Joy –don't worry every thing the kids are hiding is about to come out.
Pretender Fanatic- Glad you like the whole dream thing
msand – Wow I wish it only took me two days to write everything so far. I'm thrilled that you liked it so much that you kept on reading all of it.
AnniGH4ever – look no more here is the next chapter.
Morgan – It looks like every one else agrees with you on how the Centre should be brought down.
Mrs. Rhett Butler- I'm going to give Chris and Deb some time soon as well as a bunch of other characters who I really haven't written about.
Nicole- thanks for your input
CHAPTER 51
THE POP TART BATTLE
January 23, 2004
2:19am
Charlottesville, Virginia
Russell Family Home
"I've got it. I've got it.' Jake yelled running into his father's room. "Dad! Dad! Wake up."
"Jake 'm sleeping." Ethan moaned pulling the covers over his head. Jake pulled the blankets of his father's bed.
"Dad I know who the triumvirate are." Jake said waving a slip of paper in front of Ethan's face.
"'Snice son." Ethan said.
"Ugh grownups." Jake fussed walking of to his room.
"Jake." Ethan said suddenly sitting up. And rapping the back of his head on the headboard. "Ow." He moaned. It had taken several moments for what Jake said to make it through the fog of sleep surrounding Ethan. Ethan disentangled himself from the sheets and leapt off his bed and ran down the hall to the children's room. There he found all fourteen Black Files sitting on their beds each with their own laptop. The five girls to one side of the room the seven boys to the other side. In the middle of the floor stood the coffee maker from the kitchen. The floor was littered with empty pez wrappers. At the foot of each child's bed sat a footlocker, with a stack of papers with a coffee mug serving as a paperweight.
One the back wall was a white board, which usually had each child's schedule for the week listed on it. At that moment there were photos of Centre personnel and information listed under each photo. Pined to the walls were layouts of the Centre, and timelines.
"Ethan stared open mouthed at the children. "What in the hell is going on here."
"Uh, there wouldn't be anyway of convincing you that you're dreaming by chance?" Jake said nervously.
"No Jacob there wouldn't."
"Well then Daddy welcome to command central." Rachael said.
"It's 2:30 in the morning and the fourteen of you are guzzling coffee and popping pez while trying to plot ways to bring down the Centre." Ethan screeched
"Actually Uncle Ethan, we know how were going to bring down the Centre." Jeremiah told the man. "Right now were going through the evidence against the Centre we've collected and erasing any trace of our family."
Ethan muttered several explicatives under his breath. He then silently counted to ten and took slow deep breaths in effort to calm his self down enough to speak civilly to the children. "Number one," He began "You all range form the age of nine to almost eight, meaning you're all to young to be drinking coffee. Number two, it's late and way past your bedtime. Number three let the grownups plot ways to bring down the Centre." Ethan told the children.
Now I'm going to take the coffee maker and these mugs downstairs. When I come back I want this room to be in its usual appearance and the fourteen of you in bed." Ethan said trying to use the tone of voice Jarod and Morgan used when disciplining the children. He wasn't doing a good job but the children took pity on him and didn't give him a hard time.
"Am I clear?" Ethan asked.
"Crystal." The group chorused. Ethan then corralled the remains of the children's coffee and dumped them in the pot. He then grabbed an empty crate a the foot of Rachael's bed and placed the fourteen mugs in it, along with the coffee maker. Ethan walked out of the room to find his older brother leaning against the doorframe.
"Need help with that?" Jarod asked.
"Please." Ethan replied. Jarod took out the coffee maker to ease Ethan's load. "So how long has this been going on?" Ethan asked Jarod.
"Since Jake and the other's came back in May. Morgan and I found out around September. Around two I go in and check on them, make sure their in bed." Jarod told his brother. Ethan sighed.
"Our kids are amazing Jarod but their just that, kids. We have got to bring down the Centre soon, and get them into some sort of school and having some sort of normal life. Normal children don't stay up till two thirty in the morning every night trying to bring down the corporation that held them prison up until a year ago."
"Yes but as our children like reminding us they are not normal. An normal seven year old can't quote Plato word for word." Jarod said.
