Nans- I'm going to try my best to keep my promise. Now I just have to think up an idea for a story.

CHAPTER 40

A LESSON IN LIFE

November 27, 2010

12:05pm

Charlottesville, Virginia

Russell Family Home

"If they loved us so much then why did they leave us in that hell hole," Mike snarled leaping to his feet. Then Jake really did hit the younger boy knocking Mike off his feet. Mike leapt back to his feet and threw a wild right hook. Jake easily dogged the punch, and dealt Mike a blow to the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Mike fell to his knees.

"Stay down Mikey," Jake warned the boy. Tall for his age, at six feet two inches Jake was nearly half a foot taller than Mike, and could easily over power the younger boy. But it wasn't the fact that Jake could over power Mike that made Mike stay down. It was the anger in Jake's grey eyes that frightened Mike into obeying Jake. Mike had only seen that type of anger in Jake when the boys were children at the Centre.

"Now you are going to listen to me little brother. You're going to hear things you probably don't want to hear, but you will listen to me. You know why?" Jake asked roughly taking Mike's chin into his hand.

"Because you're the oldest, and we always listen to you. Unless of course Alex makes more sense," Mike said reciting a comment Sam had made about the Black Files years ago.

"Exactly," Jake said letting go fo Mike's chin and sitting down on the floor, so that he and Mike were at the same eye level. "I love you Mikey, you're my little brother. But God help me I'm ready to kill you right about now. What you said to your parents was wrong. They love you and Maddie but they knew that there was no way possible they could have gotten the two of you out. They don't have the same skills nor did they have the connections as Uncle Jarod or Aunt Morgan. So they left the two of you in the care of Uncle Sam knowing that he would give his life to protect the two of you."

"They love you, Maddie, Markus and Keegan so God damn much. That's a hell of a lot more that I can say for my biological mother. Do you know what Rach and I were to her? Another pay check. She's dead now. After the Centre collapsed she couldn't get a job so she turned to drugs. She overdosed on cocaine. Do you think that for one second your mother would do that to you Maddie, and Keegan?"

"My biological father died not knowing that he had two other children. He died and I never got the chance to meet him. I never got the chance to know him, to know if would have loved me. You Mikey, you know your parents love you."

"I..."

"I'm not done," Jake said harshly cutting Mike off. "You started this and now you are going to learn just how damn lucky you are. Cassie and Marc's parents are next. Their father, Devin died years before they were born, he died trying to kill Aunt Morgan. You see he was afraid of what the Centre would turn us all into. He got a vision of us destroying the world as we know it. He saw killing Aunt Morgan as a way to stop it. If he killed her than the Centre couldn't create Will and Alley from her. But Uncle Sam shot Devin before he could kill Aunt Morgan."

"As for Cassie and Marc's mom. As soon as she gave birth to them she was killed."

"Jake please," Mike begged not wanting to hear anymore. Other than Rachel few knew the information Jake was telling Mike, and no one other than Jake and Rachel knew all of it, except for Angelo. Jake ignored Mike's begging and continued.

"After Cassie and Marc come Toby and Terra. Your cousin's. Bet you didn't factor them in. How do you think it is for them? Everyday they see the image of their own father but the thing is, it's not their father it's yours. Their father died, was murdered saving your mother and father's lives. If it wasn't for your Uncle Andrew, you wouldn't even have parents. And well, as for Toby and Terra's mother, she was another expendable Centre project. A single shot to the temple as soon as her babies were ripped from her womb. She never even got to see them. To hold them. She died not knowing what her babies looked like. And her babies will die not knowing what their mother looked like because all evidence of their mother was destroyed."

Mike let out a moan, and again Jake ignored the younger boy. Jake knew he had made his point but now he had to drive the nail home. He wanted for Mike to understand just how much he had hurt not just his parents but the older Black Files as well.

"You know who's last. Jerry, Greg and Lissa. And your lucky, I could throw in Will, Alley, Alex, Aaron, and Andros, but I'll save them for another day. Jerry, Lissa's and Greg's story just may be the most tragic of all. For over seven years they were abused by their father. Raines took great joy in the fact that Bobby was hurting his own children not knowing that Jer, Lis, and Greg were his. And then I doubt that Raines could have orchestrated a scenario as perfect as Jeremiah watching the man he just learned to be his father, murder the woman he just discovered to be his mother. But, hey at least he got to know his mother for all of ten minutes. Greg and Lissa just have pictures."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean what I said," Mike said tears falling at the story that was the tragedy of his family.

"That's the thing Mikey, you did mean those things. You wanted to hurt your Dad, because he hurt you. Your mom was just an innocent bystander. You view your Dad not telling Keegan who he is as a lie. And you don't just see it as him lying to Keegan you see it as him trying to erase the memory of Markus and asking you to live this lie," Jake told his cousin, the boy he had spent most of his life protecting, the boy he viewed as his own brother.

"I can't live my life as a lie, Jake. I did it for seven years. And I refuse for Keegan to have to do it as well," Mike replied.

"I know Mikey. And don't worry that's not going to happen. But right now little brother that is not what matters the most. You need to go back to the house and tell your parents that you love them and that you are sorry. And if need be you will grovel," Jake informed Mike.

