All characters and places in this story belong to the Disney Corporation, just like Lucasfilm, ESPN, Pixar, Marvel, Jim Henson Productions and ABC do.
The original creators were Mark McCorkle and Robert Schooley.
I receive nothing for the writing of this story.
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A Special thanks to Temporaryinsanity91 for not only Beta reading this chapter, but for putting up with me.
Time to say thank you to the people that have left reviews for the previous chapter.
Krikanalo, Ajw1970, CajunBear73, UnknownDescent, Jimmy1201, Sentinel103, Shinzochi, and Beckman.
Sorry it has taken so long for me to update the story. I won't bore anyone with the details so lets just say real world thingies.
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Previously
She looked at it carefully, examining, or memorizing the calligraphy that they used and the wax seal marking it as something special, but she barely glanced at the postmark proving when it was mailed. She then picked up her purse and put the unopened envelope in it.
Both Ron and Kim asked in shocked voices, "Aren't you going to open it?"
Ann smiled at the two and said nonchalantly, "I don't have to to know what is in it. I'll leave that honor up to your father when we see him. It may make things a lot easier to explain if he is the first to open it.
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While Ron went out to the garage to try and get most of the dirt and grime from BONNIE off him at the Tweeb's old wash station, Kim went upstairs to change and start getting herself ready for the interview. Her mother had already dressed while they waited for Ron, asked her daughter for permission for something before she went up to change.
Inside the garage, Ron had removed his shirt and was busy at the sink trying to scrub his face, hands and arms clean when he heard the door open and close. With his face covered in soap, he said, "Ya know KP, I think we're finally back on track. In a way, I think we've done more good in the last twenty hours than we did on all the missions we went on. I mean we did good things then, but not the kind of things that made me feel this good about ourselves. Know what I mean?"
"Yes Ronald. I do." came Ann's voice.
Turning quickly as he grabbed one of the old towels they kept there for this purpose, he tried to wipe the soap from his face and cover his top half, embarrassed at being caught without his shirt.
Anne smiled a little bit. "Ron, I seem to remember putting a little boy in the bath tub with my daughter so I could get them both clean while I washed his clothes before his mother stopped by to pick him up... and he was wearing a lot less than you are now." Her small smile had morphed into an amused smirk.
Ron smiled sheepishly at her as he remembered the great mud pie fiasco during his and Kim's time in Pre-K. His mother had dropped him off for a play day and he's tried to impress Kim by showing her how to make mud pies. They'd ended getting more on themselves than anything else.
"Yeah," he said as he finished wiping the soap off his face, trying to not be so obvious about hiding behind the towel. "Sorry about that."
"Ron, I'm not trying to seduce you. I need your help," she said after seeing his reaction. At some other time she might have felt slightly charmed that she could get such a reaction from a young man, but this was not that time.
"Mom, I don't know what else I can do right now." Ron mumbled with a sigh.
"Ron, what I need from you is for you to tell me what's going on in his mind. I need to know what I can do to help bring him home. You gave me the first glimpse last night when you said what you thought about his letter. That was the first time I got past "what" he did and understood some of "why" he did it. I know from what you said last night to Kim that you were ready to do the same thing to her if you thought it would help. Please, share some of that with me and what you think he's feeling. Please, Ron." and then she added, "Son?"
Seeing two chairs that had been brought out at one point or another, he went over and wiped one off and indicated for Ann to sit in it while he pulled the other over to face it and for him to sit in after she'd taken a seat.
Ann waited for him to sit down and while he looked at his hands trying to figure out how to put feelings into words. It took a couple of minutes of silence before he started.
"Based on what you said, what I read in his letter and what I felt with Kim," and here he took a deep breath before plunging into it. "I think he felt like we all did at one point. That it was all his fault and he feels totally responsible for everything. He thought you were stronger than he was and that he was only dragging you down because of him."
She sat there as her body stiffened and her hands clenched as she willed herself not to interrupt him even though she wanted to vehemently deny what he was saying.
