CHAPTER 82

COMING HOME

December 12, 2010

12:37pm

Some where in Maryland

95-South

It was a long car ride, and a quiet one on Bobby's part. He wasn't included in on the various conversations too often, partly due to the fact that the children would speak in a language that wasn't English. Though Bobby had never been good with languages he still knew a few basic words in various languages, all the same he had no idea what language the children were speaking and inquired about it to Sam.

"Gibberish," Sam replied and Bobby quirked an eyebrow.

"It's not gibberish," Rachael spoke frowning at her Uncle. "It's elvish."

"Gibberish," Sam muttered again, shaking his head. Out of the corner of his eye Bobby caught a quick smile flutter across Jake's face.

"Hey Uncle Sam, how much longer?" Adam asked from the back row of the van.

"Another hour, Adam," Sam groaned. He had thought that by now the children would have out grown the dreaded 'are we there yet?' question and it's other variations.

"What's the rush, Eddie?" Jake asked his brother.

"Sooner we get home, the sooner get back to Carthis, the sooner we get Alex out," Adam replied.

"We're all anxious to get Katie out Little brother," Jake reminded Adam.

"Are you sure all of us are?" Adam inquired softly but loud enough for Bobby to hear.

"Adam," Jake said in a soft but warning tone, leaving no room for argument.

"Sorry," Adam apologized, not to Bobby but to Jake. It wasn't as though Bobby could blame the boy, after all it was Bobby's fault -albeit indirectly- that Adam's biological father, Eddie was dead. Bobby had been the handler of Alex the escaped, psychotic pretender. The pretender that had left, Adam, Jake, and Rachael fatherless.

If Bobby was receiving such an attitude from Adam, what could he expect to receive from Jarod, Ethan and the others? After all Bobby had killed Kyle and attempted to murder Emily. Not to mention Bobby had abused the Files and the four members of project Phoenix.

Bobby had been nervous before, but now he was wondering if he had just made the biggest mistake of his life.

December 12, 2010

2:12pm

Charlottesville, Virginia

Russell Family Home

The two vans pulled up to the front of the mansion and Bobby's heart leapt to his throat. More than anything he did not want to enter that house. Apparently his body was not listening to his brain, because before Bobby realized it his hand was opening the handle to the van and his feet were leading him to the front door as he walked behind Jake.

When he reached the porch Bobby paused. The rest of the group passed by him as they proceeded to go in the house.

"You have to go in sooner or later," Jeremiah said to Bobby over his shoulder as he went in the house. Bobby sighed and followed his son.

He was greeted with the sight of his twin, sleeping on the couch, four small children snuggled next to her. Jack and Jason had their head's resting in Morgan's lap, while Keegan was leaning on Jason, and Amy was leaning on Jack.

Aaron, Andros, and Jeremiah exchanged smiles at the sight of the sleeping children.

"Kids why don't you lot take those four upstairs," Sam gestured to sleeping tots, as Marc, Cassie, Terra, Tobias, Mike, and Maddie descended down the stairs.

"How did everything go?" Marc questioned.

"How do you think?" Jake retorted nodding at Bobby. The children glanced over at Bobby and quickly turned away not making eye contact.

"Come on let's get these kids upstairs," Andros said. He, Aaron, Maddie, and Jeremiah picked up their siblings and carted them upstairs followed closely behind the rest of the files, Adam, Benny, and Allen.

"I need to go and check on Kaine anyway," Mike murmured wanting to escape upstairs and away from Bobby like many of the others.

"I'd better get back over to the clinic," Jeff spoke. Sam nodded his head at the teen. Jeff first followed behind the group wanting to check up on his daughter.

"So this is what it's going to be like," Bobby sighed.

"You expected it to be different," Sam asked.

"No," Bobby said honestly. "But if that's how it is with them, I really don't want to see what it will be like with Jarod and Morgan.

"Well let's find out now," Sam replied as he walked over to Morgan and gently shook his -their- sister awake. It took a few moments, a fact that pleased Sam, for it meant Morgan had been sleeping deeply. It was no secret that she nor Jarod had been sleeping well.

"Hey," Morgan yawned looking up at Sam.

"Hey," Sam said.

"Where are the kids?" Morgan asked realizing that Jason, Jack, Keegan, and Amy were gone.

"Air, and the others took them upstairs," Sam told her, he then nodded in the direction of Bobby. Morgan's eyes fell on her twin. With his hands shoved deeply in his pockets, looking down at the floor Bobby seemed extremely uncomfortable.

"All went well then," Morgan noted standing up.

"As if it wouldn't of," Sam said sounding slightly offended. Morgan was about to reply but Mike came running down the stairs, nearly running Bobby over who stood at the bottom of the steps. The boy leapt over scattered toys and stormed into the kitchen. From the kitchen came the opening and slamming of drawers and cabinet doors. As Mike tore through the kitchen, Andros and Aaron flew down the steps, Bobby leapt out the boys way, again narrowly avoiding being run over.

