AUTHOR'S NOTE: GOOD NEWS EVERYONE I CHANGED MY MIND AND DECIDE TO GIVE YOU TWO CHAPTERS TODAY INSTEAD OF UPDATING TOMORROW. I FIGURED I PROBABLY WOULDN'T GET AROUND TO UPDATING ON THE 4TH . THINK OF IT AS A FOURTH OF JULY PRESENT FOR EVERYONE.
CHAPTER 43
LIFE'S LESSONS
September 7, 2003
7:25am
Charlottesville, Virginia
Russell Family Home
"William and Alyssa Russell! If you two don't hurry up you'll miss the bus." Morgan yelled. Will and Alley came running into the kitchen. Both were wearing brand new school uniforms that consisted of dark blue slacks and tie along with a white shirt and dark tie for boys. The girls' uniform was the same except the girls wore skirts instead of pants.
Debbie and Chris were already sitting down at the table eating their breakfast. Jarod too was in the kitchen boiling a kettle of water.
"What do the two of you want for breakfast?" Jarod asked the twins.
"Pop-tarts," they replied in unison.
"Ugh. How can you two eat those things?" Morgan asked entering the kitchen.
"They're good Mom," Will said.
"Wanna try one?" Alley asked waving a strawberry flavored pop-tart under her mother's nose.
"I think I'm going to be sick," Morgan said getting up from the table and waddling towards the bathroom, passing Nick as he entered the kitchen.
"Morning all," Nick said and was greeted with a course of "Good mornings."
"I thought that by now Morgan's morning sickness would have ended by now," Nick said to Jarod as he poured himself a mug of hot water a placed a tea bag in it.
"She would be if her children would stop waving pop-tarts under her nose," Jarod said glancing at his eldest daughter.
"Oh. So are you four sure that you don't want a ride to school."
"No thanks Nicky, the last thing I need on the first day of school is to have my brother-in-law drive me," Chris said in mock disgust.
"Where is Em by the way?" Jarod asked.
"Still in bed. I think that she's coming down with something," Nick told his brother-in-law. Will and Alley exchanged smiles that didn't go unnoticed by their father.
"Well I'll see you four first period. You know I still find it odd that the four of you have the same schedules," Nick said.
"Yeah odd," Will said smiling.
"All right you two spill it," Jarod commanded the twins after Nick had left the kitchen.
"Oh come on Daddy, even Uncle Nick knows that we hacked into the school's main frame and changed our schedules around," Alley said to her father.
"That is not what I'm talking about Alyssa," Jarod said.
"Oh the other thing," Will said taking a bite out of his pop-tart.
"Yes William the other thing," Jarod said in annoyance.
"Aunt Emily's pregnant." Alley said.
"What!" Nick said dropping the books he was holding.
"We thought that you were gone," Debbie said.
"I-I forgot my um, thing that I use to carry paper in." Nick stuttered.
"You mean your brief case?" Chris asked grinning. Like Morgan Nick found that grin to be annoying.
"Yeah my brief case," Nick echoed.
"Here," Chris said passing it to him.
"Hey Nick you might want to get to work or else you'll be late," Jarod told the still awe struck man.
"Yeah Uncle Nick you don't want to be late on your first day," Will told his uncle.
"Work, Yeah," Nick said and headed out the door still in shock. The four children laughed but quickly quieted once Jarod gave them a reprimanding look.
September 7, 2003
8:05am
Charlottesville, Virginia
Delgado School for the Gifted
The four pretenders sat in the back of the class watching the other children enter the room. At thirteen Will and alley were the youngest in their class but not in the school. The twins had begged their parents to place them in the junior class with Debbie and Chris.
Morgan and Jarod had chosen The Delgado School because the children would be able to take college classes. The school also offered a wide range of classes. Thursdays were the schools elective days. Such classes as History of Rock and Roll, Dinosaurs, and Real Estate were offered. Morgan and Jarod hoped that the children would not find themselves easily bored.
Not only did the school offer a wide range of classes the students were on first name terms with the staff. Even the principal was called by her first name. The reason for this was it helped from a bond between student and teacher.
"Good morning class my name is Nick. For the next Four and a half months I will be teaching you all Science-Fiction English. If you look at your syllabi you can see that we will be reading such novels as Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, 1984 by George Orwell, and The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood. Each of you are to supply your own text and I expect for you all to have Brave New World along with the rest of your supplies by the end of the week. Now with all of that out of the way let's have introductions." Nick said sitting on his desk. "Let's start with you and go down the row," He said pointing to a girl in the front row. "Tell us your name and something about your self."
"My name is Julia Saul. And I like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter." The girl said nervously.
"Uh I'm Josh Matthews and I draw."
"Garret Smith and I want to be a lawyer." Seen other children introduced them selves after Garret. They were Bryan, Ashley, Cynthia, Zach, Griffin, Sara, and Mary. Finally Chris and the others went.
"My Name is Chris Russell and I help raise horses."
"Debbie Broots, I do a lot of work with computers."
"Will Russell I have three younger brothers and two younger sisters and my Mom is expecting twins"
"I'm Alley and I'm his twin," Alley said pointing to Will.