Ron understood her expression and smiled sadly. "I know that's right and not really how it was, that's just the way I think he felt it was." He was silent a moment before he spoke again. "I don't think he left you, even if that's what he did, so much as he gave you up."
Seeing the look she had on her face, one that showed she didn't understand, Ron continued, his voice distant. "Near the school at Yamanouchi, there is a small town with an orphanage and I spent some time there with them helping out. One night, I heard someone knock at the front door and when I went to answer it, I found a baby that someone had left there with a note asking them to please take care of the baby. When I woke the headmistress, she took the baby and as she was checking it out she explained to me that there were basically three reasons why someone would leave a baby like that. One, the child really was an orphan with no one to take care of it. Two, it was an unwanted baby that someone just didn't want to be bothered with. Three, it was a very much wanted baby, but the parents knew that they were so poor or unable to bring it up properly, that it would have a better life with someone else. They gave it up because they loved it so much, they gave it up so it would have a better life than they could give it. That's why I think he left you Ann. So you could have a better life than if he'd stayed."
Ann had to control herself, holding back her tears even as her fingernails dug into her palms. It was several moments before she was able to ask the question that was like fire on her mind and on her tongue. "What about now, Ronald? It's been over six months. What's he feeling now, after all that time?"
Wanting to be as honest as he could with her, since he knew that last night with Kim was a result of the talk she had with Kim before she went to bed, he tried to image his own life, if he had ended up leaving Kim and that took more than a few minutes.
"Mom, I don't think he's in a very happy place right now. If...if this were me, thinking I was totally to blame for everything that he thinks really happened, and I had left Kim after making sure that she had money coming in,... I might have totally withdrawn into myself, feeling the self loathing and the need to be punished for what I'd done. I wouldn't have been able to do anything other than try and figure out how to fix something that I didn't believe could be fixed. I don't know how he is still able to work."
"Make a heaven of hell or a hell of heaven." she mumbled after a moment's silence.
"What?"
"It's a quote John Milton's Paradise Lost. 'The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, or a hell of heaven.'"
At that moment, they both heard Kim call, "Mom. We should probably get going now."
"Okay Kimmie. I'll meet you at the front door." As she stood up, she "Thank you Ronald. That may help." As she was walking to the door to take her back into the house she stopped and without turning to face him she said, "Thank you." again. "Thank you for not leaving my daughter when she needed you and thank you for taking care of her when she needed you most."
She then hurried out of the garage and back into the main house to meet Kim before they left to try to bring James back home.
xxx
Mother and daughter took Ann's van to the Space Center with Kim driving. While her mother was trying to think of what to say to her husband, if given a chance, Kim was devoting almost as much time watching her speed as she was watching the road. She was anxious to get there to find out something about her father and more than twice, she had to slow the van back down to the speed limit. Even though her mother was lost in thought, Kim could tell she was just as anxious too considering the number of times she'd opened her purse to make sure their wedding invitation was there.
What Kim didn't know was how many times during their trip Ann regretted not going to that cupboard before leaving the house, just to get something to help calm her nerves for the meeting. Ann hoped she was able to hide the slight trembling in her hands from her daughter. Unsure if it was being nervous at the prospect of seeing James again or an aftereffect from her trying to make the pain go away over the last six months, she put the question behind her about how long it would take till she felt safe to hold a scalpel in her hands again.
When they could see their destination's entrance, Kim held out her hand for her mother to take as she said, "Have faith mom. We are going to talk to him and convince him to come home again so we can put this mess behind us and make sure that it never happens again."
xxx
As they pulled up, Kim could see that there were now two sets of gates. Another had been set up about seventy feet behind the other, enough room to allow a semi tractor and trailer to pass the first set of gates but still have room to stop for the second. It was manned by the military. The person at the first gate was a familiar face, even if she hadn't seen it in over a year. Frank Flanigan.
