The Only Choice...

"Mr. Carter, Miss... Jones? Come quickly, you must hear this!"
Theora practically scrambled out of the helicopter, Edison had her by the hand and was nearly pulled to his knees from the force.

"Mrs. Carter" she reminded Harriet "well, Mrs. Jones-Carter. We did get married!"

The politician gave barely a wave and then turned back, running to the mansion. "Forgive me, I forgot. I think Christina mentioned that!"

Edison trotted along, doing his best to keep up with the two women. "Miss, Garth, we didn't come for a casual chat. We came to see Christina... and we were told there will be no delays or interruptions!"
Harriet Garth reached the front doors of the mansion, stopped and turned.
"And this cannot be interrupted at all!"
Then she turned up the volume on the house speaker, and from inside could be heard they most heavenly piano playing since Liberace was around.
"It's been a long time," Edison said as they finally got a word in.
He stepped over to the ornate window and looked inside the mansion. He remembered well, her humble condo living from a few years ago.
"Love what you've done with the place. New curtains?" He asked where a wry grin.

Then he got serious, and waved Theora over to him. She was weeping, but looked in the window, and watching her adopted daughter play the piano in such a beautiful and mesmerizing way, it was enough to calm her, make her pause, and just listen.

"Has she always been so gifted?" Harriet asked, interrupting their thoughts. "I ask... because I figured you would know her better than anyone… "

"She's talented," Edison said as he leaned on the glass a little bit. Theora took the moment to sneak away.
"This goes beyond mere talent," Harriet insisted. "I've checked her records and she has no formal training!"
She's had a little bit of training," he corrected in a slightly defensive tone.

Harriet smiled with glee. "I'm trying to get her interested into doing a public performance. So far she doesn't choose to."
"There's an awful lot to be said for privacy, Miss Garth! I was told you have her best interest at heart; Putting her on display seems counterproductive." He was now a little angry and a little disappointed. Christina was a whiz kid at some things, and very naive at other things. There were plenty ways to abuse someone, and Edison wondered how aware Christina was, that Harriet was using her. Everyone aware of the situation, was convinced she was being used, but if she knew, why was she a willing participant?"

Besides a valid fear of Simon Peller?

Harriet just smiled broadly and threw out her arms. "That kind of talent, it shouldn't be hidden!"

x-x-x

Theora stood behind Christina, remaining quiet and still, letting the piano music seep into her psyche, and bring her a sense of calm. It was a slow piece, and evoked a mood of longing and hope.
Music had a magic all its own, but in this case it was being played by the young girl genetically altered by science and suffered horrific abuse but was taken in by her and Edison and became a surrogate daughter to Theora.
She moved in a little closer, wanting desperately to embrace the girl after she had been "lost" for so long. It was almost a year earlier that Christina had been driven away, but not before launching a terrifying attack on Simon Peller that resulted in his temporary blindness and a renewed determination to persecute Christina and her kind.

The piece finished then. Christina's hands hovered over the keys for a mere moment.
"Christina!" Theora wept.

She leapt up from the bench, embraced Theora hard.
"Mommy!" she wept softly.

Edison came in, followed by Harriet, and Christina pulled him into the embrace.
"You'll want some privacy," Harriet told them gently "the mansion has cameras in most rooms. Christina, the gazebo. No! Take them to the stables. Mr. Carter have you or your wife ever ridden a horse?" Harriet asked in a voice that was too cheery.

"Gazebo is fine!" Christina said, growing weary of the schmoozing. She grabbed Edison with her left hand, Theora with her right hand. "Come on!"

The reporter and the controller followed behind Christina as fast as they could, with Theora moving ahead of Edison and Edison trying to slow her down.
"We looked for you, for Kyle. What happened to you?!" Theora asked.

Christina ascended the steps and sat on the bench, huffing and puffing from the frantic run.

"Went to the hospital, I needed medical help... then wen to stay with... your friends, Reg and Dominique. Kyle knew them from way back... after that, there was nowhere for me to go." She looked at Theora, relieved at her soft appearance, then at Edison, put off a little at his decidedly grimmer visage. She then looked down and kicked at some leaves. "We left the country."

"Norway?!" Edison asked, with a tone that made Theora throw him a cautious glance.
Christina looked back up and smiled.
"Kyle had an idea... and he needed my help."
"You didn't stay there. Why not?" he queried.
"We never would have seen her again," Theora interjected "well, you were trying to help, right? To make up for what you did to Simon Peller?"

"Tommy would have been safer, there!" Edison insisted.
It was an open air gazebo, with a full view of the mansion and the grounds, but it wasn't enough; she still felt stifled.
"Theora, that... wasn't my first thought. Tommy's family. Tommy wanted to be with me and Kyle, He didn't want to stay there!"
"He's not safe here, Christina. He's in Peller's backyard!" Edison reminded her, in a cool tone.
"Kyle's with him. Nothing bad will happen to him... besides," she threw out her hands and smiled "he's ok now! I fixed his brain, like Max and Bryce fixed yours! As for that monster, Peller, he knows all about it, we told him everything."

