Chapter 17
"You have a twin sister?" Wes asked her.
"Yes," Jessica said, not looking at him. They were sitting in the living room, all together, discussing Josephine.
"Where is she? Why didn't you tell me about her? How come I've never met her?" the blond man insisted.
"It was Josephine who ruined my life!" Jessica snapped. "Not that my life was heaven, but it turned even worse after she ran away. Mother and Father tightened their disciplinary measures for me after Josephine left, fearing I might do the same thing she did."
"Which was?"
"Getting pregnant by her twenty-years-older boyfriend, marrying him in secret and running away, leaving all her responsibilities as an older sister behind her, leaving them to me to be more exact." Jessica's voice was bitter and angry.
"She got pregnant and ran away?" Wes asked, amazed. His mind was crossed by the scene of a woman who looked like Jessica running away with an old man who looked like Ransik but without the mutant part.
"Yes, so Father cut her out of his will, and I inherited the company, while Mother inherited the house," Jessica explained. Besides Wes and herself, everyone was silent. "Of course, since she left, Father decided he had to train me to run Bio-Lab. So he burnt all my art stuff and the portfolio I had prepared to enter a fashion design school in Italy, and forced me to study business and management. I was forced to study and to work, the only kind of parties I was allowed to go to were business parties. That's the reason everybody knew me already when I joined Bio-Lab's board." She was talking to the ceiling, for she didn't feel like looking at anybody in that room at the moment.
"She is out of the will, and married, that's probably the reason The Mistress didn't know about her, there must be no documentation available about her." It was the boy with green hair talking. They hadn't mentioned their names, and Jessica hadn't bothered to ask.
"My family!" Jen said suddenly. Everyone in the room looked at her. "All the information in my genealogic tree, all the information about my family and its business is missing, in the future, for the first fifty years of the 21st century!"
"So, you think Josephine is your ancestor?" Alex asked.
"It could be," she said, shrugging, not looking at him. It didn't go past Alex; her awkward behavior towards him.
"Do you know what happened to your sister?" Alex asked Jessica.
"She lives in the north area of the city. Her husband, Kevin, has a farm there," she said tiredly. She just wanted to go to sleep, to have some rest, to let all the information sink into her mind.
"A farm?" Jen repeated. "It has to be her!" she yelled happily. "Does she have any children?"
"Five-year-old twin boys. Mathew and Mark," the red-haired business woman answered. "Can I go and get some rest now?"
"Sure," Alex said, nodding to her. Jessica got up from her chair and walked towards the door. She caught a glimpse of Wes standing up to follow her.
"Not now, Wesley, please," she begged. He sat back down, his face obviously sad.
**********************************
"Remove Alex from history?" The Mistress asked her one-eyed mutant. She cursed loudly. "Well, prepare! We have to find ourselves a new base of operations, and it has to be fast! If Jessica Smith is not the farm girl's ancestor, we have to stay here and find out who is!"
All her mutants prepared to unpack except for the three mutants she had taken with her to the hospital. They were staying with her, waiting for more direct orders. "Fly-Tag," she told her butterfly-like mutant. "Fly around the city, and find a building good and empty enough for us," she ordered. The mutant bowed to her mistress and took off, towards the city. "The rest of you, keep an eye out, anything that looks, moves or smells like the Time Force officers you will report to me." The two mutants also bowed and parted ways, to find lookout spots.
The Mistress stood there, massaging the sides of her head, trying to make the headache go away. This wasn't going the way she wanted it to go, she had wanted it to be quick and clean, but it was taking too long and was starting to get messy. She opened her eyes and looked at the sea. "Well, if this is going to get messy," she said softly to herself, "it's going to get messy all the way."
***********************************
It was late and the night was cold. Wes had taken back his first angry words, and had invited his friends to stay in the mansion, in the guest rooms. Jen and Alex had gotten the one where he had been sleeping the night he took Jessica to the hospital. It was right next to where Jessica was sleeping (hers and Wes's room, although she had asked him to get out), and they had insisted on staying close to her. Lucas and Trip were sharing another twin bedded room, and Wes and Eric were sharing an similar one. Katie got a room to herself, and she complained about it, saying she didn't like to be alone.