"Mikey! Stop!" Aaron yelled as he and Andros rushed into the kitchen.

"I'm going to kill that little bastard!" Mike screamed from the kitchen. Morgan and Sam exchanged looks and quickly made their way into the kitchen Bobby on their heels.

"What's going on here?" Sam questioned, observing the normally immaculate kitchen that was now a filthy mess. Canned foods, flour, dry goods, plastic containers, and dishes were scattered everywhere. Hurricane Mike had wreaked havoc on the kitchen. In search of what? Sam wasn't quite sure, but what he did know was that Mike was clutching one of the large butchers knives that Will and Alley kept hidden in the cabinets, just in case small hands ever got the urge to play with the knives.

"Michael Kristopher Anthony, put that knife down now," Morgan ordered the boy.

"I'll put it down, right through that sonofabitch's chest," Mike hissed.

"Mikey, he's just trying to get a rise out of you," Andros said cautiously approaching Mike, Andros's hands out in front of him to show Mike he meant no harm.

"Did you hear what he said about Alex? He-he said th-that she deserved to have been shot. That if it was his...that he...he would have shot her himself because she deserved to die... that she deserved to die because she is -and I quote- a whore just like her grandmother," Mike yelled.

"I heard Mikey. We all heard," Aaron said softly, as he took the knife from Mike. The knife quickly exchanged hands, as Aaron passed it to Andros who set the knife on the counter...out of Mike's reach.

"How could he say those things about Katie like that? He doesn't even know her, not like us. Out of all of us she's the best. After everything she's been put through she's still so strong, like all the bad stuff that happened to us never really touched her. Why Air, why would he say those horrible things about her?" Mike asked sounding so utterly defeated. The boy like the other's in his family was going through a lot. And he felt helpless to do anything at the moment that would help his cousin the girl who to him was more so his sister than his cousin.

"He said it to hurt you Michael," Bobby spoke. "The boy knows you, he knows what everyone who has studied your group knows. The easiest way to hurt any of you, or to control any of you is to mention Alex."

Mike narrowed his eyes at Bobby. "You'd know all about that now wouldn't you?" Mike spat.

"Michael go outside and cool off...now," Sam ordered the boy. At that moment he did not need anymore tension in the house. Besides with new powers popping up amongst the children, the last thing anyone needed was for one of the children to get angry and suddenly develop a new ability.

"We'll go with," Aaron offered as he and Andros took either one of Mike's arms and the boy's escorted Mike out the back door.

Morgan sighed as she looked around the kitchen and began to put things away. Bobby went to help his twin, in effort to make himself useful.

"He's just nervous you know. They all are. It was the same way when we brought the Centre down," Sam spoke. "Tempers are getting short, and the smallest thing is likely to set anyone off."

"I'll be sure to stay out of everyone's way," Bobby said dryly.

"Easier said than done," Morgan commented as she put the plates in their respected cabinet. "This may be a mansion, and quite a few people are gone, but we are still a large family. There are nearly forty of us here now." Bobby raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Who is here?" He asked.

"Fourteen...thirteen of the files. All four members of Phoenix and their children. Amy and her boys. Adam, Jay, Deb, Angelo, Jar, Lex, Julia, Jen, Steve his two boys, Allen, the three of us and Sydney," Sam told the Bobby.

"Dad's here?" Bobby said in surprise.

"He's been here since we got back from Blue Cove," Morgan replied gauging her twin's reaction at the news that their father was at the house.

"Where is he?" Bobby inquired.

"Probably looking after AJ and Matty, since Will, Alley, Jaime and Jeff are over at the clinic," Morgan replied.

"You can go and talk to him you know," Morgan commented after a few moments of silence. " If you get lost trying to find Dad, your bound to run in to one of the kids. Just ask and they'll take you to him."

"Thanks," Bobby said partly stunned that his sister was trusting him to walk about the house on his own. Still slightly stunned Bobby left the kitchen and headed up the stairs. He had just begun his ascent up the steps when he came across four bleary eyed six year olds.

"Hi Uncle Bobby," Jason greeted his uncle. At lest Bobby thought it was Jason, he could never quite tell the red haired twins apart. He was grateful that Keegan was a brunet for if the young clone had been a redhead like Jason and Jack, Bobby didn't think he would ever be able to tell the three boys apart.

"Hello..." Bobby faltered not wanting to call the twin by the wrong name.

"That's Jasa, that's Jack, and that's Key," Amy indicated each boy realizing that Bobby could tell Jason and Jack apart.

"Thank you Amy. I was once good at telling twins apart, but now... So can one of you tell me where I can find your Grandfather Sydney?" Bobby asked.

