SKETTY24 Thanks for the review :D!!! As for Will and Karen, what I'm actually trying to show in this part of the story is what 'Stryker had lost' when Karen died. Because he must have really lost someone so important to him, that he was driven insane.

As for the sleeping William's bandage, heheh, you're thinking too ahead of time ;)! You'll see what I mean ;)

Chapter 66: Girls and Phone calls

Stryker couldn't help but smile to himself as he observed his young self, sleeping so peacefully like that. Unlike him, this young man didn't seem to have visions of pain and suffering whenever he closed his eyes...or perhaps he did...though they were probably more endurable than the ones he'd been having for the past two days. It was because in his visions, he saw himself --- torturing the people he once called friends.

William groaned in his sleep and mindlessly placed a hand over his face. The light from the window glared against his closed eyes, making him realize, in his half-awake state, that it was already morning and time for him to get up. But his body remained unmoving in the bed. He still felt so tired from last night's mission, and the stinging sensation in his arm was a sure sign that his injury still hasn't healed. If there was one thing he wanted to do at the moment, it was to sleep and sleep some more.

Then he heard a sound coming from his answering machine.

"William!" Shouted the female voice that came from his answering machine. "This is Yuriko! Suddenly something came up. Logan and me are in the headquarters right now. Out intelligence just found out that Grinko and his lackeys are going to hold a meeting somewhere in Georgia today." Yuriko's voice said through the speaker.

William's eyes suddenly shot wide open. It was Yuriko, and it looked like something big was going on in Code7. He immediately turned over to his other side, which caused an excruciating pain on his bandaged arm, and he threw his hand over the table beside his bed. That was where his answering machine was. Then his eyes opened wide with surprise when he felt his hand over some gun parts on the table instead. He looked at the table and saw the gun parts there. He forgot that he moved the answering machine somewhere else, since he decided to tinker with his new gun last night.

"That's why me and Logan are going to head off there and check it out." She added.

He immediately threw the covers off of him and stumbled off the bed. He almost tripped from the blanket that remained wrapped around his ankle. It was six thirty in the morning and he could feel the biting chill against his skin, especially since he was only in his plain pair of shorts. But he had to get moving. He just wouldn't let Logan and Yuriko go alone. He should be there with them. Aside from him missing all the action, he also didn't want them to be alone together more than they already were. After all, their team was always supposed to be him, Yuriko and Logan. Not just Yuriko and Logan. What if those two get used to going on missions without him?

"I actually asked Hudson if Logan and me should go your place, and in Logan's terms, 'haul your lazy ass of the bed', but Hudson told me that this mission is primarily to observe Grinko and his men. So don't worry about it...you won't be missing much action." Yuriko's voice was suddenly followed by a quiet, playful laughter.

William quickly went around his room, looking under his things and his scattered clothes in search of his answering machine. "Where the heck is that?" He asked frustratingly. "God, I can always detect where a person's coming from just by the sound of their footsteps and now I can't even find the damn machine!" He muttered angrily.

Stryker had a dumbfounded look on his face as he watched his young counterpart fumble around the room, looking for the answering machine. 'This' was what he used to be like? The bloodthirsty, skillful and keen mercenary who he used to be, fumbled and panicked at the sound of Yuriko's voice? This was definitely too awkward to be true. He couldn't have been 'that' in love with her, could he?

Then for some weird reason, Stryker suddenly had the urge to speak up. "It's under the bed." He said to his younger self. "You pushed it off the table last night and you accidentally kicked it under the bed." He couldn't believe that he knew where it was. Perhaps he really was starting to remember everything, even the minor details.

William's eyes suddenly opened wide and he froze in place. He remembered knocking it off the table last night when he placed his gun pieces on it. He turned around and looked at his table, then his eyes darted to his bed.

/"Under the bed!"/ He thought to himself.

"Well, I guess we'll see you when we get back. Oh, and remember...we have a mission in Zanzibar this Friday...so you better make sure that that arm of yours is already healed by that time." Then Yuriko's voice stopped, and then after a while, it resumed. "Anyway, Logan just told me that we're going to leave soon. Gonna take the 01 if you don't mind. I actually just called to tell you about today." She said.

He quickly got on his knees and looked under the bed. Then his eyes laid upon the answering machine. There it was, taunting him with her voice. His arm shot under the bed and he was about to press the talk button of the machine...