In their bedroom, Alex and Jen sat, not talking to each other. She was sitting in the window, looking out at the star-filled sky. Alex noted her face was sad, and her eyes were tearing. She sniffled. It was more than Alex could take.
"I'm not mad at you," he said softly. She tore her eyes from the sky and looked at him.
"Why didn't you ever tell me you had doubts about me and Wes?" she asked, a tear running down her cheek.
Alex sighed and moved to her, drying her tears with his hand as he knelt in front of her. "Hey, hey," he soothed as she sniffed again, more tears falling down her cheeks. "It's okay, Jen," he told her.
"No, it's not," she whispered with a broken voice. "I never loved him," she choked out. "I always loved you, but you died on me, Alex, you died and I was scared, and alone, and away from home. He was the closest thing to- -to home, to normal, he was the closest thing to you and the happiness we once had that I could find in this new scary world, where I had to live without you and fight for the world. I had just graduated! I wasn't ready for such an important mission by myself yet." She poured her heart out, finally crying, and hugging her husband. He held her tight.
"Hey, you weren't by yourself, you had your friends and you had him," he told her sweetly. He caressed her hair and she sobbed against his neck. "Jen, it turned out all right, didn't it? You got Ransik, you proved yourself a good leader!" He was trying to get to the side of her that was proud, but it wasn't working. She was still crying.
"I wasn't ready!" she insisted. "It was so scary, I was so unprepared! And I felt so alone, because the burden was on my back! We were all fighting, yes, if we succeeded, we were all heroes; if we failed, it was my fault."
"But you didn't fail," he told her. "You succeeded against Ransik, and you succeeded against The Mistress. And it turned out okay, because we're together, aren't we?" he asked, kissing the side of her head.
"After years of pain," she said. "I caused you so much pain!" She finally released her hold on him to look him in the eye.
"You suffered too," he said, wiping the tears off her face. "You suffered too, and I wish we hadn't had to go through it, but we did, and it's a bitch, but it's in the past." He kissed her forehead. "I'll tell you why I never told you about my doubts. It's because I never pay them any attention. Sometimes they come to me at night, and they try to haunt me, they try to convince me you still love him, but then I fight them back to their small, dark corner of my mind. They can't win against me, Jen, because I've been to your mind, and I know what you feel," he assured her.
She smiled at last. He smiled back at her, and then leaned to kiss her; she kissed him back, lovingly. "Now, dry those tears and come to bed, okay? I'm not mad, I'm sure you love me, you are sure I love you, and we'll live happily ever after, okay? I promise," he said, getting to his feet and helping her up.
"Alex," she began. He gave her his now-what? face. "What if I'm unable to ever give you a child?" She voiced her biggest fear.
He sighed. "Not the children thing again," he said tiredly. "Jennifer, we've been through this before, children are not imperative for our marriage to work."
"But you want one so much!" she insisted.
"If we have one, that's great, if we don't, which I honestly doubt, then we adopt, or something; maybe it's better with our profession that we don't have children. Let's face it; what do we want to have children for? To worry about leaving them orphaned every time we go in the field?" he asked her. She shook her head. "That's right, no. Let's just forget about the children we haven't had yet, and let's worry about my mom and her desire to destroy the world, and about how we are going to make Jessica and Wes get back together." He added the last bit really fast.
"What?!" she asked, suddenly letting go off him and pushing him away softly. "What do you mean 'we' are helping Jessica and Wes to get back together?" she asked, using her angry stance (folded arms, chin thrust forward).
"We have to help them because it's our fault they had a fight, and it's part of our interference in their time," he explained. "It's part of our mess and we have to clean it up!" he whispered forcefully.
"Alex, we can't interfere anymore! We have to let them fix this by themselves."
"We have to try, at least," he said.
"Alex..."
"Let's get some sleep, we'll talk tomorrow."