Frank Flanigan had been working Security at the Space Center longer than Kim had been alive, ever since he'd been drinking at a dive bar one night in a very bad section of town, trying to drown his sorrows over being unemployed, when a man and his pregnant wife walked in. Their car broke down and since it was below freezing outside, her husband didn't want to subject her to the temperature while waiting. All they wanted was to make a phone call for a cab and then a tow truck.
None of the normal bar flies were in that night, most of them had been driven out by a bunch that thought themselves bad-asses. Some of those guys fancied the woman and started making some rude suggestions to the lady about what they intended to do to her and how they meant to make sure that they happened after they took her husband out of the picture. Frank glanced at the bartender and saw that he was already calling the police even though the last time he'd called them about a bar fight, it'd taken thirty minutes for them to show up. Way to long a time to do any good. Glancing at the husband, he's saw he was as ready for the fight as he would ever be. Scared as hell, but ready to fight with all he had till the end.
Frank would never say that he'd come to their rescue that night, even though they kept telling him that over the years. The truth was he got the crap beat out of him, even worse than James Possible did, because he tried to help them, but he'd managed to help stall things till the police finally got there. While he was still in the hospital, he had a couple of visitors and found out that not only had his hospital and Doctor's bills been taken care of, but he had a job waiting for him, so to say he had a personal history with James and Ann Possible was an understatement.
As he saw the van start to pull up to the gate, thinking it was Ann again, he felt bad because since James had revoked her visitor's pass, he still couldn't let her in the Center to talk to her husband. He had heard the rumors too about their daughter and the way she'd treated them. Those rumors hadn't come from her father, since he hadn't spoken a word to anyone about the break up, but from people in town that knew them. Or had known them. Just as he wondered how the girl that had done so much for the world, could have treated her parents that way, he looked up to see the window of the van start to roll down to reveal a different redhead than he was expecting to see.
"Hello Mr. Flanigan. How are you?" came the redhead's voice.
It took a couple of heart beats before he could answer and in that time, Kim got a feeling of apathy from him, as if she was the last person he wanted to see, as his stance stiffened. When he recovered, he quickly looked at the list of people that had appointments at the center that day before he turned back to her saying, "I'm sorry Miss Possible, but you haven't been given clearance to enter the facility."
"Try loking under my married name. Stoppable. Agent Kim Stoppable from Global Justice." She paused before adding, "And friend."
During the time that Ron and Big Mike were stripping BONNIE down, Mike had told Ron about some of the rumors that were going around about them and the Possibles, just so he could try and separate what really had and hadn't happened. Ron was more than willing to talk about what happened figuring that it was better to let Mike know the truth instead of letting him believe some of the stories that were being spread around. Ron had told Kim some of the worst ones just to let her know what people were thinking happened. With Kim and her mother going out, they might get a chance to do some damage control for both families just by being seen together.
Frank looked past Kim, to the person sitting in the passenger's seat, and he saw the friend he had been first expecting to see when Kim rolled down her window. It took him about a minute to decide that things must not have been as bad as the rumors suggested or else the two wouldn't be in the same van together.
Smiling at Kim but looking towards her mother, he said, "I'm sorry Ann. I never called like you asked because I never saw him leave."
"Have you seen him at all?" Ann asked.
"Only walking from one building to another, but that's only been a handful of times over the past year and none at all in the last few months." he replied. "I'm sorry."
Kim asked her mother what they were talking about as Frank got their driver's licenses and prepared their temporary visitor's passes.
"He's an old friend of your father's and mine and I asked him to please let me know when your father left the center. I thought I might be able to catch him away from here and we could talk." she replied.
Frank handed them their visitor's badges telling them to wear them at all times while they were on property and when they left to turn them in and they would get their driver's licenses returned then. He then told Kim to drive up to the next set of gates to have the van inspected and turn over any electronic devices, reminding them to follow any orders given by the military guards there.
Kim checked to make sure that she was wearing a backup flash drive necklace that Wade had given her before he went into seclusion. He had told her to always wear it since she would never know when she might need it.