"Are all four of you related?" Sara asked.
"God no," Debbie said horrified.
"The three of us are related," Chris said pointing to himself and the twins. "I'm their Uncle," He said somewhat cockily.
"What about you Nick, your new here tell us something about yourself." Bryan said.
"Yeah Nick tell us something about yourself," Will echoed.
Nick gave his nephew a nasty look and said, "Well I found out this morning that I'm going to be a Dad."
"Congratulations" the class told him. The four in the back grinned wickedly.
The quartet's last class of the day was drama, which was also taught by Nick. They had five other classes, Art History, taught by Brigette, Pre- Calculus with Rosa, Economics with Tom, and Chemistry with Barry. Before Chemistry they had Lunch at twelve o'clock.
Because the school was so small it did not have a cafeteria. The children were allowed to leave the building to eat lunch during their hour lunch break.
After Drama the children took the bus home. They arrived to find the younger group of children on the front porch waiting for them.
"Will." Peter said running to his oldest brother. Will swept the four-year- old up in his arms and swung him around. "I missed you. Do you all gotta go back tomorrow?"
"'Fraid so Tiger." Alley told he baby brother.
"But don't worry we'll be home every day by 3:30. And on Thursdays were home by twelve." Chris told the boy.
"So how was your first day of school?" Jake asked curious.
"Oddly enough it was like being back at the Centre," Will told Jake.
"Yeah just with out the torture and stuff," Alley said.
"Oh that's nice to here." Rachael replied sarcastically.
"Hey did you guys here about Emily?" Debbie asked the children.
"Hello you're talking to a group of psychics here," Cassie said.
"Yeah I mean we've know for weeks. Well week actually," Marc said correcting himself.
"So anything happen while we were gone?" Chris asked.
"Eh, nothing much," Tobias told him.
"Yeah we just spent most of the day tryin' t' find a cure for Aunt Joanna," Terra said.
"We'll tell you about it latter." Greg said nodding towards the youngest members of the group, Adam in particular.
"'So kay we'll go," Adam said realizing what was going on. Peter wiggled out of Will's arms and the two boys went in search of their mothers.
"Spill it." Will said.
"We think that Aunt Joanna my have been correct. The cancer has become so advanced that there appears little that we can do." Jeremiah said.
"So you're saying that it's hopeless?" Alley asked.
"No!" Melissa protested.
"Our preliminary results aren't what we hoped for. There are still more test that we can run." Mike said.
"Right now Uncle Jarod, Uncle Ethan, and Daddy are at the lab running test we can't run." Maddie told the four teenagers.
"Their equipment is much more sophisticated than what we have here." Aaron began.
"Hopefully they can pick up something that we missed." Andros said.
"If they don't...." Alex said leaving the rest of her sentence unfinished but all knew what she meant. Joanna's life depended on Jarod, Ethan and Lex finding an anomaly in Joanna's blood that would offer a cure to her cancer.
October 20, 2003
12:14pm
Richmond, Virginia
Hollywood Cemetery
It's funny how some things work. A week after the children began school, Jarod, Ethan and Lex stumbled upon a cure for Joanna. She slowly began a road to recovery. Yet it appeared the Death had already staked a claim to Joanna Noonan and would not easily give up.
Walking out of the grocery store a bag of groceries in one hand, Adam's hand in the other Joanna Noonan suffered a brain aneurysm. The brown paper bag of groceries fell form her arm. And apple rolled across the pavement. Joanna collapsed. Her son's terrified face was the last thing she saw.
The ambulance arrived five minutes latter. Five minutes that felt like an eternity to the five-year-old boy. The manager of the store had come out himself, and he as a handful of his staffed watched as a small blonde haired gray-eyed boy desperately shake his mother begging her to wakeup.
Joanna was pronounced dead on arrival, by one John Cody. Cody's heart went out to the small boy. After pronouncing the woman dead the boy went into hysterics. His arms flayed wildly and sobs racked his body as Cody held the boy away from the body his mother.
After calming the boy down Cody was able to learn that the child was family to Dr.'s Jarod and Ethan Russell. Cody knew the two doctors by reputation. He got his partner to radio for another ambulance to take care of the body of the boy's mother. When the other ambulance arrived Cody and his partner drove the boy to Jarod and Ethan's office.
Cody carried the grief stricken boy into the doctor's office and asked the sectary to "speak to either Doctor Russell's or both preferably." Adam had fallen asleep on the ride over. It was Ethan who came. Jarod was in with a patient. After setting and eye on the child wrapped in Cody's jacket, Ethan knew that Joanna was dead. Ethan took the sleeping child from Cody's arms, thanked the EMT and promised to return his jacket. Ethan then told his sectary to call Lex and tell him to come in. After Lex arrived Ethan took Adam home.
Now watching his mother's coffin ease into the ground next to his father's Adam knew that he had lost something. He knew that he had now lost both his parents but he knew that he had lost something else as well. Something intangible. Had he asked, Morgan would have been able to tell them that he had lost a large part of his innocence. But you see Adam didn't ask. In fact Adam had not spoken a word since the day his mother dropped that brown grocery bag, and the red apple rolled out of it.
