Edited 10/4/04. Mark's wife's name is now consistently Alyson.

"Would you like a cup of coffee?" Alyson asked as they finished the tour of the house and went back into the kitchen.

"No, thank you," Nelaris said. Selmak had warned her about the vile Tau'ri brew. "Water would be nice, though." Lee'al was grateful that her symbiont was handling the situation; she had long since gotten used to the feel of another person using her body, and even with Jacob's warning, she had not expected Mark's reaction to be so awful. She would not have handled the situation with as much equanimity. And without Alyson's calm intervention, things would have been much worse. Mark's wife wasn't exactly welcoming her with open arms, but she was at least courteous and polite, and whatever she thought about Lee'al she wasn't expressing.

Lee'al studied her surroundings as she waited for her host to get her coffee and join her at the table. The house was neither as large nor as opulent as the one she grew up in, but it was considerably more comfortable. And while the Tok'ra tunnels were undeniably practical for a resistance group on the run, and the symbiotes liked them, Lee'al had always found them chilly, hard, and monotonous. The photographs on the sunny yellow walls and the slight clutter gave it an air of cheerful family life, and the size was just right for a family of four.

"You'll have to excuse Mark," Alyson said as she handed Lee'al her water and took a seat, cradling her own mug of coffee. "Jacob hadn't even flirted with another woman since his wife died, at least as far as we knew, and then all of a sudden not only does he have a girlfriend, it's serious enough to bring her home to meet the family. It was a bit of a shock, especially when Sam mentioned you were a bit younger than Jacob. I'm afraid he still hadn't gotten over it by the time you arrived, looking like a supermodel. I don't know exactly what he was expecting, but, well ..."

"I wasn't it. I quite understand," Nelaris reassured her.

What's a supermodel? Lee'al asked.

##I don't know; ask Jacob later.## "I realize how sudden our relationship must seem, but we had known each other for some time before we got together. I'm afraid the sudden visit was my fault—I so wanted to meet you, as Jacob speaks of you often. Unfortunately, my schedule is erratic and difficult to judge in advance, and Jacob's and Sam's are no better. Everything just came together for this visit, and I was afraid that if we didn't take the chance while we had it, it might be quite some time before another one arose."

"Ah." Alyson sipped at her coffee. "So, how did the two of you meet?"

"We were introduced by mutual friends." ##I suggest we get comfortable. This is a polite interrogation session designed to both get information and give Jacob and Mark time to talk. We may be here a while.##

Jacob and Mark unloaded the bags from the trunk in a stony silence. Sam had taken Brian off somewhere to give the two of them some privacy. Selmak had suggested letting Mark speak first, and get what was bothering him off his chest, and Selmak was usually right about such things. But if Mark didn't start opening up real soon, Jacob was going to talk.

As he held open the front door, Mark spoke. "So, how old is she?" His voice was hard, accusatory.

"Twenty-four." It was a lie; she was only eighteen, and looked younger. Twenty-four was as old as they figured they could claim and get away with. It was better than eighteen, but not by much. ##Besides, Nelaris is over fifteen hundred years old. If the lie bothers you, you could just tell him the truth. Surely fifteen hundred would be old enough for him.## Jacob picked up the two largest pieces of luggage and started for the house, sending a brief thought of thanks Selmak's way. "She looks a lot younger than she is, I know, but that's useful in her line of work. And she's been through a lot in her lifetime; she isn't your typical twenty-four-year-old by any stretch of the imagination." And that was all completely true.

Mark snorted, but didn't directly follow up. "So what does she do for a living?"

"She works for military intelligence." That was also true, even if it was misleading; it was the best way of describing what the Tok'ra did without getting into the messy details of alien body-snatchers and resistance movements. "I'm afraid the details are classified. She travels around a lot on short notice, that's why this visit is so sudden."

Mark dropped the luggage he was carrying in the room that Jacob and Lee'al were evidently going to share. ##It might be the coward's way out, but I'm glad it was Sam and not us who talked with Mark about the sleeping arrangements,## Selmak whispered. Jacob could only agree.

"You work with her, don't you," Mark said in an incredulous voice. "That's what you're doing when you're 'traveling.' All this time, you've claimed to be retired, you've been lying to us. That's why you're so hard to contact, why we never know what you're doing or where you are until after the fact. Have you ever even been to some of the places you've described? What about all those stories you tell Brian and Mary about your travels. Were those lies, too?"

Jacob closed his eyes and scratched his head. and he'd thought things couldn't get any worse. Any suggestions, wise guy? It was an old joke they shared about Selmak being supposedly the wisest Tok'ra. ##Apologize, explain, and stay as close as you can to the truth.## Right. "What I said was, I retired from the Air Force. Which is perfectly true. It's splitting hairs, I know, but at the time it seemed the best way to handle the situation. All those stories I tell, yes, they're true. The names have been changed, some of the details altered to keep classified information safe, but all that stuff really has happened. I'm sorry I had to conceal so much of my life from you. I've wanted to tell you for years. Hell, I want to tell you exactly what it is I do right now more than you can imagine, but I can't." He sat down heavily on the bed. "I'm sorry. I wish there was more I could say, but there isn't."

Mark sat down on the chair across from him, face closed. His mouth was set in a hard line. "So, how'd you get from being a burned out major general to an international super-spy, if you don't mind my asking. You always said when we were kids that the intelligence men were all either jerks or idiots, and usually convinced they were superior to everyone else. Now you are one. But why tell me? After all, I'm only your son. Not much reason for you to tell me anything."

Jacob sighed. "Mark, if I could tell you, I would. Believe me when I say that not being able to tell you the truth, the whole truth, is the only major regret I have at the moment. What I'm going to tell you now is the abbreviated, censored version, but unfortunately it's the best I can do."

