CHAPTER 25

ALLEY

March 3, 2003

Charlottesville, Virginia

Russell Family Home

6:20am

Will was sitting on the swing located on the front porch. He was wrapped in a blanket a nearly empty mug of once hot tea sat along side him. The sun had yet to rise but Will was in no hurry. He liked the peaceful quite. He knew that his brothers and sister would be up shortly, they too enjoyed the sunrise.

"You're up mighty early."

"Good morning Major." Will said not turning around.

"Call me Charles, Will." HE replied walking over to the boy sipping from a mug of coffee as he did. "Is this spot taken?" Charles asked motioning to the empty space on the swing next to Will.

"No Sir."

"Why are you up so early son?" Charles asked him just as the gray sky began to lighten.

"Sleep is evasive."

"Where are your brothers and sister?"

"Coming down stairs." He said sensing the other children.

"You're a regular chatterbox aren't you?"

"It's biological." He muttered.

"What does that mean?"

"Nothing." Will said shocked he had spoken out loud. He had not meant to say anything it just popped out. Will inwardly groaned, angry with himself for almost giving himself away.

"Are you sure it was nothing. From what Jarod told me you don't know much about your parents."

"It was probably just my abilities messing with my head." He covered.

"Morning Charles." Aaron said first to notice the Major. Will sighed with relief at the sight of his sibling. Knowing that they would distract the Major form questioning him any further.

"Morning Will." Andros spoke. Alex said nothing but climbed onto her brother's lap, and rested her head on her brother's chest. The two boys also climbed onto the swing. Aaron sat between Charles and Will, while Andros, sat on Will's other side.

"Hey." Will said to them.

"Will, How come the sun rise is never the same?" Alex asked him as the sky went from pink to gold.

"If they were then they would be as beautiful as they are, Mouse." Will replied resting his chin on top of his sister's head.

"Make sense to me." Aaron said as he and Andros leaned on their older brother. No one spoke again until after the sun had completely risen. Once the sun was up the Major excused himself.

"Couldn't sleep?" Andros asked after Charles had left.

"No I'm worried about Miss Parker." Will admitted. "Physically I know she's fine but there's something bothering her. I can feel it."

"So can we." Alex replied.

Charles stood inside looking out at the children. He was worried about the oldest child. Charles had heard him coming down the steps at 3:30am. The boy didn't even go to bed until eleven. The feeling that this was normal sleeping pattern for the boy.

"Morning Dad."

"Morning Chris."

"Who's cooking breakfast?'"

"Emily is. Chris?"

"Yeah Dad?"

"What do you know about Will?"

"For starters he's extremely smart. Smarter than me. He and his sister were the pride and joy of the Centre."

"Alex?"

"No Alyssa. She supposedly died from leukemia when she and Will were seven."

"You don't believe it?" Charles asked.

"Will is the one who doesn't believe it. I'm inclined to agree with him. The Centre put Ally and Will through medical test each month. It was between these test that Ally got sick and died. Will pursued Ally's sudden illness for almost a year. For some reason he stopped."

"I stopped because Raines and Lyle for out what out what I was doing and nearly beat me to death. But it wasn't the beating that made me stop, but the talk that occurred after it. Sam sat me down and to me that if I got my self killed there would me no one left to look after my little brothers and sister."

"Will I'm sorry..." Chris began.

"Don't be. I'm not mad at you for talking about her. If any thing I'm glad. I was afraid I was the only one who remembered her. Will confessed

"Never, man. Ally was great. Alex is a lot like her."

"Yeah she is."

"Speaking of the children where are they?" Charles asked.

"Climbing trees." Will replied. "They love being up high. I'm going out there in a bit I just wanted to change into something warmer."

"Do you want me to watch them while you get changed?" Chris asked.

"No they're fine. Besides I can sense them. If they get into trouble I'll know it." Will said them quickly walked up stairs to get dressed. He didn't began to cry until he reached his room. He fell on to his bed a wept for his sister, the one person he failed to protect. Her death had nearly destroyed him. When she died a part of him had been ripped away. The two of them were much like the triplets. They were able to communicate with out words. They always knew where each other was and what each other was feeling. It was will who held her as she breathed her last breath. The day Ally died Will went into a blind rage. He lost control of his powers. He inadvertently set fire to SL-27. In the process killing eight sweepers. The only remorse he felt after the fire was that Raines and Lyle weren't one of the victims.

"Will?" Came a tentative voice.

"Alex, what are you doing here? Why aren't you outside with the boys?" He asked as he wiped the tears from his eyes.

"I could feel that you were in pain. Will what's wrong?" She asked concerned.

"Nothing Mouse."

"Don't lie to me William. I'm not Major Charles or Ethan. I'm your sister so don't lie to me and tell me it's nothing. Not when I can feel you in so much anguish." She said angrily.

