Chapter 6

Jack's POV

"Space," I mumble to myself. "Extraterrestrials. Parallel universes. When did my life become a sci-fi movie?" I shake my head and think about the times when all I had to worry about was some terrorists getting their hands on a nuclear bomb. Ah, for the good old days. Nowadays I have to worry about Sydney going on all those dangerous missions, her relationship with that imposter who I had just welcomed into the family, and a planet that's about to get cooked from the sun's rays being directed full-force onto the surface of that planet, not to mention the fact that I'm sure Director Chase knows that I let Irina go and my continuing treatments with Dr. Liddell for my radiation poisoning. Sure, I'm almost completely cured, but I still have a little radiation in me.

As I enter my humble little apartment, I see that Laura is out of water. I fill her bowl and sit down on the couch to read the paper. Most people say, "There's no news like bad news," but with what I see on a day-to-day basis, reading about carjackings, muggings, and the occasional homicide is like a ray of light through the darkness. It's nice to know that there are people out there that are more concerned with taking someone's car than taking over the world using a giant floating red ball in conjunction with some contaminated water that my daughter's half-sister's father primed for an attack such as this.

As Laura comes in the window and starts licking up the water, I stare at the little ball of fur. I found her in an alleyway; someone had dumped her in a cardboard box. As I walked by the box, a small meow sounded and I looked down at the little calico cat rubbing against my leg.

I had no intention of adopting her. The idea of having a pet, well frankly it scared me. Having this little creature free in my house to urinate wherever she darn well pleases, scratching up my furniture, and shedding hair all over the place didn't appeal to me.

When I got to the apartment, I walked inside, leaving the little creature outside. After all, she wasn't my cat. I had pretty much forgotten about her until the next morning on the way to work, when, lo and behold, there she was, waiting. She looked up at me with those brown eyes that reminded me so much of Laura's (AKA Irina's) eyes, that I picked her up and, after clearing it with the landlord, took her up to my apartment.

That was the first day I had been late to work in over 40 years, but coming home to that little fur ball made it all worth it.

Ever since Sydney had to come to my apartment to look for me, she's been giving me miscellaneous cat toys on about a weekly basis. Those simple, yet touching gifts stopped after the car crash.

"That bastard," I think to myself. "Tomorrow, I'm going to get an explanation from that man."

I remember seeing Sydney talking to Vaughn, or whoever he is, after our meeting earlier today. That couldn't have been easy on her. I grab the phone. Pressing speed dial 1, I listen to three rings, and then hear an out of breath Sydney answer.

"Yeah?"

"Hey, Sydney,"

"Hey, Dad."

"Is everything all right?"

"Everything is—stop it, that tickles—everything is fine. Listen, stop it, Dad's on the…" she laughs, and eventually manages to choke out, "phone."

"Are you 'busy'?" I feel odd asking such a question.

"Yeah, kinda."

"I was just wondering if you were okay. I saw you talking to Vaughn, er, well, you know, earlier."

"Dad, his name is Kendall."

I say nothing.

"Dad?"

I want to say something, but I can't think straight. I press the end button, and then grab my pants off the floor. Unholstering my gun, I eject the magazine, check that it's fully loaded, and push it back in.

I grab my car keys and leave Laura to her freshly filled water. I have business to take care of.

…TBC…