Author's Note: This entire story grew out of my original story which was called Manipulation. It was going to be about some bad guy who was manipulating Jeffrey into some dangerous situation. But as I wrote more details about my characters and they became less two dimensional, other ideas rolled in and knocked around. One thing led to another and before I knew it, the manipulation story was embedded into an entirely new idea about fathers and sons. Then I had to go back and rework a lot of chapters and do some other clean-up work. I scattered some details throughout the story quite late so that it could all be part of one cohesive whole. The first chapter was added late too, it was originally going to start with what is now chapter two, but I figured I should have the boys start off the story and I had to insert some more details into it before the story got started anyway. The story arc about Rachel and Steven also grew unexpectedly because of my desire to have more fully developed characters, and I had to go back and put in details to bring that in line with the overall story too. Sorry for rambling, as Bogg would say "Voyager's Perogative" (from Cleo and the Babe).

Chapter 14 Manipulating Jeff

The next morning was a repeat of the first, and soon Jeff was curled up in the chair in Bogg's room engrossed in the book. Soon enough, Rachel appeared again to take Jeffrey to lunch.

"Rachel, could I ask a favor?" Phineas began as soon as he saw her.

"Of course," she answered immediately.

He motioned his head toward Jeffrey, "he's had his face in that book for hours, would you show him the ropes courses after lunch? Just so he knows there's more here at headquarters than books?" Phineas asked.

Rachel laughed and shook her head, "you got it, okay kid, let's get going or we won't have time for everything we've gotta do."

"Ropes courses?" Jeff asked as he got up to leave. "That sounds interesting."

Phineas smiled and stretched out on the bed as the nurse came in to start the next dose of medication.

They ate a quick lunch and then Rachel took Jeffrey to a building next to the Academy. Jeff's jaw dropped when he saw what was inside.

"I don't know what a ropes course is, but this looks like a lot more than ropes," he said as they walked inside. The room was huge, and it was filled with more things to climb on and through than Jeffrey could believe. He didn't know where to go first.

"Yeah, we call it the ropes courses, but it's everything. I think I remember Phineas and his gang playing around in here a lot, even when we weren't assigned."

"Can I climb?" Jeff asked, staring at the rope ladder in front of him that stretched all the way to the high ceiling. He would definitely have to spend a lot of time in here with Bogg when he got better. Until then, he figured he'd better practice so he would be able to keep up with him.

"Sure, I got permission to take a long lunch," Rachel told him settling down to watch him as Jeff rushed forward.

He was very agile, nothing at all like Steven, who seemed so uncoordinated at times. She smiled when she thought of her son. It was still a strange feeling, that she had a son. He was so smart, but so different from the other kids around him. That's why she couldn't leave him in that orphanage. He had been bullied and made fun of relentlessly. When she had to leave him in that place, it tore her apart. She'd been thinking about leaving field work and taking a job in R & D anyway, but leaving Steven was what finally convinced her to do it. It took awhile for the Commitment to be approved, but after that, the adoption in 1952 had been easy, his mother had willingly given her consent, she had never understood him, they weren't at all alike.

Rachel and Steven however were a great deal alike. Their life together had been easy to adjust to and they had always gotten along well. His brain worked just like hers did, he'd be a natural at research some day. Until then however, he'd still be an outcast in a culture so heavily into sports, but at least with a family, he had a loving home, a shelter to come home to when the world got too cruel.

The red light suddenly beeping on her omni interrupted her thoughts. "What the ..." she whispered pulling it off her belt and looking at it. She had never been involved with a Level 1 emergency before.

"Jeffrey?" she called, he was very high up, close to the high ceiling.

"What?" he called back.

"There's an emergency in Mission Control, we have to go!" she called and even at this distance, Jeff knew something serious had happened and that it would take him a few minutes to climb down.

"You can go, I'll go back to Medical," Jeff called out as he started down.

Rachel hesitated, "be careful climbing down," Rachel called up to him, wishing he could go faster. She looked at her watch. A minute had already gone by and he still had a long way to go.

"Really Rachel, I'll be fine, I promise I'll go right back to Bogg," Jeff called down as he continued to climb.