"So you're classified Top Secret, eh?"

"Actually, the work I do now is considerably more classified than that. By the way, you can't tell anyone even the limited bit I can tell you. Well, I guess you can tell Alyson, but it can't go any further than that." Jacob paused, gathering his thoughts. Thankfully, Mark didn't fill the silence with another pithy remark. "It started several years ago when I had cancer. I was doing badly. The chemo and radiation they had me on just weren't working. They were pretty sure I was going to die. Hell, I was pretty sure I was going to die." Mark shifted uncomfortably; at least he wasn't angry enough to be unaffected by the reminder of how close to death Jacob had come. That meant there had to be some filial affection left, right?

"I contacted Sam, told her what was happening, tried to mend some fences there. Too damn proud and stubborn to try and talk to you, I guess. Stupid, but them I never claimed I was the brightest apple in the bunch. Anyway, if you haven't figured this out by now, your sister's work involves a lot more than just deep space radar telemetry, though what she really does for a living is just as classified as what I do, unfortunately, so I'm afraid I can't tell you much there."

"Deep space radar telemetry," Mark said with a snort. "It's not exactly the most convincing cover story, especially when you consider all those scars she's got. And Sam, as brilliant as she is, never was a very good liar. Not to people she cares about."

"You don't know the half of it," Jacob agreed. "Anyway, she had connections to a group that had a radical and experimental treatment for cancer. Catch was, if I agreed to let them try it on me, I had to join their group. Well, that is, if I survived. A good share of that was simple medical necessity, and partly it was a gesture of good faith on both parts; I'm a sort of liaison between my group and Sam's group. And part of it was that they're working for a very good cause. That's how I got involved with this group."

"Can you even tell me their name?" Mark's face was still closed, revealing nothing.

"The name would mean nothing to you. I guarantee you've never heard of them."

Mark snorted.

##Jacob, what can it hurt? It's only a name.## "Okay, but you have to promise me you won't tell anyone, not even Alyson."

"Dad, this cloak and dagger stuff is getting really old. Just cut the bull and give me the name."

"Mark, I'm serious." Jacob caught his son's eye, and held it until the younger man looked away.

"Yeah, okay, I promise. My lips are sealed."

"We're called the Tok'ra."

"Nice name. What's it mean?"

"I can't tell you that."

"Riiight."

Mark shook his head and stalked out of the room.

"Dance class is the one place Mary really shines," Alyson said. Nelaris had steered the conversation in that direction; most parents could be counted upon to wax lyrical about their children, and listening was far safer than talking. "She's a good enough student, and has played little league in both baseball and soccer, but nothing out of the ordinary. Being one of the best in her class has given her self-confidence a boost, which is all to the good."

Behind her, the door opened. Lee'al sat up as Jacob trudged in; one look at his face was all it took to figure out that the meeting with Mark had not gone well. Her heart sank. She hated to see her mate look so depressed. And it was because of her.

Alyson turned around, and must have made the same assessment, for she sighed. "I'll get you some coffee, Jacob."

"Thanks," he said as he sat down next to Lee'al. She covered his hand with hers, and he gave her a bleak smile.

"I'm sorry, Jake. I should not have insisted we come."

He shrugged. "It had to happen sometime," he said, "and maybe it was better sooner than later. Who knows when we'd have had the chance to do this again, and if he'd had time to build up a picture of you in his mind, he'd probably have been even madder if he met you in person and you didn't fit the picture."

There was perhaps some truth in that, but she knew him well enough to know that he did not fully believe it himself. ##Still, what's done is done,## Nelaris said. ##Assigning blame now is pointless and counterproductive. What we must do now is figure out a method of fixing the breach.##

Do you have any ideas?

##Perhaps. But the situation is delicate, and calls for more intelligence on the situation and those involved in it. Acting in haste on assumptions that may prove faulty would be worse than doing nothing at all. For now, watch and wait.##

Sam entered the kitchen as Alyson handed Jake his coffee, and accepted the offer of one for herself. "Brian's upstairs dragging out some science project to show you. He should be down in a minute. How'd it go with Mark?"

"Downhill, fast." Jacob shrugged. "Actually, he didn't say much about Lee'al. He figured out that we work for the same group, and that's what I'm doing when I'm unreachable. Then he accused me of lying to him about being retired all these years, et cetera. I gave him the abbreviated version of how I got involved—"

"How abbreviated?" Sam asked, sitting up straighter.

"Very. And then he stalked off, mad. You know his major problem with me was that he thought I paid more attention to work than to my family."

"And that if you hadn't been too busy to pick Mom up, she wouldn't have gotten that cab." Sam shook her head and took a large gulp of her coffee.

Nelaris tilted her head. What? Lee'al asked.

##Do you not remember? Jacob said his wife died in a car accident, when the cab she was taking was hit by a drunk driver.##

You don't think that's the cab that Sam mentioned, do you? Lee'al was horrified. Together with her presence, it made the situation far more volatile.

##Exactly. Mark finds himself in a situation that brings up all the emotional resonance of the arguments that tore apart his relationship with his father in the first place, and they are centered around the death of his mother. At the same time he is presented with his mother's replacement, whom he would object to in any case, given the age difference and possibly the ethnic one. It puts his Jacob in the worst possible light in his eyes. This is worse than I thought.##

Well, at least Alyson appears to be on our side. She may be able to influence Mark, at least a little.

Sam sighed, drawing Lee'al's attention back to the world outside her head. That was one of the perils of being blended; if you weren't careful, you could focus so much on talking with your symbiote (or host) that you completely lost track of the world around you.

"I think I'll go find Mark, see if I can get him calmed down a bit." Sam smiled at Alyson. "Thanks for the coffee."

"Good luck," Jacob said.