"Yeah Jarod but they're still kids. You say that you check on them every night around two to make sure they're asleep. But they are up every morning no later than seven, usually six. They need more than four to five hours of sleep a night." Ethan protested as he and Jarod washed the mugs out. "And coffee Jarod." Ethan said holding up a mug.
"Ethan as Sam says 'You're preaching to the choir'." Jarod said drying out the mug Ethan passed to him.
"Do we talk to them?" Ethan asked.
"As much as I hate to say it no. Old habits die hard. The kids have been doing this for years; they won't stop until the Centre is gone." Jarod told Ethan. "And you're wrong you know, about the children not having some sort of normal life. Our kids are home schooled, plenty of children are. Our kids play games like other children granted, most children can't throw a ball telekinetically." Jarod said frowning slightly. "But that's not the point. Our kids are surrounded by a supporting and loving family..."
"See that's not normal. Most kids came from a dysfunctional families with weird quirks." Ethan interrupted.
"Ethan our family wins the prize for weird quirks. You are my half brother; you're also my wife's half brother. I have five biological children non-of whom I've know about until the past year. I've adopted the son of my sworn enemy. My adopted son also happens to be my wife's half brother. His mother died decades before he was born not to mention he hears the dead voice of his biological mother. Actually all of my children do come to think about it except for maybe Zane and Gabe. My five oldest children are pyrokinetics. And I have a clone for Christ sakes. Need I go on?"
"No." Ethan said trying not to laugh. "So speaking of the older kids, are they acting like the others?"
"They're even worse. They average about three hours of sleep a night. Nick says that they spend every spare moment on their laptops in the corner of the library whispering."
"And Adam and Peter are they in on this too?"
"No. But I think Will's in the process of recruiting Zane and Gabe." Jarod joked. "Well littler brother I don't know about you but I'm going back to bed. I'm no good with out my usual ten minutes of sleep. And," Jarod said glancing at the kitchen clock. "Zane and Gabe will be waking up in about two hours. If I'm lucky Will and Alley will be asleep and I can sneak the baby monitor into their room with out them noticing." Jarod said drying his hands on the dishcloth. "Look Ethan, don't worry about the kids, it's pointless. They're fine, or the will be."
January 24, 2004
7:00am
Charlottesville, Virginia
Russell Family Home
"So little cousin did I hear right last night? You guys found out who the triumvirate are." Will asked Jake as the two descended down the steps following behind twin sisters.
"All we need is some stuff on them and were set." Jake told Will.
"We bring down the triumvirate we bring down all of the Centre's." Alley commented grinning.
"That maybe so but first you have to go to school." Morgan said from the bottom of the steps holding out Will and Alleys backpacks. The twins took them and set off towards the kitchen "Oh and today is laundry day for your group Jake and Rach, so remind the others." Morgan told the two children as they two walked in to the kitchen Morgan behind them.
"Our clothes are already sorted and ready to go." Rachael said.
"Good then go ahead and get breakfast because the fourteen of you also have your checkups at the clinic today." Morgan told the two younger twins.
"Do we really have to go?" Jake asked.
"Yes." Ethan told his daughter. "You two are coming in at eight with me. After that Lex is bring Marc and Cassie. And then I'll bring you two home. Jarod will then bring Terra and Tobias once Lex returns with Marc and Cassie. When Jarod comes back I'll take Greg, Lissa, and Jerry. Lex will then bring in Mike and Maddie when I come back. And Jarod will bring in Aaron, Andros and Alex when Lex comes back." Jake and Rachael paled slightly but quickly recovered before their father could notice.
"Uh Dad, that sounds like a brilliant plan and all but why don't the three of you take us all in at the same time. That way you don't have to do all that running around." Jake suggested.
"Yeah Daddy it's not like you have anybody else coming in today." Rachael said.
"Fine, but I don't all of you tearing up the waiting room." Ethan told his children
"Please Dad were not kids. We know how to act." Jake said.
"Hey Uncle Ethan after our checkups can we go to the movies, Harry Potter's still playing." Aaron asked snatching the pop tart Will was about to take a bite out of.