Just as he was about to turn away, he looked like he wanted to say something but couldn't. Finally he said, "Good luck Ann. I hope you find what you want." He then turned to Kim and said, "Kimberly, nice to see you again and I'm sorry about some of the things I may have thought about you over the past year."
"It's okay Mr. Flanigan. I probably deserved some of them. Not all, but some."
Twenty minutes later as they were parking the van in their assigned parking space to await the person to escort them inside, Ann could have described her daughter as looking 'petulant.' That would have been the word she'd use when Kim was growing up or when she was talking about it in polite company.
"I have never been through such an intensive search, questioning or security interrogation in all my life, and that includes when we went to meet the President after that ordeal with the Lowardians," groused Kim as she was getting out of the vehicle.
At that moment, the more accurate word would have been "pissed."
As her mother came around the side to stand by her, she said. "You and Ron may not have had to go through it Kim, but your father and I did, along with his parents and the twins."
Looking at the surprised look on Kim's face her mother explained. "Kim. It wasn't about any of us then. It was about you and Ron meeting the President. That was your moment and we didn't care about the security measures we had to go through then. But, they have beefed up the security more here. Even more than the last time I was here."
Looking at the ground and feeling the regret of her statement, Kim said, "You're right Mom. This isn't about me but about talking to dad. I'm sorry."
"Kim." Ann rested her hand on her daughter's. "It took us both over a year to get to the point where we could say 'I'm sorry,' but we need to put that behind us for a while and concentrate on the person we both need to say it to. Your father. Alright?"
"You're right again Mom," Kim answered thoughtfully. But before she could say anything more, she caught sight of something parked in a different area of the parking lot they were in. A vintage Jaguar that could only belong to one person.
Just as she was about to share this little bubble of happiness, she got a better look at it, just before the bubble burst for her. Even from that distance, she could see the grimy windshield and windows, and all the trash that was under it making it look like it had sat there for sometime unattended. Her father would have never allowed it to look like that since it was one of the things that her grandfather had bequeathed to him before he passed away while Kim was still in grade school.
Following her daughter's gaze, Ann saw the same thing she did and came to the same conclusions. That car and a walnut case were the two things his father...the walnut case! She'd forgotten all about it. A little fear crept into her concern about her husband, especially if Ron was correct about his mental state.
"Come on Kimmie. Let's just wait till we talk to your father before we start jumping to any conclusions."
After they both had to surrender their cell phones and Kim her GJ Mobil Database, they were both escorted through a very narrow hallway into the building. Kim noticed that the hallway was an add-on to the main entrance and there were two doors on it. One marked "Entrance," and one marked "Exit." There was a security checkpoint in the entrance side so she suspected there was one on the exit side as well.
When they finally made their way to Dr. Wong's office empty office, they were asked to have a seat inside till the Doctor got back from a meeting. They both noticed their escort waited outside the door with the door open as if guarding the room, or them. They weren't sure which, but fortunately, they didn't have to wait long.
Dr. Wong came quickly into the room, still reading something in the folder in her hand as she said, "My apologies for running late. We're still trying to restructure the several departments with the staff we have on..." She stopped talking when she looked up at the two women sitting in front of her as she realized who she was talking to.
"Kimberly?...Ann? I—I'm sorry, but what are you doing here?" She asked as she checked her appointment schedule. "I was expecting an Agent Staubable."
A smile flashed across Kim's face as she said, "Its Agent Stoppable. Kim Stoppable. Ron and I were married over six months ago and I took his last name."
Dr. Wong gave Kim a nod to cover her own thoughts as she wondered if her secretary had misunderstood the name, mistyped it or if it had been misspoken in the beginning, because the name 'Stoppable,' was on a very short list of names that should have raised a red flag, along with all of the Possible family.
When James revoked their designated visitor's status, their names were automatically moved to a higher risk category and any of them requesting to enter the center would have required a second security check, but since Kim was a member of Global Justice and since the Center had requested this meeting, Dr. Wong decided to go ahead with the meeting.
