Erikstrulove- you'll find out Jarod's reaction to Alex falling for Bane. As for Raines and Cox well you'll find out if they get what they want in chapter 72. As for Kaine he's going to hide out in the back ground for a bit but hell pop back up in chapter 83 which is a huge chapter by the way giving not just insight into the reason why Kaine and Benny don't get along but you also get to find a few people who have ties to Alex and her family.

LJP- I can't tell you if I'll kill off jack or not. I mean technically I did kill of Alex even if it was for only a few minutes. I can tell you this, I love my characters, especially Jack, Jace, Amy and Keegan. But with that said at least six people are going to die before this story is over with. I haven't written any of the deaths yet but trust me people are going to die in this story.

CHAPTER 69

FACING THE TRUTH

December 11, 2010

1:39pm

Carthis, Scotland

The New Centre

"Hey," Bane said noticing that his charge had awaken.

"Hey," Alex smiled up at him.

"You hungry?"

"You know it. What's on the lunch menu today?" Alex asked as Bane helped her sit up. Alex winced in pain and brought her right hand down to her stomach.

"I really do wish you'd take something for the pain," Bane said.

"I'm fine," Alex said dismissivily.

"You don't have to prove to me that you're strong Alex. I already know that," Bane told her.

"It's not about you Midas," Alex snapped. Bane recoiled at the venom in Alex's voice. "Sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you," Alex apologized noticing the hurt in Bane's gold eyes. "It's just, I don't like being weak."

"Hey it's okay. I understand completely," Bane said reaching for her hand and squeezing it. "But you know there is no way you'll be able to get out of here if your in too much pain to walk."

"I don't think I'll be doing any sort of walking for a while," Alex replied.

"Does that still mean you have to endure such pain? It's silly. Alex, you know I won't let anything happen to you. Please if you won't take anything for the pain for yourself, do it for me. I hate seeing you in pain," Bane pleaded.

Alex sighed "Fine, fine," She gave in. "Call Spires, but I'm not taking any morphine. Extra strength Tylenol is okay, but nothing that will make me sleepy."

"Thank you," Bane said placing a kiss on her lips.

"Quid pro quo," She told him a mischievous glint filling her eyes. Bane raised an eyebrow. "I doing you a favor by taking medicine, now you have to do me a favor in return." Alex told him.

"I don't understand. How are you doing me a favor by taking medicine to stop your pain?" Bane asked.

"You're the only one who has a problem with me being in pain. Thus I'm doing you a favor. Now you owe me a favor," Alex stated.

"And what favor do I owe you?" Bane questioned.

"I want you to make me a promise," She said.

"Will I like this promise?"

"I hope so. I want for you to promise me that you'll come with me," Alex told him. Bane looked at her in shock.

"Okay now I really don't understand," Bane replied.

"What is there to understand Midas? I want for you to come with me and John when were rescued," Alex said.

"But why?" Bane asked.

"Because...because I-I," Alex stuttered, her face going red she looked away from Bane embarrassed. "Because I think I'm starting to love you," She said so softly Bane could barely hear her. The sixteen year old sweeper began to grin from ear to ear at Alex's confession. Bane used his index finger to guide Alex's face back to his.

"I didn't figure you to be the type to be embarrassed by your feelings for me," Bane told her. Alex ducked her head again. "Shy as well," He teased bring her face back up.

"I don't normally bare my feelings to just anyone," She said.

"So I'm just anyone?" Bane asked with mock hurt. Alex rolled her eyes.

"Don't make me have to hurt you," She threatened.

"I quiver in fear," Bane gibed.

"Just so you know I can set you on fire," Alex said. "So I just bared my soul to you. The least you could do is let a girl know if her love is unrequited or not." Bane kissed her deeply.

"Does that answer your question?" He asked.

"It'll do for now. But you still have yet to make your promise," Alex reminded him.

