11th to 23rd Nov 2003
Unwelcome Ties By Western Blakehawke.
Set after LATR. 2021.
Ames meets the first human looking transgenic. Alec is reunited with a sibling and takes a road trip.
Chapter 3
Day One.
Will's apartment.
8:13am.
Will had been awake for a couple of hours, quietly doing her exercises and finishing sorting stuff out.
Alec had been fast asleep and had only woken up about twenty one minutes before, but had yet to drag himself out of his nice warm bed.
The phone rang waking Alec who had fallen back asleep, he answered it looking a little the worse for wear, standing shivering in his pale blue boxer shorts even though transgenics are immune to all but the coldest temperatures. "Hello." Paused. "Hey Logan, okay, we'll see you in about fifthteen minutes!" Alec said and hung up the phone.
Will, walked out of the bathroom, towelling her short hair dry, she had got in there first again.
"Logan's gonna take us to the airport." Alec informed her as he sped past her to the bathroom.
"Alec, X5's should be able to handle that much coffee, without effect!" She reminded him and grinned as he cursed her, and went to make breakfast, she made a full fry up for Alec, of fake bacon, toast and eggs, then made some toast for herself.
Twenty seven minutes later.
Logan had arrived and they were carrying luggage down to his car.
Alec just had a holdall, Will had two holdalls, and two large suitcases, containing all her worldly possessions, that she didn't wish to leave behind.
"Damn it Will." Alec complained as he lugged a large suitcase, making a drama out of it's weight even though to a transgenic it was insignificant and was not all that heavy for an ordinary to carry either. "I thought you were only gonna pack your absolute favourite books!"
"I did! Quit being a jerk!" Will groused at him.
"Hey who got out of the bed on the wrong side this morning?" He responded. "You weren't grouchy earlier!" he whined.
"I'm insane that's why!" Will archly replied. "Being with you this morning drove home how much I'm gonna miss your irritating ways!"
"Oh!" Was his stunned response. "Wow no ones ever said they'd miss me before, I thought you were just being nice the other night." Alec explained.
Will grinned at him. "Nope kiddo, I meant every word."
Alec grinned in response, did not even mind being referred to as kiddo.
"There's no reason you can't have visitors once you get settled." Logan reminded Will.
"I know, I've already extended an invitation to Max, O.C, Josh and Alec, you're very welcome too Logan." Will told him.
"Yeah, she plans to buy a large house with acreage, some woods and a stream in the middle of nowhere." Alec reeled off the wish list that Will had given him last night.
"Good idea." Logan nodded his head for emphasis. "You'll be home schooling Ray." He stated rhetorically.
Will confirmed the statement with a nod anyway.
They arrived at Logan's car and loaded the trunk and quickly got in, Will opted to sit in the back since she only needed a little leg room, compared to Alec.
"But what about my car?" Alec suddenly asked as he put on his seatbelt.
"What you're more worried about leaving it here in a secure garage, than at the airport?" Will was so incredulous she fumbled her seat belt.
Alec looked sheepish. "Oh I hadn't thought that far ahead. I forgot I'd have to leave it at the airport or get someone to come collect it."
"Sugar brain!" Will responded and ruffled his hair.
"Hey leave the hair alone!" He cried indignantly and hurriedly retrieved his comb from his pocket and used the mirror to straighten his hair, whilst glaring at his grinning sister.
"Would you two try and behave." Logan said with a long suffering sigh as they pulled out of the underground garage. "Remember, you're supposed to be travelling low key!"
"Relax Logan! Will and I are old hands at this kind of stuff!" Alec smugly reassured him.
"Logan, no one will have any cause to remember us." Will added her own assurances.
"Good." Logan stated.
9:15am.
Seattle Airport
Will and Alec checked in for their flight, which was scheduled to leave at 9:45am. Alec's eyes misted over slightly at the extra charges that entailed from Will's luggage, she just handed over the cash without a word.
"Told ya those suitcases were too heavy." Alec said smugly, then winced as Will brought her right boot heel down sharply on his left foot.
Logan seeing that an argument was imminent hastily distracted them by offering to buy them some more breakfast. Alec perked up at this since he was always happy to eat especially if someone else was dumb enough to pay the tab. Will declined the offer and she and Logan just sat watching the twenty two year old transgenic eat, slightly amused expressions on their faces, as they exchanged an eye rolling over the appetites of kids.
10:12am
Their flight still hadn't been called and Will and Alec continued to sit with Logan trying to keep a low profile, both transgenics were keeping a tight rein on their banter, since they knew that their comments tended to attract attention.