Yes, she'd heard that Kimberly had gotten married back about the time that her best scientist's work started slipping at an alarming rate. A few people had said something to him about the wedding, to only witness a man almost ready to collapse into himself. No one mentioned it after that, either in his presence or absence. He had removed himself as head of any projects, but his contributions to the projects dropped steadily after that. Performance as well as psychiatric reports had been filled out, but all of this information was filed, safe and secure in his personal file in the HR computers.
Back to the moment at hand, the chairman of the board said, "Yes, well, the..."
"Dr. Wong," Kim interrupted her. "Before we get started on the reason you asked for a meeting with a Global Justice Agent, I, I mean we, have a personal favor to ask you."
Wanda Wong interlaced her fingers and put her hands on her desk as she waited for Kim to continue.
"A little over a year ago, some things were said. No. Some terrible things were said that were never meant and never should have been said in the first place. Things that tore our family apart. Everybody blamed themselves in one way or another and it took mom and me over a year before we were even able to try and talk to each other, let alone make up like we have. We just want to talk to my dad now, so he can understand what really happened."
"Kim" Wanda said as gently as she could. "I've heard about this before. Your mother told me about it back when she first came looking for James."
"Yes" continued Ann. "but what I didn't know at the time was that Kim did try to reach out to us months before James moved out. We just didn't know about it then, but I can prove it to him now, if only you'll make arrangements for us to see him, or at least pass this on to him." She finished her plea by pulling the wedding invitation out of her purse and showing it to Dr. Wong.
She looked at her hands as she thought about how to respond before she said. "Ladies, it's not like we have in him in a dungeon chained to a wall. This was all his doing and he did it well. It now involves the Center's security since he changed everything, his personal information with our Human Resources Department. Like I told you before Ann, he's removed you as his next of kin, spouse and doctor, and I can't legally disclose any of his personal information to anyone. My hands are tied in this matter since he requested in writing 'no visitors under any circumstances.' I can't even pass that envelope on to him for different reasons."
"But why?" asked both women at the same time.
"I'm not at liberty to discuss that with you."
"What about to an agency representative like Global Justice?" asked Kim.
"Only if you had a warrant or could show a just reason other than your own personal ones. Kimberly, you are here to collect information concerning an incident we had three months ago. I wish I could help you, but like I said before, my hands are..." She let the sentence trail off as an idea hit her.
Turning to her computer, she said, "There might be a way...but I need to verify something in his files." After calling up his file folder and checking that 'something,' keeping what it was to herself, she picked up her phone and started dialing as she said, "Let me check with the head of our HR department about it to see if I'm correct."
"Jennifer? This is Wanda. I need to ask you something about James T. Possible and our legal obligations so far as releasing any of his personal information." After she paused long enough to hear the reply, Wanda said, "I have Ann Possible and her daughter in my office now so I need to come to your office to ask it." She paused to listen to the woman on the other end, nodding as she jotted something down. "I'll be right down."
Turning to the two ladies in her office, she said, "I'll only be a few minutes, but don't get your hopes up. We tend to stick to the most cautious side in these matters." When she left, she pulled the door closed behind her.
Ann turned to Kim and tried to give her a reassuring smile, but before she could, Kim said without hiding her excitement, "Mom. You need to believe me when I say that I love both you and daddy and even if he never forgives me or Ron for what happened, I'm going to make sure that you two get back together. No matter what." Before she could ask her daughter what she meant, Kim had stood up and was moving behind Dr. Wong's desk to look at the file still called up on the computer.
"Kim! What are you doing?"
"Dr. Wong's not going to be able to legally tell us anything. That discussion with HR is just a dog and pony show for us. There is only one way that we can get what we need."
Seeing that the one file wasn't going to give them much information on her father, Kim pulled out her necklace and plugged it into the access port on the side of the monitor. After the system saw the new device attached, Kim started copying James's entire folder, figuring she could sort through it when they got back to the house, after stopping to pick up her laptop that Wade gave her.