"Alex, we can't--"
"Bed, Jennifer," he said, shortly pointing at it.
"Why is it you never listen to my reasons?" she asked angrily.
"Because, when it's professional, I'm your superior. When it's personal, I'm your husband, and, overall, I'm your elder, so I don't have to listen to anything you say," he answered playfully.
"Oh, really?" she asked playfully as well.
"Yes," he said simply and held her in his arms, ready to lead her to bed, and do anything but get some sleep. He kissed her deeply.
"Hey, hey," she complained. "We can't do this tonight, not in this room. There's a woman right next door who just had a fight with her husband."
"So?" he asked, simply kissing her neck, as he pinned her to the bed with his weight. "We'll just have to keep it quiet," he suggested.
"Alex!" she chided, pushing him softly. "Honey, aren't you tired?"
"Tired? Like a slave, but when have I been too tired when it's about making love to you?" he asked, kissing her deeply again.
"Did you at least lock the door?" she asked.
"No, he didn't," said a voice that was definitely not Alex's. It was Eric. "Sorry to interrupt the bunnies as they prepare to do their thing," he said bitterly. "But Wes is gone. I can't find him anywhere."
"Perhaps he left to take a walk, or have a drink," Alex suggested, sitting on the bed next to Jen, who was still lying flat on her back.
"Without his money, clothes or shoes?" Eric asked. "I doubt it."
Jen looked at Alex. Then at Eric. "Where was the last place you saw him?" she asked.
"He was going to take a shower in the bathroom in the hall," Eric answered.
Jen got to her feet and ran to the bathroom. Eric looked at her and was about to follow her when Alex called him.
"NO!" he yelled. Eric looked at him. "Leave her alone."
"What the hell is she doing?" the Quantum Ranger asked.
"Looking for trapped thoughts," Alex answered lamely. Eric let out a sarcastic laugh and rolled his eyes. However his expression changed when Jen got back.
"Wake everybody up," she ordered. "The Mistress has got Wes."
To be continued.
"You have a twin sister?" Wes asked her.
"Yes," Jessica said, not looking at him. They were sitting in the living room, all together, discussing Josephine.
"Where is she? Why didn't you tell me about her? How come I've never met her?" the blond man insisted.
"It was Josephine who ruined my life!" Jessica snapped. "Not that my life was heaven, but it turned even worse after she ran away. Mother and Father tightened their disciplinary measures for me after Josephine left, fearing I might do the same thing she did."
"Which was?"
"Getting pregnant by her twenty-years-older boyfriend, marrying him in secret and running away, leaving all her responsibilities as an older sister behind her, leaving them to me to be more exact." Jessica's voice was bitter and angry.
"She got pregnant and ran away?" Wes asked, amazed. His mind was crossed by the scene of a woman who looked like Jessica running away with an old man who looked like Ransik but without the mutant part.
"Yes, so Father cut her out of his will, and I inherited the company, while Mother inherited the house," Jessica explained. Besides Wes and herself, everyone was silent. "Of course, since she left, Father decided he had to train me to run Bio-Lab. So he burnt all my art stuff and the portfolio I had prepared to enter a fashion design school in Italy, and forced me to study business and management. I was forced to study and to work, the only kind of parties I was allowed to go to were business parties. That's the reason everybody knew me already when I joined Bio-Lab's board." She was talking to the ceiling, for she didn't feel like looking at anybody in that room at the moment.
"She is out of the will, and married, that's probably the reason The Mistress didn't know about her, there must be no documentation available about her." It was the boy with green hair talking. They hadn't mentioned their names, and Jessica hadn't bothered to ask.
"My family!" Jen said suddenly. Everyone in the room looked at her. "All the information in my genealogic tree, all the information about my family and its business is missing, in the future, for the first fifty years of the 21st century!"
"So, you think Josephine is your ancestor?" Alex asked.
"It could be," she said, shrugging, not looking at him. It didn't go past Alex; her awkward behavior towards him.