"Haven't you all seen it like eight times now?" Alley asked grabbing the pop-tart from Arron and taking a bite out of it.
"Hey that was mine." Aaron said.
"No it's was mine." Will spoke angrily.
"Don't be such a baby there's one left in the box." Alley said. Will jumped up from his seat and started to run, but was held back when Aaron pulled on his shirt. The two then began to scuffle.
By the time they finished fighting each other Alex had walked into the kitchen and placed the last pop tart in the toaster. The two boys looked up from their position on the floor and glanced at their younger sister and the toaster. A gleam came over their eyes, and Alex instinctively knew what they where thinking. She quickly formed a small fireball in her hand.
"Don't even think about it." She warned. She then snatched her pop tart from out of the toaster and left the kitchen.
Morgan, Ethan, Jake, Rachael, Alley, Chris and Debbie had set watching the two boys fight for the last pop tart trying not to crack up laughing. Taking pity on the boys fallen expressions when Alex had taken the last pop tart from out of the box, Morgan walked over to the pantry and pulled another box of pop tarts out. Will and Aaron grinned sheepishly at their Mother and then set to fixing their breakfast.
"So." Aaron asked when Jarod entered the room. "What the deal with this whole checkup thing anyway?"
"Were just going to run some blood test. See how you blood work differs from normal kids. And we're giving each of you a physical." Jarod said grabbing Will and Aaron's pop tarts form the toaster. The two brothers exchanged looks and quickly pounced on their father taking back their pop tarts.
"Sweetheart, never touch anther person's pop tart." Morgan said to a stunned Jarod who had found himself sitting on the floor.
"How'd the kids checkups go?" Morgan asked Jarod latter that night as they were getting Zane and Gabe ready for bed.
"Interesting to say the least. Their white cell count is off the chart. They have very little junk DNA. Lex, Ethan, and I are going to evaluate their blood samples further to see if we can figure out how further their abilities will evolve. The kids are in wonderful heath despite the lack of sleep and amount of coffee they drink. I need to go back through their files to see how much genetic engineering Raines and Cox did on the kids. I have the feeling that they don't even realize what they did to the kids genes." Jarod told Morgan. Morgan starred at him.
"You do realize that I only understood the significance of about half of what you said right?"
"I do now." Jarod said kissing his wife. He then rested his chin on the top of her head and sighed.
"What wrong?"
"When I came home from Blue Cove I had a group of files and a DSA. When I went through my things the DSA was gone."
"Maybe you dropped it." Morgan suggested.
"No it was secure in the file."
"Do you think on of the kids took it."
"Yes. And I have the strange feeling it was Alex." Jarod said as he lead his wife to their room.
"Why do you think it was Katie?"
"As of late she has been acting quite odd around me. Avoiding me and such. And there's something else."
"What?" Morgan asked opening the door to their bedroom.
"After we took the all the kids blood samples, we did their physicals. Alex never had her physical; Maddie took Alex's physical for her, as well as her own. I didn't say any thing, to either of them, but I know that Alex is hiding something and the other children are protecting her."
"Do you believe that it has something to do with the DSA?"
"Partly. We both know that when Alex was three Lyle practically killed her. If it wasn't for Sam she might have died. At first I thought that the DSA might have contained footage form then but according to the date on it, it was only two years old." Jarod said he and Morgan climbing into bed.
"You're right" Morgan told Jarod.
"About what?" Jarod asked confused.
"The kids protecting Alex. When I was talking to Will he mentioned something about a DSA from two years ago and how we must not have seen it because Lyle's still alive.
"Then that means that the kids aren't protecting Alex they're protecting us. Do you think that Lyle did to Alex what he did to Will?" Jarod asked in a voice barely above a whisper. "Or do you think that it was something worse."
"That's the thing Jarod, I don't want to think about it." Morgan said. She and Jarod were quite for awhile both deep in thought.
"I think we need to have a talk with our daughter in the morning." Jarod said switching off the lights.
That was Chapter 51 let me know what you thought about it, weather you liked it hated it or loved it I'd love to hear from you.