"I'll go with you. I'm suppose to protect you after all," Bane said. At that moment the door unlocked and began to open. Bane stepped away from Alex, shoving his hands deep into his pockets. Alex tucked her hair behind her ears, trying not to look guilty. She now understood exactly what Will and Jamie, and Alley and Jeff had gone through when they had begun courting.

"Johnny you finally grace us with your presence," Alex said cheerfully.

"I had to deal with your visitors from this morning. Raines and Cox want access to you," John said closing the door behind him.

"What's going to happen to me?" Alex asked.

"For now I put a stop to them. But they will appeal to my father. Luckily for you my father isn't up to seeing anyone at the moment," John said taking a seat.

"For a boy so young you have so much power," Alex commented. "You won't be eleven for another month and you rule over so many."

"It comes with being a Parker," John said. "I took the liberties of calling Roger to bring the three of us lunch, along with your...pez."

"You're the best Johnny," Alex told him.

"Quid pro quo," John replied. "You told me about my mother so you got your pez."

"And what do you wish to learn today, Johnny?" Alex asked. "You already know about your Mom up until she married your Dad, and you know about your sister Morgan and my Uncle Sam up until they were about eleven."

"Tell me how my mother died," John said. Alex sighed.

"I can tell you but you must understand that there is no going back after this. I'm not going to lie to you Johnny you aren't going to like what you hear. But I won't hold back a single detail," Alex told him. "But there is one thing I ask in return. My quid pro quo."

"Let me guess. More pez?" John said jokingly.

"No. I want to read your journal," Alex replied. John paled.

"I will allow almost anything but that. Pick something else," John demanded.

"Quid pro quo, Johnny, quid pro quo," Alex reminded him. "I am the only one who will give you the answers you want. And I am the only one who will answer them truthfully."

"Then neither of us will get what we want," John snapped.

"I guess we won't," Alex agreed. John and Alex stared each other down neither willing to compromise. They were both incredibly stubborn, Bane realized. John was so used to getting everything his way that he refused to give into Alex. As for Alex, she had spent half her life fighting to get what she wanted that she knew no other way to get what she desired.

'Why should Alex give into John? He was a ten year old boy who by all rights should be sitting in a sixth grade class room, not running evil incorporated,' Bane thought. 'But what Alex doesn't seem to realize is that John isn't just a ten year old boy, he is the future Centre chairman."

Bane figured that neither Alex or John was going to give in but he was wrong. John suddenly broke eye contact with Alex, got up out of his chair and stormed out of Alex's room.

"Look's like I made baby brother angry," Alex sighed.

"You probably shouldn't of done that," Bane said walking back over to her. "I thought you were trying to win him over with information on his family. How are you going to do that if he doesn't come back?"

"Don't worry he'll come back. With his journal," Alex replied.

"And you know this how?" Bane asked her.

"Parker may have given John new memories but he is still Peter. And I know my baby brother. He's not quite as stubborn as me. John wants to know about his mother. He values that information more so than what is in his journal," Alex told Bane.

Alex was right. John returned moments later a leather bound journal in his hand. Roger was with him, pushing a cart that contained John, Bane, and Alex's lunch. The three of them ate in silence. Once done Alex filled the Spider-Man pez dispenser that had been brought to her and waited for John and Bane to finish eating. John was eating slowly and Alex knew that he was trying to piss her off. It wasn't working. Peter would do the same thing, it was his way of throwing a temper tantrum.

Finished with his lunch, John folded his napkin and placed it on his plate. "You want to read my journal in exchange for telling me how my mother died. I except your conditions but, I am not giving you my whole journal to read. I will let you read excerpts," John bargained.

"Can I read the parts about the voices?" Alex asked. A flicker of shock flashed across John's face. He had not confided to anyone that he had been hearing voices. "It doesn't make you crazy, hearing voices. It's your inner sense. The woman you hear, that's your mom."

"How do you know?" John questioned.

"I hear her's and other voices as well. They told me, that you hear them as well," Alex answered. "And I except your deal. Just remember what I told you, there is no going back after this."