"Do you know what happened to your sister?" Alex asked Jessica.
"She lives in the north area of the city. Her husband, Kevin, has a farm there," she said tiredly. She just wanted to go to sleep, to have some rest, to let all the information sink into her mind.
"A farm?" Jen repeated. "It has to be her!" she yelled happily. "Does she have any children?"
"Five-year-old twin boys. Mathew and Mark," the red-haired business woman answered. "Can I go and get some rest now?"
"Sure," Alex said, nodding to her. Jessica got up from her chair and walked towards the door. She caught a glimpse of Wes standing up to follow her.
"Not now, Wesley, please," she begged. He sat back down, his face obviously sad.
**********************************
"Remove Alex from history?" The Mistress asked her one-eyed mutant. She cursed loudly. "Well, prepare! We have to find ourselves a new base of operations, and it has to be fast! If Jessica Smith is not the farm girl's ancestor, we have to stay here and find out who is!"
All her mutants prepared to unpack except for the three mutants she had taken with her to the hospital. They were staying with her, waiting for more direct orders. "Fly-Tag," she told her butterfly-like mutant. "Fly around the city, and find a building good and empty enough for us," she ordered. The mutant bowed to her mistress and took off, towards the city. "The rest of you, keep an eye out, anything that looks, moves or smells like the Time Force officers you will report to me." The two mutants also bowed and parted ways, to find lookout spots.
The Mistress stood there, massaging the sides of her head, trying to make the headache go away. This wasn't going the way she wanted it to go, she had wanted it to be quick and clean, but it was taking too long and was starting to get messy. She opened her eyes and looked at the sea. "Well, if this is going to get messy," she said softly to herself, "it's going to get messy all the way."
***********************************
It was late and the night was cold. Wes had taken back his first angry words, and had invited his friends to stay in the mansion, in the guest rooms. Jen and Alex had gotten the one where he had been sleeping the night he took Jessica to the hospital. It was right next to where Jessica was sleeping (hers and Wes's room, although she had asked him to get out), and they had insisted on staying close to her. Lucas and Trip were sharing another twin bedded room, and Wes and Eric were sharing an similar one. Katie got a room to herself, and she complained about it, saying she didn't like to be alone.
In their bedroom, Alex and Jen sat, not talking to each other. She was sitting in the window, looking out at the star-filled sky. Alex noted her face was sad, and her eyes were tearing. She sniffled. It was more than Alex could take.
"I'm not mad at you," he said softly. She tore her eyes from the sky and looked at him.
"Why didn't you ever tell me you had doubts about me and Wes?" she asked, a tear running down her cheek.
Alex sighed and moved to her, drying her tears with his hand as he knelt in front of her. "Hey, hey," he soothed as she sniffed again, more tears falling down her cheeks. "It's okay, Jen," he told her.
"No, it's not," she whispered with a broken voice. "I never loved him," she choked out. "I always loved you, but you died on me, Alex, you died and I was scared, and alone, and away from home. He was the closest thing to- -to home, to normal, he was the closest thing to you and the happiness we once had that I could find in this new scary world, where I had to live without you and fight for the world. I had just graduated! I wasn't ready for such an important mission by myself yet." She poured her heart out, finally crying, and hugging her husband. He held her tight.
"Hey, you weren't by yourself, you had your friends and you had him," he told her sweetly. He caressed her hair and she sobbed against his neck. "Jen, it turned out all right, didn't it? You got Ransik, you proved yourself a good leader!" He was trying to get to the side of her that was proud, but it wasn't working. She was still crying.
"I wasn't ready!" she insisted. "It was so scary, I was so unprepared! And I felt so alone, because the burden was on my back! We were all fighting, yes, if we succeeded, we were all heroes; if we failed, it was my fault."
"But you didn't fail," he told her. "You succeeded against Ransik, and you succeeded against The Mistress. And it turned out okay, because we're together, aren't we?" he asked, kissing the side of her head.
"After years of pain," she said. "I caused you so much pain!" She finally released her hold on him to look him in the eye.
