Author's Notes: I'm back but not for long. I know my 'Joshua' is off character, but let's pretend otherwise okay? And if not…
Disclaimer: No I don't own them because if I did we would be seeing a lot more than some sort of temporary day cure, Max and Logan would have kicked this virus' ass episodes ago.
Dreams of the Father
'Jamie arrived today. They found her hiding in a sewer pipeline somewhere south of Las Vegas. The bastards,' Jarod mused, 'didn't even have the decency to transport any food supplements with her—she was DOA. My colleagues, and I use the term loosely, are fascinated by the physical manifestations of her genetic makeup. God, I'll never forget the day I introduced her to Joshua. The day everything changed.'
FLASHBACK
"Joshua, come here I want to introduce you to someone," Jarod called to the little boy.
Joshua placed the last block on the tower and then trotted to the door to meet Jarod. "Father, come look at what I've built today," he said as he tried to pull Jarod towards the tower of plastic building blocks. "I made it look just like the cover on the front of the box you gave to me," Joshua said with excitement as he gazed at the plastic replica of the Space Needle. "Will you really take me there one day, Father?"
"One day, Son, I promise," Jarod said laughing at Joshua's enthusiasm. "Now come with me for a minute, I want to introduce you to your new sister."
The pair walked quietly down the long corridor of the Delfry/Hartwell facility. Jarod mused that things were changing all to quickly around them. New security guards bearing arms were already at every door waiting to check his credentials. Doctors from around the world were now working on high level cases, too many things were crossing his desk that he didn't even want to begin to understand. The less he knew about this Project Manticore the better, or so he thought.
"She's in here, Joshua," Jarod said as he led the little boy into a small room quite like his own.
"Sandman," came the lilting voice from beneath the bed. "Are you here to tell me my night story?"
"No, Jamie. I brought you a visitor," Jarod explained, "Won't you come out and say hello to him?"
Slowly the figure of a little girl emerged from under the bed, her features had been distorted to resemble those of white mouse. "Hello," she said offering a furry paw to Joshua.
END FLASHBACK
'That was the beginning of the end for Jarod Cale, and the beginning of Jarod Manchester. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't regret my decision to join Manticore. In the end, I still lost Elena and my two sons,' he thought miserably. 'I'm certain that Logan was well taken care of after the accident. Valerie always seemed like a nice young woman, I wonder if they ever had any children together? I only hope he gave up that silly hobby of his. Writing, he was always wasting his time, I only hope he found something stable. Jonas was a fool to meddle with the hover drone technology, and then that bastard Eyes Only called Cale Industries onto the platform. The Cale name was dragged through the mud of every paper around the world because of that son of a bitch,' he brooded. 'And now look at what he's doing, exposing Satan himself. I hope that man has some serious protection.'
Jarod stood up and walked to the gurney in the middle of the room to take one final look at Jamie. He just wanted for an instant to see the little girl, her eyes full of wonder as he read her Sleeping Beauty. 'Never again,' he thought bitterly gazing down at the bloodied face and mutilated body. 'I wonder what ever became of Joshua? Did he hide in the sub-basement like I had told him? Did they ever find out what he was created for? And did they find out about the flawed X5 series? They shouldn't have made it past ten years of age without severe psychological necrosis. So many questions, and no answers,' Jarod growled to the empty room, as he pounded on the door to alert the guard.
"Dr. Manchester," the guard said as he opened the door, "they're asking for you up in the Green Room. They got another delivery from Intia today."
"Thanks Linc," Jarod replied glancing back at Jaime's prone figure.
Following Jarod's eyes, Linc looked with disgust upon Jaime, "What a freak!"
"A freak?"
"Look at her. If Intia hadn't found her, someone else would have and wouldn't have set a hell of a more destructive mousetrap for her."
"The Green Room, right?" Jarod asked, as he began walking up the hallway.
"Yeah, Doc. See you later."
"Night Linc," he replied without a backward glance. 'A freak, is that what people think of my children? I may have created them in the name of science, but nonetheless they were my children. I can't let this destruction continue. I have to stop it.' Jarod thought grimly as he approached the Green Room. 'As soon as I can make the arrangements I'll activate the homing signal and call Joshua home to the cabin. I'll give him the serum, and then initiate the self-destruct sequences in the rest of the X series. I can't take any more death.'
With a heavy heart Jarod opened the door to the laboratory and saw that Intia had indeed sent another package, a little boy with a bugle.
~*~*~*~
"What a mess that was," Jarod muttered under his breath as he left the Green Room and headed for his office.
"Jarod, hold up a second," a voice called from behind. "I need to speak with you for a minute."
"If you let me get a cup of coffee first," Jarod said masking his pain. "I've been doing autopsies for 18 hours."
"About that," Craig began as they head to the kitchen area. "Agent White has requested your skills in Seattle."
Jarod stopped mid-pour, "Seattle?"
"He's tracking a few of the X-series. He wants your help in demobilizing them. They want a few live ones to experiment on."
Letting out an exasperated sigh Jarod replied, "When do I have to leave?" This is perfect timing. The antiserum is almost complete. All I have to do is figure out how to disappear once I land in Seattle. Then I can head back to the old lab. Lydecker never reported finding the entrance. So hopefully everything is still intact.
"You leave in three days. Should give you enough time to explain your findings of the rat girl and the bugler to the subcommittee."
"Not a problem Craig." Three days to pack and plan on getting Joshua to the lab. Three days to perfect the signal needed to terminate thirty years of research
*****You wanted a new chapter right? This has been on my disk for well over two months. Sorry it's short and long overdue, but school is rough and family life is harder right now that it was. I hope this will tide y'all over for a little while.