"I can't face them," Mike moaned burring his face in his hands.

"I'm not giving you a choice," Jake replied in a firm voice. "Go talk to your parents."

Mike sighed, readying himself to face his parents. He then left the confines of the tree house, and went to talk to his parents. He didn't notice Will at the bottom of the trunk of the tree. Once Mike was out of sight Will climbed the rope ladder.

"Good job," Will told Jake.

"Thanks. I didn't want to hit him. But at that point of time I was ready to beat him within an inch of his life," Jake admitted.

"You weren't the only one. I heard some of the crap he said when he was in the house. He was lucky he didn't say that stuff to my mom." Will said.

"Aunt Morgan is not one to be messed with," Jake said smiling.

"No she isn't." Will agreed.

November 27, 2010

12:15pm

Charlottesville, Virginia

Russell Family Home

Mike entered the house through the kitchen. He was grateful no one was there, he wasn't ready to face the looks from his family. In truth he was ready to face his parents but he knew he had no choice. It wasn't the fact that Jake had commanded Mike to talk to Lex and Julia. It was the fact that Mike knew Jake was right in the fact that Mike had no reason to yell at his parents the way he did.

Mike managed to make his way up to his parents' room without being seen by anyone. In their room Lex and Julia were unpacking their belongs when Mike knocked on the door.

"Come in Michael," Lex called softly. Mike entered the room with a look of embarrassment, discomfort and shame on his face. Lex and Julia both noticed the angry red mark on the right side of Mike's face but did not say anything.

"Mom, Dad I-I'm so sorry," Mike managed to choke out.

"Come here baby," Julia said patting the spot on the bed between her and Lex. Mike sat down in between his parents.

"Jake said I was an idiot for saying those things and he was right," Mike admitted. "I know that you and Dad couldn't get Maddie and me out. I know that it was the hardest thing in the world for the two of you to leave us at the Centre. I don't know why I said those things. Jake said I said it because wanted to hurt you Dad because you want for Keegan to live his life as a lie, and at the same time it's like you're erasing the memory of Markus."

"Well Mike you succeeded in hurting me," Lex said.

"Dad I'm..."

"Mikey look what ever was said doesn't matter. We all have a tendency to say things that we don't mean when we're angry," Lex told his son.

"That's the thing Dad it does matter. I wouldn't of said those things if on some level I didn't feel that way," Mike replied. "Alex said something a long time ago, it was when she told Uncle Jarod and Aunt Morgan about the brands Lyle gave her. She said that though the Centre is gone it will always own a part of us."

Mike closed his eyes and focused on the bond he shared with his cousins. Over the years the bond had faded, the children no longer relying on it as much as they once had. But Mike, Maddie, Aaron, Andros and Alex could still call upon their bond by focusing. When they were younger they had to focus not to be connected through their bond, but now they had to focus to be connected.

Feeling the familiarity of Alex's mind, Mike began to recite her words she had spoken to her parents years ago. "We on some level will always belong to the Centre. During the day when the sun is out and you can feel it's heat on you face it doesn't seem so. When you go outside and feel the breeze on your face and taste the air you barely remember that you once spent time there."

"But then at night, in the dark just before you fall asleep you realize that what they did to us, what they stole from us will remain with us for the rest of our lives." Mike spoke , his eyes closed as his connection with Alex grew deeper than it had been in ages. The words were now flowing uncontrollably out of Mike's mouth, he was so connected with Alex.

"You remember the feel of the cameras. And you remember the screams, and sometimes when your at your lowest you remember that the scream didn't just belong to the person across the hall, they belonged to you. And it haunts you. It will slowly eat away at you if you let it. If you don't fight it. If you focus on the scars that never fade from your skin or memory it will kill you. And granted some scars will never fade away but that doesn't mean you must acknowledge them as representing some of the lowest points of your life"

"Mikey," Lex said tentatively, gently touching his son's shoulder. The touch was enough to break Mike's connection with Alex. Mike looked up at his parents slightly confused, it had been what felt like a life time since he had last connected with one of his cousins like that. And breaking a connection as deep as that had always left Mike a bit out of it. When connected to his cousins or sister so deeply it was as though, Mike no longer existed and was a part of Maddie or the others.

"I went too deep," Mike said a bit sheepishly. "I guess what I was trying to say is that, we all have these dark spaces in our hearts in which we hide our fears. They are senseless fears but they hunt us none the less. And I guess on some level I fear that you two don't love Maddie and me, and that was why you left us at the Centre."

"But you know that's not true sweetie," Julia told he son cradling his face in the palm of her hand.

"I know. But sometimes at night, in the dark when my silly fears make their appearance a small part of me can't help but wonder. And I know it's only because of the silly drivel they force upon us at the Centre. The same crap they fed to Keegan about how pretenders can't love or be loved in return," Mike confessed.

"Well you are loved. Very much. So much that I couldn't bare the thought of losing you," Lex said.

"I don't think I'll be going anywhere for a long time Dad," Mike reassured his father.

Up Next: We learn what Terra and Tobias's new power is. And Keegan makes a discovery.

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