10:57am
The flight to Florida was finally announced.
Will gave Logan a quick hug before she and Alec, grabbed their hand luggage and made for the boarding area.
12:36 pm.
Onboard the aeroplane to Florida.
Will and Alec were seated in the cramped confines of a Boeing 767 that should have been retired five years before. They were only part of the way through the journey.
Both were trying to read and maintain the pretence of being ordinaries. This involved Will not reading her thick novel in a few minutes and Alec reading Will's debriefing at the average human speed instead of scrolling down the pages at speed whilst absorbing the information in a matter of mere minutes.
Both were also having a hard time keeping a firm control on their sarcastic tendencies.
Florida.
7:28pm Eastern Standard Time.
Just over six and a half hours after they left Seattle Will and Alec finally landed in Florida. They had quickly retrieved their luggage, and picked up the large rental car that Logan had arranged, they drove to their hotel in silence.
They had put themselves into a semi hypnotic state around two and a half hours after they had left Will's apartment. The state curbed their desire to speak unless they had too, so they had opted to use it, so as not to draw attention to themselves by an explosion of sarcasm.
8:01 pm.
They found the hotel, got their room keys, had a quick supper and retired early for the night.
Day Two.
The next morning.
6:14am
Alec came through the door that joined his and Will's rooms he leant on the doorframe and watched Will performing T'ai Chi.
"Why aren't you naked?" He quipped.
Will continued to exercise. "Because I'm not Colonel Steward and we are not planning to take over an airport. Also we're siblings so asking me why I'm not naked is totally inappropriate." She calmly informed him.
"Will I didn't mean I wanted to see you naked!" Alec yelped going red.
Will grinned at him. "I know that kiddo, but others wouldn't so think before you quip!"
Alec grinned back at her his blush slowly fading. "Will do, hey have you ordered breakfast yet?"
"Nope, order me some toast would you." Will replied as she continued with her daily exercise routine.
"Sure." Alec said as he went over to the phone and dialled room service.
A short while later.
Will and Alec were eating breakfast, in Will's room.
"What did Logan put on the kid's birth certificate?" Alec asked around a mouthful of sausage.
"Nothing, he left it blank so I could fill in the details, same with my own." Will replied after she swallowed her mouthful of toast. "I filled them in at my apartment."
"Okay I know you probably stuck with Wilhelmina Wolfe, but what did you decide to call the kid?" He asked as he shovelled his beans onto his toast with his fork, before cutting it into smaller pieces and cramming a piece into his mouth.
"Yep, I'm still Wilhelmina Wolfe." Will replied as she sipped her orange juice. "James."
Alec's next forkful of toast and beans, stopped in mid air as he stared at her in disbelief. "James! You're calling him James!" Was his incredulous response. "Take away the J and you get Ames!"
"Yes, but the shortened version of James can be Jay and I think it's advisable to rename Ray something that a short version of, will sound like Ray so he's more likely to respond automatically to it." Will patiently pointed out.
Alec ate his forkful of food and ran through a list of names that sounded like Ray, other than Jay he could only think of one more.
"Bailey!" He said in triumph. "You can call him Bailey, Bai for short!" Alec grinned at her.
Will shook her head. "Bailey Wolfe, Bai Wolfe…. Alec wolves bay! No way am I saddling Ray with that name and the jokes that'll come from it! He'll be asked if he bays at the moon!" Will pointed out.
Alec was downcast. "I hadn't thought of that!"
"I didn't think so!" Will replied patting him on the hand. "Nice try though!"
"Okay James is fine!" Alec responded with a grin.
They quickly finished their food and ran through the itinerary that Logan had given them on the drive to the airport.
"Our first stop is the morgue, to identify Sally Stevens body." Alec said recalling the list.
"Yep, I get to play the grieving sister in law." Will responded drolly. "Then we sign the forms, hand over the cost of her cremation and leave."
"Yeah, I still can't believe that they don't expect us to stay for the funeral though, and collect the ashes!" Alec replied, being uncomfortable with the idea of just leaving a supposedly beloved relative.
"Alec, Logan explained that our doing so will not be considered unusual, that it's standard practice for families who's loved ones die miles from home to have them cremated there and then have their ashes either sent to them or scattered in a particular spot." Will patiently reiterated she also was not keen on the idea of leaving Rebecca's remains behind. "We have no choice Alec, we have to leave as soon as possible."
"I know it just doesn't sit well." He replied.