"Well, we have to go, William. At least you can have the entire day to work in that research, laboratory thing of yours." She laughed. "I hope you open this message as soon as I wake up. Bye." And her message stopped.

...But before he could press down on the answering machine, Yuriko hung up the phone, and her message stopped right there. And he remained on the floor, with his arm under the bed, his eyes widened at the now-silent answering machine, and his body laying stomach down on the carpeted floor. He couldn't believe what just happened. He was that so close to talking to her. If she knew he was there, he could have gone to the HQ in a flash and accompanied them. But it was too late for that now, wasn't it? He groaned and pulled the answering machine out from under the bed, and then he turned around and laid down on his back on the floor and placed the answering machine on his stomach.

What a bad start on the day after the night when he almost got his arm lopped off. He looked down to his side and raised his injured arm up. That arm should definitely heal before Friday. It really 'sucked' that he didn't have Yuriko and Logan's healing powers. Unlike those two invincible people, he was stuck with a fragile, normal human body that easily got wounded, burned, scarred and mutilated under hazardous circumstances.

Then he sighed and stood up with the answering machine in his hands. He placed the answering machine on the table and then he exhaled and looked at his room. Looked like he had another free day to himself. He would probably spend it in the research facility again, as usual. That's where he usually was whenever he wasn't scaling the world with Logan and Yuriko. It was either he was with them, or with himself.

His entire world was nothing but Code7, his research, his military work, and his fellow operatives. Some may think of his world as small, but to him, it was the universe.

/"Well, I guess I better get moving. Nothing's gonna happen if I just stand here and stare at my room all day long."/ He thought to himself. He always looked at 'time' as something so precious. Because once you lose an hour, a minute, a second, you could never get it back. Just like one's memories, time can never be rewound.

He walked to his cabinet and opened it. He never kept any of his military uniforms, nor any of his espionage equipment in there. He would rather keep them in his room in the headquarters, where they rightfully belonged. He considered his apartment as a place outside his 'world', and he preferred to keep his world and the outside world apart. The last thing he needed was an outside force affecting his life in Code7.

He pulled out a casual shirt and a pair of jeans. He quickly put his pants on, and he placed his shirt over his head as he walked out of the room. He was going to have breakfast outside first, and then he would head straight to the headquarters. That's how his days usually went. He'd wake up, go to work, and go home, just like any other person his age. Except that he was working with mutants, and his work required him to go around the world, develop weapons and infiltrate dangerous bases.

He walked to the front door of his apartment, and he opened it, then his eyes wandered at the folded newspaper on the foot of his doorstep. It was the Calgary Herald, the newspaper that his friend Karen was working for.

He wasn't really an avid fan of newspapers, primarily because he knew 'more' than what was really going on in the world and in the government, so he usually just gave his newspapers away. But he remembered that Karen's articles were going to be published today, so he might as well go and take a look.

William bent down and picked the newspaper up, and then he stepped back into his apartment and closed the door behind him. He sat on the couch in his small living room, and then he spread the newspaper and flipped through its pages. Karen's article should be there somewhere. He could still remember how panicked she was when he first saw her in the bookstore a couple of weeks ago. She looked like she was going to die without that book. Perhaps it was a good thing that he was there when she came.

He flipped through another page and found himself staring at an article entitled 'The World and its Art of War part I' by Karen Clairmont. He couldn't help but smile as he saw her name, especially since there was a little picture of her right next to it. She was definitely prettier in person. She just looked too serious in that picture.

Then he leaned back on his couch and started to read the article. After a while, he finished reading it, and he placed the newspaper on the table in front of him. The newspaper was still spread on the page where Karen's article was. Then he sat there, crouched forward with his elbows on his knees and his hands clasped together as he looked at Karen's name on the newspaper.

It has been a while since he spent some time with her. Ever since they met on the bookstore, they've been going out every now and then --- to movies, on walks, on lunches and dinners scattered here and there. And he did like having her around, especially now that Yuriko and Logan preferred to be alone together. It was also nice having someone who didn't care about the number of bodies he had killed for his work in Code7. But that was merely because she didn't know about his job, and she didn't know about Code7. And he hoped she never would. She looked at him as some young soldier who was working for the military, and he wanted it to stay that way. He didn't want her to know the reality of his identity. He wanted to hide what he truly was.