"In his room with Matty and AJ," Jack replied.

"Thank you Jack," Bobby said noting the red flush of fever that colored Jack's face.

"Don't call me Jack. Grownups, never call me Jack or Jasa, Jasa. All grownups call us Gabe and Zane," Jack infromed Bobby.

"Forgive me...Gabriel," Bobby apologized.

"'S okay," Jack said shrugging his shoulders.

"So can you four point me in the direction of your Granddad?" Bobby asked.

"We could take you there...except you don't want to be seen with us do you? You're afraid what everyone might assume... No not everyone, just Jeremiah, Lissa, Greg and Aunt Morgan," Keegan spoke to Bobby for the first time. Bobby found Keegan to be slightly unsettling. It wasn't the boys outward appearance that unsettled Bobby, it was just one could feel the power radiating off the boy. The man was used to being around powerful children, but Keegan took the cake. Yet that was unsurprising, after all, Bobby was well aware that Keegan was to an extent all of the Black Files rolled into one small frame. Bobby supposed that it went without saying that Keegan would be slightly different from what Bobby had been exposed to.

"Follow us. I promise you that no one will think that you are trying to hurt us. If no one here trusted you, you'd be tried up with Kaine in our room and guarded twenty four hours a day," Keegan informed the man. Bobby then found himself being led to his father's room by four small children.

Jack knocked upon the door and Sydney's refined voice beckoned then in. "Hi, Grandpa, we brought you a visitor," Amy announced upon entering the room. Bobby stepped into the room behind the children.

"Dad," Bobby nodded at the psychiatrist, who reading a rather thick tome. On either side of him were to bassinets, which Bobby assumed contained Matty and AJ.

"Bobby, I was unaware you and the other's had arrived," Sydney said probably the only person in the house truly grateful to see his son. Sydney usually paid Bobby a visit once a month a Rikers but had been unable to make his monthly visit due to the boys' abduction.

"Gabriel, Zane, why don't the two of you along with Amy and Keegan take Alexandra and Matthew to the Files. I they'll be waking soon for a bottle," Sydney suggested. The four children eagerly whisked away the babies leaving the father and son to talk.

"You don't have to stand there, you can sit," Sydney said indicating a chair next to his own.

"It's been a while," Bobby spoke sitting across from his father.

"I meant to visit this month. But with everything as hectic as it is..." Sydney trailed off. Bobby nodded understandingly. "Why are you here Bobby. Not at the house but in this room?" Sydney asked.

"Dad, can we not do this. Now I know why Morgan got so annoyed with you always trying to get her to talk," Bobby snapped. If his words affected Sydney, Sydney did not show it.

"He's right down the hall you know. Probably going over his plan on how to rescue Alex and Peter."

"I don't know who you're referring to."

"Don't play dumb Robert, it doesn't suit you," Sydney retorted.

"I see that dear sis has been rubbing off on you Dad," Bobby said in attempt to avoid the subject of Jeremiah.

"Damn it, Bobby," Sydney hissed slamming his fist on the table next to him. "Do you honestly think that you can avoid Jeremiah the whole time you are here?"

"I'm not avoiding him Dad!" Bobby yelled. "I'm...I'm just ...giving him the space he needs," Bobby finished lamely cradling his face in his left hand.

"Jeremiah does not need space. He needs to talk to you," Sydney replied.

"The last time we talked he nearly set me on fire," Bobby sighed. "Besides what can I say to him? 'Sorry'? There is no sorry for what I did to my own son, no matter how much I wish there was."

"For Christ sake I killed his mother in front of him moments after he had met her for the first time. I saw the DSA of the two of them. He knew exactly who I was in that moment. He saw his father murder his mother in cold blood. I can't make up for that. And it to make matters worse for seven years I abused the people he loved most in the world. Jeremiah and I are never going to have any sort of relationship in which he doesn't hate me."

"Would it surprise you to know that he defended you yesterday?" Sydney asked. Indeed Bobby was surprised for he was at a loss for words. "Morgan didn't want you around the children, but Jeremiah stood up for you. I know it has been seven years Bobby, and it's taken a long time. But Jeremiah is finally letting go of his hate. Just give him more time, he will come around in the end."

"Hey, I'm a prisoner. Time is the one thing I plenty of," Bobby jested weakly, studying his hands.

"You love them don't you," Sydney observed.

"When I found out they were mine. I didn't think I would be able to love them," Bobby answered honestly. "But now...I'd die for them"

Jeremiah stepped back from his grandfather's door stunned. He slowly walked back to his room as he tried to digest all that he had heard.

Up Next: Ajax, Ares, and Achilles are keeping a rather large secret from Peter and Bane. And Keegan forces a memory onto Kaine.

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