Jake and Rachael stood on either side of their little brother. Ethan stood behind the three children his hands on Adam's shoulders. Adam did not cry once during the funeral, it wasn't because he was trying to be strong. He just simply had no tears left to cry.
Morgan watched the boy with interest. She was very concerned for him. Adam still appeared to be in shock. Morgan was grateful that her father and the other's had been able to get away from the Centre. The trio had taken a three-day vacation. Morgan hoped that her father would be able to get Adam to open up.
"Ashes to ashes dust to dust." The Priest murmured tossing a handful of dirt into the grave. The family slowly walked a way. Adam and Ethan were the last to leave. Adam tossed a single red rose in the grave. He then walked over to his father's tombstone and place another rose on it. Ethan picked the child up and carried him to the awaiting limousine. Ethan never noticed the blood that slowly seeped from Adam's clenched fist that had previously held the two roses.
The family returned home two hours latter.
"Dad?" Morgan said as the two exited the car.
"Hum."
"Do you think that you could talk to Adam? He hasn't spoken a word since Joanna died."
"I could," Sydney said. "God knows I understand what he's going through. I still remember the day the Nazi's came and took Jacob and I away. But I feel that you should talk to him."
"Why me?" Morgan asked
"Because Morgan, you have become the closest thing to a mother for Adam. And you like Adam were very young when you witnessed your mother die. Granted it was a staged death. But for you April 13th will always be the day you're mother died."
"I guess I should go and talk to him then." Morgan said. She then went in search of Adam. Morgan found the boy in his mother's room asleep on her bed clutching a photograph of he, his mother and father. Jeremiah stood to the side of the room watching the boy.
"I'm trying to understand," Jeremiah said. "I see that he is in pain. And I want to make it go away but I can't. Why not?"
"Because baby the pain never really goes away. Do you remember when you cut your hand to months ago?" The boy nodded his head in reply. "Well your hand healed but it left behind a scar that will remain with you forever. Adam has a wound slowly it will heal but it will leave behind a scar. And that scar though invisible will always serve as a reminder of how he felt the day he lost his mother." Morgan told Jeremiah.
Jeremiah pondered this though for a moment and then said, "I have scars like that too. Both invisible and visible. They remind me everyday what the Centre did to me and the others. And it hurts everyday. Some days though it doesn't hurt as bad."
"Jeremiah what did they do to you?" Morgan asked.
Jeremiah smiled at her sadly and said, "Many things. A lot they did to Uncle Jarod. Other than that I can't tell you anything else."
"Why not?" Morgan asked.
"Because it's not my place. You will have to ask your children." Jeremiah told her. The boy then walked away. After Jeremiah left Morgan sat down next to his sleeping form. She brushed a stray piece of hair from his face. Adam stirred.
"I know that you're awake baby. Open your eyes." Adam complied. "Did you here what I said to Jerry?" Adam nodded his head. "Well I know all of that because I was a little older than you when my Momma was killed in front of me. I was angry for along time. And I felt that with her gone I was all alone. That there would be no one left to love me. But I was wrong I had Jarod, Sam, Angelo, and even my Dad although I didn't know he was my Dad then. But they were all there for me. Even when I tried to push them away they stood by my side. Adam you aren't alone either. We are al here for you."
"Do you miss her?" Adam said softly.
"Everyday baby."
"It hurts so much," He cried. Morgan held him as he cried him self to sleep. Jarod came into the room a few moments after Adam had fallen asleep. Jarod picked the boy up and carried him to his room he shared with Peter.
"Now what?" Morgan asked her husband. Jarod wrapped hie arms around her, resting his hand on her swollen abdomen and sighed.
"Now we wait. Did you know that Joanna wanted Ethan to adopt Adam.'
"Yeah she told me a few weeks ago." Morgan said leaning into her husband's embrace. "Were are the kids?"
"In their rooms. They're having nightmares again."
"I know. Jarod, Jeremiah told me something earlier."
"What?"
"Well he didn't exactly say, but he implied that some pretty bay things happen to him and the others at the Centre. Do you think that we should watch their DSA's?" Morgan asked.
"No. The kids will talk to us about it when they're ready." Jarod murmured in her ear.
"Jarod, sweetheart do you realize that I'm due in less than two months and we have yet to decide on any names for the twins." As if to say what bad parents they were the twins kicked in protest. "Hey go easy on Momma," Morgan said. Jarod chortled.
"Maybe we should let the kids pick out the names. It will give them something else to think about other than Joanna." Jarod suggested.
Later that night Morgan watched some of the triplets DSA's. The ones she watched weren't as bad as she imagined they would be. In fact she found them to be slightly better than Will's. Morgan didn't realize that the children had hidden the worst of the DSA's.
Just a side note the school the Will, Alley, Deb and Chris attend is a real school. It's located in Richmond a few blocks away from where I buried Joanna. I just changed the name of it and made it a privet school.
Anyway you guys know the drill the little purple button is calling out to you saying "Click on me" "Click on me".