"Kim! What you're doing is illegal. You could get arrested and go to prison! Not to mention losing your job!"
"Doesn't matter mom. You and Dad are more important to me. Ron will understand and he'll wait for me. We'll always get conjugal visits, but I have to do this. If you want to make sure I don't do this then all you have to do is tell the guard standing outside the door. I'm sure he will find a way to stop me, but that's the only way."
Everything was happening too fast and too slow at the same time for Ann as she wasn't sure what she should do. She was desperate to talk to her husband, but she didn't want Kim to have to pay for everybody's past mistakes. She turned to look at the door, watching the door knob for any sign that it was turning, knowing that with all of the carpet in the hallways, she'd never be able to hear any footsteps.
For Kim, time was passing to quickly while the copying was taking far to long. There was a huge amount of data in his files, probably going all the way back to his original job application and the process indicator crawled at a snail's pace. Just when it finally reached ninety eight percent, she saw her mother waving her hand almost at the same time that she heard the door start to open.
"The interview shouldn't last too much longer," said Wanda Wong to the guard outside her door before going back in. "Sorry, but I had to do some unexpected verification on a matter before I could continue. You'll be able to get back to your other duties soon. I will be asking the civilian to wait out here in the hall while I discuss the problem with the GJ agent. Please show her where the vending area is if she wants."
Looking at the two people waiting for her in her office, sitting in their chairs just like when she left them, she said, "I'm sorry, but after talking with the head of our HR department she informed me that the idea I had wouldn't apply and we are still legally bound to keep the information as 'strictly confidential.'"
After sitting back in her office chair behind her desk and seeing the disappointed look on their faces, she said, "I really am sorry Ann. You've invited me into your home many times and I always thought you and James would be together forever."
After Ann was able to mouth a 'thank you,' to Wanda, her face crestfallen, she asked about the ladies' room. As Wanda walked her to the door to ask the guard to show her where the restrooms were, she asked Ann to wait outside or in the vending area while she and Kim discussed the reason Global Justice was called in.
After Ann had left, the door closed again and Wanda was back in her chair, she turned to Kim and said, "Agent Stoppable, do you remember when you rode in what was then an untested hypersonic aircraft? I believe it was around Christmas time several years ago."
"Yes I do. It was a rescue mission to find my partner and best friend after he foiled one of Dr. Drakken's schemes to take over the world. It was a new and improved version of a GJ hover jet I believe."
"Yes. The Mark IV." Steepling her finger now, her body language showing her concentration on the matter, Dr. Wong continued. "We have five of what might be called the Mark V's here for testing. They are basically the same model except they have an on-board AI program that Dr. Freeman created which included a auto pilot that could make critical in-flight decisions should the need arise. It could take emergency evasion maneuvers if they were fired upon while the agent was working on something or wounded and unable to fly the craft themselves. It would basically be an on-board partner such as Dr. Freeman's SADI automobile was for him."
"But there was a problem with them." added Kim.
"Not with them directly." confided Dr. Wong. "You see, one night three months ago, all five of the Mark V's took off on unscheduled and unplanned trips. They went to several different destinations, unmanned and for no known reason. They stayed at those spots for twenty minutes and then returned. When we checked the on-board computers, they recorded the flight paths they took and any alterations that they made in-flight to avoid any mid-air accidents, but none of them recorded what happened after they landed or anything about the interior of the craft during the flights. When they returned, they all landed here at the Center, within minutes of each other. We thought that after checking all the programing, analyzing the data that was recorded and the flight records, we could determine how or why this happened. If it was an attempt to steal their programing designs, a programing or design flaw or someone wanted the hover jets themselves, but after three months, we are no closer now than we were the first day."
"I see." said Kim. "And you want our people at Global Justice to see if they can figure out what happened?"
"Yes. I do since we seem to be unable to solve the mystery ourselves." Turning to her computer to call up all the files concerning the hover jets disappearances and then reappearances, Dr. Wong saw that she hadn't closed James Possible's file folder. After closing that, she saw a small information work box that was open. Looking at it for about two heart beats, she closed it and then opened the file folder she needed. Reaching in her drawer to retrieve a flash drive to copy the information onto, she found it empty.