"Hey What's going on?" Aaron asked.

"Will, Alex what's wrong?" Spoke Andros.

"That's what I want to know." Alex said.

"Sit down you three. There's something you need to know. Some thing I've been neglecting to tell you because I'm ashamed. Ashamed because I couldn't protect her. He began. Will told them everything. From Ally' s favorite color to fire on SL-27. Tears were shed, for Alyssa's drastically short life and for the fact that she never got the chance to meet her younger brothers and sister. Tears were also shed for Will, for his pain at the loss of his other half.

The four of them talked for a long time. They didn't leave the room until Emily called them down for breakfast. The four children sat at the table and ate in silence. The adults and Chris unsuccessfully tried to get them to communicate. They gave up after a few attempts.

"Will, Chris has to go and clean out the stalls. Do you and the others want to help him?"

"Excuse me." Will said.

"I asked if you and the others wanted to help Chris clean out the horse stalls." Ethan said. Alex's ears perked at the mention of horses.

"Horses, I've never seen a horse in real life only in pictures." The little girls said

"Trust me Alex. It's not all it's cracked up to be." Chris said "They smell horrible and they have the biggest piles of shit you'll ever see."

"Christopher!" Charles chided.

"It's okay sir we were raised by sweepers." Aaron told him as if that explained everything.

"Believe me we've heard much worse language." Andros said trying to keep Chris out of trouble.

"Yeah you should hear what Sam says when he slams his foot in the door." Alex said laughing.

"Besides Dad, those for have used worse language." Ethan said. Alex shot him a glare. "Don't do that you look like my sister." Ethan told her.

"So do you want to help?" Chris asked them.

"Why not? It's not like we have any thing else to do." Will said.

The five of them got up and placed their dishes in the sink and then headed to the stables.

They spent the next three hours mucking out the stalls. Once they were done Chris volunteered to teach the younger four how to ride houses. They accepted.

"That's it Alex keep your heels down. Now sit to the trot and ask Griffin to canter when you round the corner." Chris told her

"Canter, Griffin, Canter!" Alex yelled.

"Yes that's it!" Chris exclaimed. "Now when you get to cone sit pick up the trot and then slow to a walk."

"Trot Griffin, Trot." Alex said following Chris's instructions.

"That was great Alex." Chris told her. "Why don't you back to the inside of the ring and we'll let Will have a go." Alex entered the inside of the ring falling in step behind Aaron, and Andros. Once done with their lessons the five of them took their horses on a trail that wrapped around the lake behind the house.

"So what do you all think about ridding horses?" Chris asked them.

"It's the best thing I've ever done." Aaron said

"It's freeing." Andros told Chris.

"Can we go again tomorrow?" Alex asked

"Sure?" Chris said. "What bout you Will?"

"I love it." Will said.

"Yeah but you'll be regretting it tomorrow when you all are saddle sore." Chris warned.

"Hey look Jarod's back." Aaron said when he caught sight of Jarod's jeep.

"Let's go put the horses and their tack up and then we'll head back to the house." Chris told them. The group headed back toward the barn and put the horses away. The youngest three then ran back to the house eager to se Jarod.

"They sure are energetic." Chris observed.

"Yeah I know. But I bet that they're going to past out with in the next hour or so." Will told him.

Jarod's heart nearly stopped when he saw his three youngest children running towards him. "Jarod." Alex yelled leaping into his outstretched arms. Jarod held his daughter never wanting to let her go. Instead he kissed her on top of her head and reluctantly released. He finally caught sight of his eldest son as Will and Chris made it to the house. He studied his son and was shocked at the resemblance between Will and Chris. He wondered how he never saw it before. He might have seen it sooner if Chris hadn't died his hair red, to distinguish himself further from Jarod. Not to mention that Will's eyes were blue where as Chris's were brown like Jarod's. But the two boys were roughly the same height and build. And their facial features were similar enough for the two to be mistaken for brothers.

"Is Miss Parker alright Jarod?" Will asked his father.

"Yes she's fine. She was still just reeling form the news about her brother and Mr. Parker and need to talk, that's all."

"Oh." Will replied. It hurt Jarod to lie to his son. He wondered if all parents felt this way when they lied to their children.

"Chris taught us how to ride horses." Aaron told Jarod. "We got to canter and everything."

"Yeah when we were doing a muscle relaxing exercise Aaron fell off his horse." Andros informed his father.

"You did?" Jarod said turning to Aaron. "Are you okay? Do I need to take you to the clinic and check you out?" Jarod asked worried about his son.

"He's fine Jar." Chris told him.

"What about you Will? Are you alright you didn't make your injuries worse by ridding did you?"

"No I'm a little sore but other than that I'm fine." Will told him.