"You suffered too," he said, wiping the tears off her face. "You suffered too, and I wish we hadn't had to go through it, but we did, and it's a bitch, but it's in the past." He kissed her forehead. "I'll tell you why I never told you about my doubts. It's because I never pay them any attention. Sometimes they come to me at night, and they try to haunt me, they try to convince me you still love him, but then I fight them back to their small, dark corner of my mind. They can't win against me, Jen, because I've been to your mind, and I know what you feel," he assured her.
She smiled at last. He smiled back at her, and then leaned to kiss her; she kissed him back, lovingly. "Now, dry those tears and come to bed, okay? I'm not mad, I'm sure you love me, you are sure I love you, and we'll live happily ever after, okay? I promise," he said, getting to his feet and helping her up.
"Alex," she began. He gave her his now-what? face. "What if I'm unable to ever give you a child?" She voiced her biggest fear.
He sighed. "Not the children thing again," he said tiredly. "Jennifer, we've been through this before, children are not imperative for our marriage to work."
"But you want one so much!" she insisted.
"If we have one, that's great, if we don't, which I honestly doubt, then we adopt, or something; maybe it's better with our profession that we don't have children. Let's face it; what do we want to have children for? To worry about leaving them orphaned every time we go in the field?" he asked her. She shook her head. "That's right, no. Let's just forget about the children we haven't had yet, and let's worry about my mom and her desire to destroy the world, and about how we are going to make Jessica and Wes get back together." He added the last bit really fast.
"What?!" she asked, suddenly letting go off him and pushing him away softly. "What do you mean 'we' are helping Jessica and Wes to get back together?" she asked, using her angry stance (folded arms, chin thrust forward).
"We have to help them because it's our fault they had a fight, and it's part of our interference in their time," he explained. "It's part of our mess and we have to clean it up!" he whispered forcefully.
"Alex, we can't interfere anymore! We have to let them fix this by themselves."
"We have to try, at least," he said.
"Alex..."
"Let's get some sleep, we'll talk tomorrow."
"Alex, we can't--"
"Bed, Jennifer," he said, shortly pointing at it.
"Why is it you never listen to my reasons?" she asked angrily.
"Because, when it's professional, I'm your superior. When it's personal, I'm your husband, and, overall, I'm your elder, so I don't have to listen to anything you say," he answered playfully.
"Oh, really?" she asked playfully as well.
"Yes," he said simply and held her in his arms, ready to lead her to bed, and do anything but get some sleep. He kissed her deeply.
"Hey, hey," she complained. "We can't do this tonight, not in this room. There's a woman right next door who just had a fight with her husband."
"So?" he asked, simply kissing her neck, as he pinned her to the bed with his weight. "We'll just have to keep it quiet," he suggested.
"Alex!" she chided, pushing him softly. "Honey, aren't you tired?"
"Tired? Like a slave, but when have I been too tired when it's about making love to you?" he asked, kissing her deeply again.
"Did you at least lock the door?" she asked.
"No, he didn't," said a voice that was definitely not Alex's. It was Eric. "Sorry to interrupt the bunnies as they prepare to do their thing," he said bitterly. "But Wes is gone. I can't find him anywhere."
"Perhaps he left to take a walk, or have a drink," Alex suggested, sitting on the bed next to Jen, who was still lying flat on her back.
"Without his money, clothes or shoes?" Eric asked. "I doubt it."
Jen looked at Alex. Then at Eric. "Where was the last place you saw him?" she asked.
"He was going to take a shower in the bathroom in the hall," Eric answered.
Jen got to her feet and ran to the bathroom. Eric looked at her and was about to follow her when Alex called him.
"NO!" he yelled. Eric looked at him. "Leave her alone."
"What the hell is she doing?" the Quantum Ranger asked.
"Looking for trapped thoughts," Alex answered lamely. Eric let out a sarcastic laugh and rolled his eyes. However his expression changed when Jen got back.
"Wake everybody up," she ordered. "The Mistress has got Wes."
To be continued.