"He's a little naive," Theora warned. "Like a lost child. We're just worried, is all."
"I patched his brain as best I could. There was no real reference to build on. He's been in that state since he was 9 months old. He's really doing good... all things considered."
"Now, who's violating all the scientific laws!" Edison said.
Christina didn't hear him, she stepped away, looking towards the mansion and the young man coming towards them.
"Roger," she acknowledged, as the young man waved and sprinted towards them.
"I'll come back... after the election... Roger, Edison and Theora!"
"Pleasure!" Roger stuck out his hands to both.
"Is everything ok, here?!" Edison demanded.
"Oh, good, fine, wonderful. We quite literally took her from the claws of Simon Peller. Mr. Carter you might think about an investigation into that prison. It's a couple miles past the abandoned nuclear plant. Horrifying place. The bastard was trying to murder her!"
Roger frowned. "I can tell your concerned. Look, it's in my not-so-humble opinion, that Christina is safer her than anywhere else."
And Roger smiled.
"Until Miss Garth wins the election."
"You seem very certain," Edison said, the doubt in his voice was evident.

Christina edged away from them, kicking at the grass below her feet. Theora followed her at a careful distance, hesitant to give her any advice on how to deal with a problem that she, herself, could not truly comprehend.
"You're ok with this?" she asked, putting a tender hand on Christina's arm.
"Well I have to be! There's no safe place just safer!
At least Harriet Garth is an important person on MY side!"
She wiped a hand across her face.
"I'm going to Network 66 tomorrow. They want some publicity video."
"It's a horrible idea!" Theora said harshly. "What happened there is a nightmare none of us can wake up from!"
"No, it's a good idea! It's good for me!" Christina poked at her own chest.
"Because I'm in control now! I write my own narrative from now on!"
Theora shook her head. "It isn't just about you, anymore," she replied in a quieter tone. "Blast! I wish Kyle was here! He could tell us so much more!"
"He needs to stay with Tommy," Christina said, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Don't be mad at me, please! It's... gonna be ok, Theora it HAS to be ok!"

x-x-x

Bryce Lynch sat at his computer and typed away rapidly, frantically. He put in code after code after code into a new machine that had sat dormant in storage room number 15 for almost as many years. It was an older project he had re-designed to help with meditation and relaxation and had recently been re-redesigned as a alter-finding device. Shaped like a sphere within a sphere it had an electronic control panel in the front and a seat in the middle. With a liberal application of his own power he could find an even communicate with Alters all over the globe.
Bryce stopped, turned around in his chair.
"How are you doing Tommy? Getting a lot out of those encyclopedias?"
"I'm on volume number 420!"
"Let me know when you need volume Five Hundred through 1000. I'll fetch them from storage room number 25!"
There was a knock at his lab door and Bryce jumped up to answer it. He looked into the face of a young girl with long dark blond hair and green eyes. She seemed afraid.

"You must be Annie Mackenzie?

She shuffled her feet and pulled at the bag on her back "I've been waiting down the lobby for an hour. I didn't tell my dad that I got here yet. Maybe you could tell him for me?
Bryce stepped back and pulled the door open "Come in," he said kindly. "Hey, you don't have to worry. You're safe here. I have a contract and that includes you and anyone under 22 in my lab!"
It was obvious the girl was nervous. Bryce carefully pulled at the bag on her back, working it from her body.
"Ah! Thanks, thanks, thanks, I think I made the straps too tight. Wrinkled my clothes. My mom sent me on the bus and wants me to call her."
"The phone is right there Bryce pointed, then went to the back room.

"I make things float! Tommy said with glee, pointing to the cot that hovered several inches off the floor.

"Floater boy!" The voice belonged to Kyle who had just returned from his rounds as Network 23 gopher.
He leaned over to Bryce and whispered in his ear. "That girl is a nervous wreck."
Bryce threw up his hands "We are all nervous wrecks, Kyle. Let me explain this particular kind of nervousness for you! The Scumball finals from last week? Remember that remember how close that was?"
"It... looked really close, Kyle admitted.

"It was! It had me on edge the entire time okay.. But in a good way. In a fun, everything is going to be cool no matter who wins, kind of way! The election is in two days and the race is tight! Have you seen the latest poll results, those two are neck and neck, and I'm not having nearly the good time I had last week!"
Kyle scratched his head. "I got to get back to work… listen, everything's going to work out. Harriet Garth will win. We got to think positive."
His scratching turned to rubbing, now on his forehead. His brow crinkled and it was hard to hide how he really felt. Christina's absence and the sense of impending doom was weighing hard on the empath.