Summary:
As you will see, I like family reunions as much as reconciliations among old friends/enemies…
Comments are greatly appreciated: please, let me know what you think!
Chapter:
The next morning Skye woke up to…
… a warm tongue…
… licking her…
… insistently!
… It was so soft and… agreeable…
But it had to stop, for heaven's sake!
Now she had her whole face wet with saliva!
"Stop, stop!" she grunted, grimacing and trying to avert her face and to defend herself from that unexpected tender aggression, only to find in her hands a long snout, a wet cold nose and a couple of soft hairy ears!
"Hey, Daisy!
Stop fussing with our girl!
Let our guest wake up in peace! She had a rough night and needs some recovering!
You do not want to frighten her and make her flee even before we can have breakfast together, don't you agree?"
… Daisy?
How the hell could they know her name?
But that male voice, coming from another room… it was familiar…
And he called the name as if… as if it was the dog's name!
The man entered cautiously in her room and presented himself politely:
"Hi!
I'm Cal.
I'm your savior!"
She felt her heart losing a beat.
He was laughing, mostly to himself.
He seemed quite happy!
"And this is Daisy, the sweetest, dearest, most affectionate brown Labrador puppy in the world!
But I think you two have already made the acquaintances…"
He was smiling amiably, stroking the dog's head.
He had aged, during the last year.
He was weaker, paler… like… ten years older…
Skye remained speechless…
She was in her father's house, the one over his vet ambulatory!
How the hell did she end there?
The memories of the previous day were all fuzzy…
She remembered something… she was under a bridge… then she went shopping… then she was dancing with a guy, Raoul… then it was raining and she was all soaked… but nothing more emerged from her clouded mind.
She didn't know that the drug Raoul made the bartender put in her drink the previous night was one of the most dangerous.
It was called the "Devil's breath", or Scopolamine, and was an odorless and tasteless powerful drug, whose characteristic was, besides giving intoxication and causing strong hallucinations, to turn the victim in a sort of zombie deprived of its own free will and inclined to obey to whatever order was given, blocking memories from forming and messing with the short term ones, so that, even after the drug wore off, the victim had no recollection as to what happened before.
She was lucky to be still alive! But she didn't know that…
"Hi.
My name is Da… my name is Skye!
And I have no idea how I ended up here!"
"Hi, Skye!
Nice to meet you!
I'll tell you all about last night, but you'd better get washed and dressed!
I've gotten some clean clothes for you.
And afterwards we can have breakfast together and talk a little!"
Then he added, slightly embarrassed:
"After I heard the door bell and I found you unconscious and feverish on my doorstep, I had to undress you, because you were completely soaked…
And if I left you wearing those… clothes… you would definitely get a bad flu."
She glanced at the dress that was leaning on the chair, and it stroke her how sexy it was!
- Perfect - she mentally slapped herself!
- I had just been pinched up by my father, while trying to become the wet dream of an entire nightclub! -
He couldn't look her in the eyes anymore:
"Oh, do not worry!
I'm harmless!
I am a doctor, a veterinarian to tell the whole truth, but I have a certain familiarity with the treatment of human beings, too, so I take it all as a professional matter!"
"Ok, I will be ready in no time!" she smiled back, trying to dispel the embarrassment, both hers and his.
…
The breakfast was so good!
Cal had bought at the nearby bakery, early in the morning, a number of absolutely delicious pastries, then he had set the table with great care, showing its best table cloth and his beautiful tea service, a jug with milk, one with coffee and one with freshly squeezed orange juice.
In short, the table was so laden as to a wedding!
- Why is he fussing so much on me? - Skye was wondering.
- He should not remember anything!
He should not remember that I am the daughter that had been stolen from him when I was only some days old!
He should not remember that that day, the worst day of his life, his entire world fell apart!
He should not remember all the pain he suffered because of me!
He should not remember that I exists, that he never stopped searching me, all around the world, for 26 years!
Is the Tahiti Protocol wearing off? –
Skye started to be concerned.
She observed him better.
No, the Tahiti protocol was firmly in place.
The fact was that it could have erased his brains, but not his heart!
His heart still loved her, and it remembered her during the whole last year!
And it recognized her now!
He was still her father.
And she was still his daughter.
One thing suddenly struck Skye more than any other: a vase of flowers in the center of the table.
They were daisies, fresh and fragrant, as just picked up…
Cal noticed her quizzical look on the flowers and wanted to give her an explanation:
"These are my favorite flowers.
Every time I look at them, my heart fills with so much sweetness, and nostalgia, and longing… like for something important… the most valuable thing of my life… that I have someway lost… that someway slipped away from me…"
He was absentmindedly caressing gently a few petals, like if he was far, far away.
"I love daisies… they keep me company in my solitary life…
They are so beautiful…
They are so precious to me…"
At those words Skye felt a lump in her throat and was suddenly unable to breath.
Then she began weeping so harshly, so bitterly that Cal got up alarmed, thinking of having hurt or offended her in some way.
"Please, please, excuse me!