He wouldn't be allowed in the Control Center during a red alert anyway, Rachel thought to herself, then she made a decision. "Okay, be careful coming down and go right back to Medical, all right?" she called back as her omni buzzed again, this time louder.

"Yeah, good luck," Jeff called as she left. He continued climbing and reached the sandy floor about 5 minutes later.

John Walker watched Jeffrey climb nimbly up to the top of the rope ladder, then whispered into the patch on his shirt collar. Almost instantly, Rachel's omni began to blink red and beep. He watched and listened to their exchange and smiled when Rachel left the building. As Jeffrey reached the ground he turned to pick up his gym bag and headed toward the rope.

"Hi," he paused, "it's Jeffrey isn't it?" Walker said as he approached.

Jeff froze, realizing he might be in danger. What should he do? He glanced around, Walker was between him and the door, but it was a large area and he could probably maneuver himself around to a safer position. He made a decision to play along with whatever Walker said. Bogg had been teaching him about multiple plans for escape from any situation and this looked like a good time to make some plans. Even though things seemed fine at present, Jeff realized that Bogg was right. Walker had an omni, all he'd have to do was get close enough to touch Jeff and they could be far away from here.

"Hi," he said in a friendly tone and fake coughed a few times.

Walker paused, taken by surprise by the coughing. "I just came in to get some exercise before I go back into the field," he said.

"Sorry," Jeff said, continuing to cough and walking around him toward the door, "I just need some air." He was improvising, and it seemed to be working. Walker was watching him with concern.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Just my asthma, I guess the climb was too much for me," Jeff answered.

Walker followed Jeff to the door, how could a voyager have asthma, especially if exercise made it worse?"

"I thought you'd voyaged with Phineas Bogg? How could you do that with asthma?"

Jeff panicked as he led the way out the door. What was he going to do now? "It just started," he said walking across the grass toward the hospital building, trying to keep himself more than an arm's length away from Walker.

John Walker kept up with him. He was confused. This didn't make any sense. The kid had referred to his asthma at first as though he'd had it for a long time, and now as though it had just recently been discovered. The kid seemed afraid of him, and suddenly he knew that Rachel had spoken to him, and maybe even Bogg. He slowed his pace to think. He needed the hook to get the kid's interest, so he took out the brand new silver omni and held it out toward him as they walked. He held it in the palm of one hand so the kid would be able to see that he couldn't activate it. "I just got my teaching omni, I'm going to observe Columbus landing in the New World."

Jeff saw the omni out of the corner of his eye, and he understood the non-threatening way it was being offered to him. Maybe this guy wasn't so bad after all. He slowed his pace but continued toward the medical building. Walker's comment caught his interest. "You can't just go to watch, Bogg said that's not allowed, you might mess something up."

"With a regular omni that's true, but this one allows observation, I'll be using it with students. We're shielded from the regular time stream. It's so students can see historical events."

Jeffrey stopped walking and looked at the omni, still keeping his distance, "that sounds great," he said seriously. "Do you think Bogg can get an omni like that?' he asked, looking up at Walker.

John Walker smiled, he had diffused this situation quite well. The kid had obviously been warned about him, so he couldn't continue on with his plans for today, but he could tell he had piqued the kid's interest and gained his trust. It was time to go now.

"I doubt it, only teacher's are authorized to use one," he paused, "well, I didn't mean to walk this far out of my way, I was just worried about your breathing. You seem better now, so I'm gonna head back to the ropes courses. I'll see you around," he finished.

Suddenly Rachel rushed up from behind him and put herself in front of Jeffrey, out of breath. "Stay away from him," she said, dropping all pretense.

"I was just leaving," Walker said in what he was sure was a well acted surprised tone. Then he turned and walked away, he would let Jeffrey explain. "See you Jeff."

Rachel stared after him as he walked away, a confused look on her face. "What just happened?" she asked Jeff and he related the events of the encounter as they walked back to Bogg.

"What was the emergency?" Jeff asked her after he'd finished.

"False alarm," she told him. I came back as soon as they released me, we've never had a false alarm before, and I thought it was a bit suspicious, since it happened right when you were the farthest away from me you could be. Guess I was right."

"You think he had something to do with it?" Jeff asked in disbelief.