"I can face the truth," John said.

"I hope so," Alex whispered. "Catherine Parker didn't kill herself in that elevator on April thirteenth. She faked her suicide, because she was pregnant with your half brother, my Uncle Ethan. And before you even ask, no she didn't cheat on your father. In a way he cheated on her. Your father wanted a pretender with an inner sense. So he artificially inseminated your mother with my grandfather Charles's sperm. Your mom found out and went to someone she thought she could trust...Raines."

"Raines convinced her to fake her death. He promised Catherine that he would protect her and her son. He lied. Moments after Ethan was born, Raines executed your mother. He spent the next thirty years meddling with Ethan's mind and if it wasn't for my parents Ethan would have killed himself and hundreds of others," Alex said.

John sat in disbelief. He had always known that he could never trust Raines. But his own father had lied to him. Catherine was a Parker, the chairman's wife. How could Richard Parker do such a thing to his own wife. Yes Catherine had conducted an affair, but did she deserve to be turned into a incubator, and have her child taken from her?

His father had inadvertently caused the death of John's mother. And it was because of John's father and Raines, the chance to know his mother had been taken away from him.

"Johnny," Alex said softly. "Are you alright?" John looked up and was momentarily confused as to why Alex was blurry. He then felt the dampness on he face and understood that he was crying. John furiously brushed them away. He was a Parker, and emotion was a weakness. And though he knew that he couldn't stop the tears from flowing.

"Johnny come here," Alex called out to him. Moving on auto piolet John stood up and walked over to Alex. Her arm's were outstretched and John soon found her arms' wrapped around him. "It's okay to cry you know," Alex murmured into his ear as she rocked him. "It's not a sign of weakness. There's this song by James Taylor, called Everybody Has the Blues. One of the lines go 'Everybody gets to sit and cry at night.' When's the last time you let yourself cry Johnny?"

John didn't think that he had ever cried. Father looked down on tears. And yet it felt so good to cry, to be a ten year old boy grieving over the life of his mother he would never know. Just to let out all of the pain and anguish, he was feeling was freeing. It wasn't until then John realized how tired he was, and just how much he wanted to be a ten year old boy.

He was grateful that Alex was there, though she had been the one who had told John the truth about his mother he held no animosity towards her. It felt good to be in her arms, it was comforting and somehow oddly familiar.

Alex ran a hand though her brother's hair. She had done this before. When Peter was seven he had began asking questions about his biological mother. It was Alex who broken it to him. Pete had taken the truth hard and Alex wasn't surprised that John was as well. Alex knew that she had just given John the knowledge that would push him to truly trusting her. But seeing him in such pain gave her no satisfaction. She just hoped that whit John learning of Parker's ultimate betrayal he would be strong enough not to have a true breakdown.

John pulled away from Alex a few moments later, but he remained on the edge of her bed. Alex used the cuff of her shirt to wipe away the rest of John's tears.

"Thank you," John said.

"For what?" Alex asked him.

"Telling me the truth. Giving me a shoulder to cry on. Letting me...," John trailed off.

"Letting you be the little boy you are," Alex finished for him. John nodded his head. "You're welcome Tiger," Alex said.

John's breath caught. She had called him Tiger. John's mind flashed back to the vision he had when he was in Blue Cove

"Daddy how do I look?" A boy of five asks a tall dark haired man whose back is turned to him. The man turns around, beaming down at the little boy.

"Handsome as ever Tiger," He man replies ruffling his son's hair.

After his vision the voices in John's head had said that he was Tiger. That maybe so but John knew that the man in his vison was not his father. John had an idea who the man was but was too frightened to even think it for longer than a second at a time. John had the feeling that the man was Jarod Russell. The question was why was John calling Jarod, Dad?

"I-I need to go. I have a-a meeting," John stuttered getting up.

"Johnny," Alex called after him. But John left quickly, so quickly in fact he left behind his journal.

Up next: John realizes that something has been done to him, and Alex and Bane get to read John's journal

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