Did I say something that bothered you?
If I was so clumsy, please forgive me!
I always talk too much!
I can never keep my big mouth shut!
Oh, stupid old man!"
Skye said quickly through tears:
"No, no, it's not your fault!
It's just… it's just… it's all too much!
Oh, if you knew all that happened to me!
And I cannot even tell you anything!"
And she sobbed even louder.
"No, no, my dear! Don't cry!
There's no need for you to tell us anything, if you can't!
You'll see that we will not give you any trouble, here!"
And, to her questioning look, Cal said:
"I wanted to tell you this more calmly, but… well…
If you want to stay here with us… if you do not have another place to go… here you're welcome!
My home is your home!
I do not know why, but… having you here with me… well… it makes me incredibly happy!"
At that Skye hugged him strongly and answered:
"Yes… yes… I think I will stay here with you… for some time…"
And he, hugging her back:
"Oh, wonderful! You couldn't say anything to make me happier!"
And, at those words, another layer of ice melted, in Skye's heart…
…
Ward was inside his convertible car, that same day, when he saw Skye and Cal going out together for lunch, in a pizza house near there.
His heart rejoiced seeing them together, father and daughter: they seemed so happy!
"And now that you finally managed to put your woman in loving arms, Grant" he said to himself, sighing "it is time to address one of the thorniest ghosts of your past."
And with that he ignited the engine and roared away.
…
Some time later, around seven p.m., the door of the jewelry opened to let the last but one employee get out.
She was a young cute blond woman.
"See you tomorrow!" she greeted.
"Bye, Ann! Have a nice evening!" answered a young male voice from inside.
But the woman did not notice, because of the darkness that enveloped the entrance and because of a far sudden noise that distracted her, that a man, tall, dark and handsome, had taken quickly advantage of the slightly opened door to slip inside…
The young man was alone in the back shop.
He was sitting at his desk, finishing to perfect the cut of a diamond, with the light of a table lamp illuminating only his work, the rest of the room enfolded in darkness.
Minutes were ticking away.
After a while he felt something disturbing, a strange sensation, like a human presence in front of him…
Oh, God! Someone was there, watching him intently!
He looked up raising the lamp and…
"Grant!" he breathed.
"Thomas…" Ward whispered, heart beating hard, eyes glassy.
For a few moments neither of them dared to move a muscle, nor even speak.
It resembled that time Fitz found Ward in Vault D…
Ward was the first to break the silence, with his voice trembling:
"You do not know… my beloved brother… how much I desired to see you… in all these years!
I've been looking for you… I tried in every way to find you… but you were like vanished into thin air!"
Ward was struggling to breathe.
"Of course! I was hiding from you!
And now that you've found me, what do you wanna do?
Do you wanna kill me, too, like Mom, and Dad, and Christian?" Thomas spat.
"I love you, Thomas!
I would never hurt you… again!"
"So this is why you just did come to see me?
Don't you have anything else to do, in your miserable life, than to bother me?"
"You're the only family I have left on Earth!"
"Because you killed all its members… except Cate and me!
Go to Cate!
You have her left!
You were so tight, you two, weren't you?"
"I can't!" he shouted.
"They killed her!"
And from then on, he was no longer able to hold back the tears:
"Those damned… they killed her!
Our little sister!
First they ruined her and then they killed her!"
Thomas had paled visibly.
Those words seemed to have broken through and to have captured his attention.
"I did not know…
When did this happen?"
"Just before I killed them…"
…
That night was one of the longer in Ward's life.
He recounted, everything, for hours, and Thomas listened.
Finally Ward said:
"I know that this whole story about Maveth, Hive, the possession, the infection, the risked Apocalypse may seem absurd, incredible!
I know it can seem like I'm completely crazy!
But it's true!
Everything I told you… it's true."
And Thomas answered:
"I believe you."
Ward remained shocked:
"You… believe me?"
"Yes.
What you told me gives a logical explanation about a series of strange changes I noticed in the people around me for about a month and a half now.
At that time I was sick and I was forced to stay home because of the flu.
Probably that was a fluke, because that isolation prevented me from being infected.
When I returned to work I immediately noticed that all my friends, my colleagues, and even the shop assistants or other casual acquaintances, were different.
Not physically, but psychologically.
It was very disturbing.
The media talked about something… a strange form of meningitis… but then they stopped abruptly, acting as if nothing had happened… although I still see that people are strange.
They, now, seem divorced from the reality, detached, arid, and apathetic.
They work very well and quickly, but from an emotional point of view are like… dried up.
All that was really starting to upset me, because I could not find any logical explanation… until you told me what happened.
The bad thing is that I also noticed this strange behavior in other people, friends with whom I am in contact with, who live far away from here!
It is like if the plague had spread across America, and even in Europe!"
Those words sank deeply in Ward, leaving him extremely perplexed, worried and brooding.
He knew the vastness of the infection, but he hadn't idea about the effects…
The ghost of the past was fading. About time…
But a new scaring one was gliding towards him.