taking advantage of her father's vulnerable state and his need for her help, but she wasn't going to let that stop her.

Next up: "Did you ever find your brother?" Alice opens up a whole other can of worms.