"Good." Jarod sighed, relieved that he didn't tell the children's mother that they injured while he was away. "Why don't you all go and get washed you. I'm quite sure that all of that ridding has worked up an appetite. "

"Now that you mention it." Alex began

"We could eat something." Aaron said.

"How about a hamburger." Suggested Andros.

"I'll see what I can do. Go on and get showered, you five smell like horses." Jarod instructed.

"And horse shit." Chris muttered.

"What your mouth." Jarod scolded his younger brother, as the children went inside. Jarod stood outside still in shock that he was father, to those for children no less.

"Son, are you alright?" Charles asked shaking Jarod out of shock.

"Yeah Dad, I'm fine. I'd better go and get the grill started for the burgers." He said walking to where the kept the charcoal.

"Jarod I wanted to ask you something." Charles said. "It's about the children, William in particular."

"What is it?" Jarod asked nervous that his father too may have notice the resemblance between Will and Chris.

"Did you know that William had a twin sister named Alyssa?" Jarod nearly dropped the bag of charcoal on his feet.

"What?" Jarod said.

"Yes the girl died when she and Will were seven. Will believes that the Centre caused her death."

"No!" Came a voice from behind. "No you weren't suppose to tell them. They weren't suppose to know!" Will shouted. He then ran off towards the woods that were behind the lake.

"Will come back." Jarod yelled as he ran after his son. Jarod found Will twenty minutes later, in a tree.

"Hey mind if I come up?" He asked Will.

"No need I'll come down." Will replied. When Will came with in arm length of his father, Jarod helped him the rest of the way down.

"You shouldn't be climbing trees you know." Jarod said to him.

"I know Dad." Will said looking his father in the eyes. Jarod realized the double meaning of his son's words.

"How?" Jarod asked.

"I lied to Mom, and the others. I told them that the voices didn't tell me who our parents were." Will admitted as tears began to stream down his face. "I was afraid. Afraid that you'd be mad at me for letting Alley die. I'm so sorry that I couldn't protect her. I'm so sorry that I could keep her safe." The boy cried. Jarod took his son into his arms, and held his as he cried.

"I could never be mad at you Will. It wasn't your fault. It's wasn't your fault." Jarod repeated over and over trying to calm his son down. After a while his cries subsided. His father didn't let go of him though. Jarod sat on his knees, rocking his grief stricken son, back and forth.

"Can you tell me about her?" Jarod asked Will sometime latter.

"Tell you about Alley? Sure." Will replied. "In all honesty she was a lot like Alex. Smart, outgoing, full of life, and extremely inquisitive. Alley was always getting into things. Once she crashed the Centre mainframe. It took the whole tech crew three weeks to get the mainframe back up. The only thing was quite a few files were missing. The poor techies had to find all of the old hard copies of the files and place them back in the mainframe." The two laughed.

"How many files did she delete?" Jarod asked

"Close to five thousand." Will said grinning. "I use to be a lot like her. We would take turns terrorizing the Centre. After she died it was like a part of me died too."

"That's understandable Will. She was your sister. If you two were anything like Alex and the boys then I assume you two were very close.

"We were inseparable." Will commented. "Dad there's something else.

"What son?"

"The day Alley died I lost control of my powers. I killed eight men on SL- 27."

"You were the one who caused the fire on SL-27?" Jarod asked his son shocked that his son had so much power.

"Yeah." Will said looking down, ashamed for what he did. "I didn't mean to I was just do angry. And Alley," He faltered. "we use to balance out each other. We were telepathically able to keep each other's emotions in check. You see our abilities are triggered by our emotions. When I lost control of my emotions I lost control of my powers." Will explained.

"The death of a loved one, especially a twin is enough to send any one over the edge." Jarod told him.

"You know what makes me angry the most. The fact that I can't hear her any more. When she was alive her voice was sometimes the only thing I could hear. I think because I killed those men she left me."

"She didn't leave you Will. A part of here will always be here." Jarod said pointing to his son's heart.

"Yeah, I guess your right. So what are we going to tell the others? I mean I caused quite a scene back there."

"Well your mother and I had his wonderful speech laid out for the four of you." Jarod said.

"No you didn't." Will replied.

"Your right we had nothing. I'm assuming you know why I left yesterday?"

"Of course. You and mom we're suppose to find out the night you got me and the boys out but Mom forgot about the DSA.

"We'd better get back to the house. The burgers are probably cold." Jarod told Will. "On our way we'll think of what to tell your brothers and sister."

SO HERE'S THE THING I DEBATING ON IF I WANT FOR ALLEY TO BE ALIVE OR NOT. SO I'M GOING TO LET YOU ALL VOTE. EITHER WAY IT DOESN'T MATTER TO ME. I JUST NEED SOME HELP IN MAKING THE DECISION.