Stryker followed William to the living room, and then he walked behind the couch and looked at him. His young self seemed to be deep in thought. Then he looked at the newspaper on the table and saw Karen's article and picture on the opened page. It looked like he and Karen were still not a couple at this point in time, because William only seemed to look at Karen as a dear friend. Stryker knew that in this part of his past, he was still in love with Yuriko. It was very evident on the way William yearned to talk to her and be with her when he heard her voice in the answering machine.

But Karen was already right under William's nose. The girl that he was going to marry was right there, on the table, staring back at him. When will this young man let go of Yuriko and embrace the future that he had with the other girl?

Stryker placed his hand on the backrest of the sofa, and then he leaned forward and moved his face right next to the young man's ear. "Call her." He whispered. "Call her and ask her if she wants to have breakfast. She'll say yes." He whispered those words as if they were already going to happen...because they already did. They may not have happened yet in this time, but those events have already transpired in his timeline.

William leaned back against the sofa, and then he smirked and looked around the living room. He seemed to be thinking of something that he wasn't sure off. Then he sighed and shook his head from side to side. Yes. He was going to call her and ask her out for breakfast. He might as well spend some time with her while he had nothing else to do.

He moved himself to the far end of the couch, and picked up the headset of the phone on the table beside it. He glanced at the clock to see what time it was, and saw that it was only six forty in the morning. He hoped Karen wouldn't mind if he called her at this time in the morning. They've never really had breakfast before, so he didn't know what time she usually woke up. But then, he wouldn't really know if he just sat there with the phone in his hand and no one in the other line. He realized that he might as well call her and get it over with. If she says no, then that's fine by him anyway. So he brought the handset against his ear and dialed her number.

Then the phone rang. It rang once. Then it rang again. William breathed in and tapped his fingers on his knee while he waited for someone to answer the phone. After the third ring, someone finally picked it up...and it was none other than her.

His face suddenly lit up when he heard her voice. "Hey, Karen! It's William!" He said in a jovial manner. A wide smile spread across his lips and excitement filled his eyes as he talked to her. It was like he was suddenly injected with a high dosage of happiness. "Look, uh, hey, I hope I didn't disturb you....What? You just woke up ten minutes ago?" Then he laughed. "Hey, it looks like ya' I called in the right time."

He couldn't really hide the exhilaration on his face. "So I presume you haven't had breakfast yet?" He asked, hoping that she hadn't eaten a bite in the past ten minutes that she'd been awake. "No?! Oh great! Because, uh, amazingly, I don't have to go to work early today so I was wondering if you'd want to join me for breakfast. What? No, you don't have to pay, it's all right. Look, I'll pay, really." He replied. Karen was insisting that she pay for the food this time. "Aaah, okay. But you'll only have to pay for yourself...Please...don't worry about me." He chuckled.

"Okay, so, uh, where do you want to eat? You know of a good place to have breakfast in? I mean, I don't want to bore you with the café's food." He laughed. "So, there's a nice little restaurant near your place, huh? Okay.... Yeah, don't worry. I still know how to get to your street. You know me...I'm a human global tracking system." The smile on his face continued to linger as he talked to her. He didn't know why, but she brought out his smile, just like Yuriko. "I'll be there by seven AM." He said sharply. "'Kay...I'll see you." He was about to pull the phone away, when his eyes suddenly wandered over the newspaper on the table.

"By the way..." He instantly added. "...Nice picture on your article." He snickered. His voice had a devious, joking tone to it. "You look you just lost a bet." Then he laughed and quickly pulled the phone away from his ear as Karen started to shout at him. Then after the shouting subsided, he moved the phone close to him again. "Nice article though." He said assuringly. "Loved it...loved all of it." Then he paused for a while. "But that picture!" He said again, laughing out loud. "Okay, I'll stop." He said, still smiling. "Okay. I'll see you soon. Bye, Karen."

Then he put the phone down and smiled to himself. Everything went better than he expected. Perhaps he was better in this kind of conversations than he thought he was. He stood up from the couch and walked to the bathroom. He might as well look presentable. Karen hadn't seen him for days, so he should at least look good for her. The last thing he wanted to do was to scare his friend away.

Stryker smiled as he watched William head off to the bathroom. Then he turned his head to look at the newspaper, but as he did, he suddenly found himself standing in some sort of military shooting range. Did his memory jump forward in time again?