"For me either." Will stated then moved on briskly. "Okay, we'll pay for 'em to scatter her ashes over the everglades okay?"
"Yeah that sounds fine." Alec responded. "Then after all that's been sorted, we go get Ray."
"Peter." Will corrected. "And I'm Lily Stevens I've got the ID here." She said and patted her shirt pocket.
"Right and I'm your brother Alistair Newman. Okay I've got the ID Logan made up for me." Alec stated.
"After we get Peter, we take a flight to Atlanta Georgia, pick up the motor home that Logan arranged, then drive to New York state, hop over the boarder into Canada head for Montreal, where we split up." Will stated and
paused a moment not liking the thought of Alec's leaving then she faced reality.
"You meet the first Eyes Only contact and start your journey by plane, train and car across Canada to Vancouver, where you hop over the boarder and head back to Seattle." Will reeled off the rest of the plan. "Logan worked out a roundabout route that'll take us roughly four to five days to get to Montreal."
"Yep!" Alec responded. "I wish I could stay with you until you find a place and get settled." He said and took hold of her hands.
"Me too, but even Normal would get mad at you if you're gone longer than two weeks." Will pointed out. But tightly clasped his hands nevertheless. "Max and the others need you more than I do, Ames doesn't know that I'm adopting Ray, but he does know that there's something special about Max, he read her runes to remember, where Sandemann announced that she was the one who would stop the Coming."
"I read everything that you'd put about the Coming, in your report." Alec stated. "It's not much."
"As I said in the report, Sandemann clamed up when I asked for more details on the Coming, just said that he would tell me all when the time was right…….. he never got the chance before he had to flee." Will replied. It was extremely evident that she was still annoyed at Sandemann for not revealing what the Coming entailed.
Alec seeing that this was a touchy subject with Will, tactfully changed the subject. "How will Ray know it's safe to trust us?" he asked.
They reluctantly released hands.
Will showed him the caduceus medallion on a silver chain that she still wore, it was identical to Joshua's. "I'll make sure he sees this."
"You got one too?" Alec asked in surprise.
"Yep, as far as I know Sandemann only gave a medallion to Joshua, Isaac and myself." She replied with her one shoulder shrug.
"Okay well as soon as he sees that, hopefully he'll play along." Alec said doubtfully.
"Hey, what's with the pessimism?" Will asked. "You're usually an optimist!"
"Yeah." Alec replied shrugging. "It's just 'cause you're the only transgenic, I actually feel I have a sibling bond with……. I hate knowing that in a few days we'll be parting."
Will took his hands again. "I do too, of all the kin that I've met inside or outside of Manticore, you are my true brother, I think that if we checked, we'd find that we share DNA."
"Okay enough being sombre!" Alec responded grinning as he broke the iron grip they had on each others hands, he could never stay miserable for long.
Will laughed at her brother's sudden change in demeanour.
Alec suddenly realised something.
"Will, ring!" He said and tapped the ring finger on her left hand.
"Whoops!" She responded. She felt in the pocket of her shirt for the gold wedding band, that Logan had supplied, she placed it upon her finger and looked at it.
Alec grinned at her. "Looks good! Now all you need to do is find a guy crazy enough to marry you!" He quipped, laughing as he easily dodged the punch she threw, with her newly adorned left hand.
"My finding a guy is no problem, explaining my kin, especially my obnoxious brother is!" Will shot back grinning.
"Ah c'mon Will, Josh aint obnoxious!" Alec responded.
Will just rolled her eyes at him, not bothering to rise to the obvious bait. She looked at the ring on her finger and shaking her head removed it placing it back in her pocket.
"Will what are you doing?" Alec asked her in surprise. "You need a wedding band!"
Will reached into her shirt and pulled out the leather thong she wore with what everyone had assumed was a medicine bag attached, she undid the pouch and tumbled a tri coloured gold Russian wedding ring onto her palm.
"I prefer my own." She quietly informed Alec as she slipped it onto her left hand.
"You're married!" Alec was shocked.
Will had made no mention of a husband either verbally or in her debriefing report.
"Was married." Will corrected him.
"When? How?" Alec asked in amazement.
"I was eighteen, it was an assignment." Will calmly informed him.
"How long did it last?" Alec queried.
"Until seventeen months ago." Will blandly stated.
"What? But you've been on the bases all that time?" Alec was confused.
"Yes, he worked abroad and I stayed here with my father, Lydecker, since John travelled a lot because of his work we decided that getting our own home was counter productive, since my work for Manticore, well my cover job also involved a lot of travel." Will replied with her cover spiel.