"Damn it!" she swore. "I forgot I used the last one I had for that meeting." Then, "Kimberly you wouldn't happen to have a flash drive on you, would you?"
"I beg your pardon?" asked Kim keeping a sudden feeling of fear hidden from her voice.
"When the Mark V's left, the Center's computer system went into a security lock down. Most of that was lifted after the first week, but since we're still not sure if our own computer system was involved, it has been cut off from any outside communication. The only way I can give you all the files and research that we've obtained so you can take them back to your GJ base is to copy them onto a flash drive and we are totally out of them."
"Oh." said Kim as she reluctantly and with a mounting fear of discovery handed Dr. Wong her necklace, which after a few comments about how beautiful it was, plugged it into the very same port Kim had used. Kim held her breath as Dr. Wong glanced at its contents long enough to make sure that there was sufficient space for the files and hopefully didn't look at the names of the ones that were already there. She didn't start breathing again till Wanda started copying the needed files to it.
While that was being done, she reached into another drawer and pulled out a plastic envelope and started writing on it. Kim's fear started to climb even more since the envelope looked like one that GJ used when they were collecting evidence at a crime scene, compete with a label to seal it to prevent tampering with its contents. Sitting there in silence and almost holding her breath again, Kim waited for the computer to finish copying the files, trying to appear calm.
After what seemed like forever to Kim, the files were copied. Dr. Wong removed the necklace drive and put it into the envelope and started sealing it.
"Mind if I ask what you are doing?" asked Kim, fighting her fears.
Smiling back at her, Dr. Wong answered, "When you and Ann leave the building, you will walk through an area that will erase any recordable data on any kind of drive you are carrying. It's a security measure to make sure that no data can be smuggled out. I've been told it can even wipe a purchased DVD clean. This envelope with my signature on it will allow it to pass out of the building without having to go through that. I just have to give it to your escort and he'll return it to you once you have left the building. I still have to call our Internet Tech department to inform them that files have been copied from this terminal. They keep a close watch on that sort of thing now."
As she walked Kim to the door, Wanda turned to face her. "I really am sorry I couldn't help you with regards your father and I do hope that you can find some way to get him back with his family again. He's a good person."
"Thank you Wanda. I'm not sure yet how, but it is going to happen," answered Kim knowing that Wanda had helped her more than she knew.
After she'd given the envelope to the guard along with explicit instructions on making sure that the data on the small drive did not get deleted or damaged, Dr. Wong went back to her desk and looked at her computer screen. There was another small information work box saying the same thing that the other one that she closed earlier said. "File Copying Complete." Smiling to herself, she closed this one too and called the IT department to inform them that multiple files had been copied from her computer with her authorization.
xxx
A lone man, desperate to distract his mind from all the mental pain and turmoil he was having, found an old radio where he was staying and turned it on. He'd run out of his pills the day before and he'd drank the last of the coffee that morning. Three months ago he thought he'd brought enough to last five. Wrong again he almost laughed/cried to himself. The only station he could find started playing a Johnny Cash song. One of his later ones. The lone man didn't want to listen to it, but he couldn't 'not' listen to the words.
I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything
[Chorus:]
What have I become
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know goes away
In the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
I wear this crown of thorns
Upon my liar's chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
Beneath the stains of time
The feelings disappear
You are someone else
I am still right here
[Chorus:]
What have I become
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know goes away
In the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way.
When it was over, he threw the radio on the floor and started smashing it as best he could, tears wanting to flow but couldn't. When there was nothing left of it, he fell to his hands and knee and a few managed to leak out, still beating the small bits and pieces with his hands till they started to bleed. When he tried to get himself back under control, he heard his daughter's voice say, "I told you that would be the only way left."
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The song sung by Johnny Cash is entitled "Hurt."
TBC
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