Chapter Twenty: Music to Her Ears

Irina pulled up in front of Jack's school that afternoon, a self-satisfied smirk playing about her lips. She knew Sydney must have wanted to stop this little meeting, must have wanted to sweep up her son and take him as far the hell away from Irina as she could get. That wasn't going to happen. Irina would pick up Jack as planned, and Sydney wouldn't do a damned thing about it.

"Hi, Grandma," Jack said, climbing into the car.

"Hello, my darling," Irina said, offering him a warm smile. "Where would you like to go? The park? Or are you hungry?"

"No, I'm fine," he responded. "The park's fine."

"All right," Irina said, pulling the car into traffic. "We can talk on the way. What do you want to know, sweetheart?"

"What's the CIA?"

Irina raised her eyebrows. Well, he cut right to the chase, didn't he? "Well, Jack, it's a United States government agency--" the expression on the boy's face told her he'd heard this explanation before. Well, she'd tell him something he didn't know. "--and an enemy of the Organization."

Jack's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Why did my mom and dad work for an enemy of the Organization?"

Irina smiled. She had to tread carefully here. Choose her words wisely. "Your parents didn't have the upbringing you're getting, Jack. They didn't have the knowledge you will have one day, about what the Organization is and what it does."

"Why not?" Jack furrowed his adorable little brow. He looked so much like his father.

Damn. What Irina was about to tell him was something he really should be hearing from his parents. Oh, well. Irina supposed it was better he hear it from his grandmother than from his broken, emotional wreck of a mother or his morally conflicted father. "Your mother was raised by her father, and officer in the CIA. She grew up with an entirely different sense of right and wrong."

"Why wasn't she raised by you?"

Shit. Shit shit shit. Irina pulled over beside the park, but neither of them got out of the car. "Well, Jack." Oh, there was no good way to say this except just to say it. "I had to leave your mother for a bit."

The stricken look on Jack's face was nearly enough to break Irina's heart. The boy had parents who loved him and adored each other. The possibility that one or both of his parents could leave and never come back had obviously never occurred to him.

Or had it? Irina flashed back to the birth of Emily. So tiny. Fighting for her life. Sydney fighting for her own. Irina had stayed with Jack for days, weeks. Michael had come home occasionally, unshaven, unwashed. No good to anyone. It had troubled Irina so to see her son-in-law in such a state. Crumbled. Broken. And if Irina had been troubled, there was no telling how Jack must have felt, seeing his big strong daddy in pieces. He must have been so very afraid.

As he must have been now, listening to his grandmother tell how she'd left her own daughter. Well, Grandma would put his fears to rest. "Jack, honey," she said gently. "Remember how I stayed with you after your sister was born? When your mom and dad were at the hospital?"

Jack nodded silently, looking about ready to burst into tears.

Irina placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "You will never have to be alone like your mother was. I promise you."

Jack looked at her, bewildered. "But Mom wasn't alone. You said she had her dad."

Irina sighed. "Jack, honey, I'm afraid she would have been better off alone than with her father."

Jack frowned as if trying to wrap his brain around the new information he was being given.

"Jack, I'm going to tell you something, and you have to promise to keep it a secret, even from your mom and dad. Promise?"

Jack nodded in response, green eyes full of worry and fear.

"Your mother's father, your grandfather, has been talking to your mother. He's trying to get her to tell him, tell the CIA, things that will hurt the Organization."

Jack looked at his grandmother with wide eyes. "Mom would never do that."

Irina reached out to smooth her grandson's hair back from his forehead. "She might, sweetie. If her dad did or said something to make her scared not to tell him. If he said he would hurt you, or Emily, or your dad, she might tell him."

"We have to stop her!" Jack yelped.

Irina smiled. Such a good boy. His parents might not have been proud of him, wrapped up as they were with their princess, their sickly, pathetic little angel. But his grandmother certainly was. "I know, sweetheart. That's why I need your help."

"What do you want me to do?" Jack asked eagerly.

Irina smiled. "Just watch, darling. I know your mom and dad are going away on vacation. But if they do or say anything before they leave or after they get back-- anything at all-- to make you think they're going to the CIA, then you call me immediately. And keep watch around your house while they're gone. The CIA might have someone watching it, and I want to know about that, too. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Grandma."

"Good boy." Irina leaned over to kiss the top of her grandson's head. "And remember, Jack. Don't tell your mother or father what we've talked about. They don't want you to worry, but I told you because I know you can handle it and because I need your help, okay?"

"Okay."

Irina smiled, shooting one final look at the boy before pulling the car back into traffic. "You're going to do a marvelous job running this Organization one day."

His response was music to his grandmother's ears.

"I can't wait."