"I don't get it? What was the assignment?" Alec queried still baffled.
"He was undercover C.I.A. they thought he was a traitor so they had me date him." Will paused. Her eyes get a distant look then after a few seconds she came out of her memories and shrugged her right shoulder. "That turned into marriage, when I couldn't uncover anything concrete, the marriage lasted for nine years, before he finally slipped up, giving me proof that he was a double agent. I killed him as I was instructed to do so."
Will's face and posture were absolutely unreadable.
Alec leaned back in his chair and studied her intently. "Nine years huh?" He reiterated. "Must have been tough playing the loving spouse for all that time."
"No because I made the mistake of falling for him." Will replied face and voice totally impassive.
"Will I'm sorry." Alec told her quietly he leant forward taking her hands in his.
"So am I." Will replied with a weak grin. "Sorry bro I hadn't planned on telling anyone."
"Hey I'm not anyone I'm your brother." Alec stated then looked guilty. "Damn and I was teasing you about getting married!"
"Alec you didn't know and I enjoyed the banter!" Will responded grinning at him. "It's done and there's nothing I can do to change it, so it's not worth worrying about."
"Okay…..So he had absolutely no idea that you were a genetically engineered part wolf assassin?" Alec couldn't help asking.
"No, not 'til I killed him, then he knew the truth." Will stated and from her tone Alec knew that the subject was now firmly closed.
8:54 am.
Outside the morgue.
Will and Alec had arrived early. Will's eyes were red and puffy from crying, since she had to make their con believable.
Alec spoke almost sub-vocally. "Wow Will I didn't know you could turn on the waterworks at the drop of a hat." He said in awe.
Will stopped herself from grinning at him. "I've always had the knack. Lets get this part of the charade over with." She replied at the same level, steeling herself.
Alec nodded, placed his arm around her shoulders and Will leaned into him as they slowly walked across the parking lot and arrived at the morgue just as an employee opened the doors as a clock chimed nine. They entered the building, looking for all the world like distraught family there to identify their kin.
Nineteen minutes later.
Will and Alec were finally shown into a viewing room.
"Mrs. Stevens?" A male attendant gently asked when they entered.
Will nodded, in full character of the distraught relative.
Alec still had his left arm around her shoulders.
"And you are Sir?" The attendant politely asked.
"Alistair Newman, Mrs. Stevens' brother." Alec replied.
The attendant nodded and walked over to the gurney, where a sheet covered cadaver lay.
Will chose that moment to act. "I…. I can't I'm sorry, … but I can't!" She wailed turning away from the gurney into Alec's embrace.
"Shhh. Lil." Alec said gently rubbing her back. He looked at the attendant. "I've know Sally for years, why don't I identify her?" He suggested.
"I'm sorry Sir, but she needs to be identified by a relative." The attendant regretfully informed them. "Friends or colleagues may only identify a person, when no close family can be found."
"It's okay Al, I'll do it." Will bravely stated wiping her eyes. "He can stay with me?" She implored the attendant.
"Of course." He replied gently. "If you're ready?"
Will made a show of steeling herself, then nodded and took a step forward, to stand beside the gurney, Alec moved with her.
The attendant swiftly pulled the sheet from the corpses face.
Will sagged in a faint, Alec caught her and carried her from the room to the seats outside, he gently placed her on the sofa, knelt beside her and started rubbing her arms as he spoke gently to her.
"I'll get her some water." The attendant stated, unfazed by this common reaction and hurried over to the water cooler.
Will made a show of slowly coming round from the faint, then promptly burst into tears. "Oh God, why Sally! First Chris now his sister!" She wailed as Alec embraced her.
Alec said nothing as he rocked her gently, letting her cry.
The attendant put the plastic cup of water down and left them to their grief. Eight minutes later he returned carrying paperwork. When he entered the area, he saw that Will had composed herself.
Will gave him a weak smile as he entered. "I'm sorry for fainting and having hysterics." She apologized quietly in a trembling voice. "It… it was Sally."
"There's really no need to apologize Mrs. Stevens." The attendant gently assured her. "If you'll just sign these forms, I can take you over to the funeral director, we find that offering our own services on site helps the bereaved."
Thirty three minutes later.
Will and Alec left the morgue after completing all the paperwork and arranging with the onsite funeral arrangers to have Rebecca cremated and her ashes scattered over the everglades. Just as Logan had said, no one seemed surprised that neither Will or Alec would stay for the cremation or that they wished for the undertakers to scatter the ashes. They had been given Rebecca's personal effects.