CHAPTER 93

HEART TO HEART

December 13, 2010

8:20pm

Carthis, Scotland

The New Centre

Minna made her way to SL-23, carefully avoiding being seen by any of Peter's group. She was to contact the Triumvirate member Susanna Grey within the next ten minutes and inform her of Peter's plan. From there Minna would have to call the Pretender Alex. The young sweeper did not care all to much for the man, he unnerved her. Yet the girl had no choice she was too far in with Cox and Raines to back out now. Besides if Minna did decided to tell Peter and Alex of Cox and Raines planes, she would surly be killed as would her family.

Her family. That was the only reason why Minna had allowed herself to become involved with the former Centre hierarchy. Minna did not believe that a ten year old boy would be able to safely find away out of the Centre. It wasn't even her own life that Minna worried about but that of her family, she had five younger siblings all who depended upon her for support.

Minna sighed, she was stuck between a rock and a hard place. All she hoped was that one way or another she would come out of this situation unscathed.

December 13, 2010

8:27pm

London, England

Home of Susanna Grey

She let the phone ring twice before answering it. A part of Susanna prayed that it was Allen on the other line yet she knew it the girl, Minna with news on the Centre.

"Hello," Susanna greeted tiredly.

"Mrs. Grey. It's me Minna," the young sweeper said quickly she was rather nervous about contacting a Triumvirate member.

"And what news do you bring me Miss Fisher?" Susanna questioned.

"Tomorrow morning a large number of Centre staff has been told not to report for work because there will be a security sweep. John-"

"Don't you mean Peter?" Susanna interrupted. "It would seem Miss Fisher that you left out the small detail that Peter Russell has regained the knowledge of who he was."

"Forgive me Mrs. Grey. I didn't tell you because I didn't see it necessary," Minna apologized as she lied through her teeth.

"Do not lie to me Miss Fisher, you kept certain facts from me because you are playing two teams against each other. You fear Dr. Cox, Mr. Raines, the Triumvirate and Cox's lap dog Alex, yet at the same time you do not wish to see young Peter nor his friends harmed. This is a warning Miss Fisher do not keep anything else from me," Susanna threatened.

"Yes Mrs. Grey, please forgive me for my insolence," Minna apologized profusely.

"I don't forgive Miss Fisher. Now tell me what else has young Peter planned?" Susanna said moving on.

"His family is coming two days from today. The plan is for Peter's family to breakout the group here, that way it seems as though Peter had nothing to do with the escape. Peter has also gone to great lengths to remove the vast majority of the Centre projects to different non-Centre related locations through out the world. Those that have been exposed to the outside world, have been given new identities and are in hiding, others are in hospitals, and mental wards until they are able to cope with the outside world," Minna relayed.

"Tell, Dr. Cox that all shall be taken care of. By tomorrow morning the Triumvirate will have seized control of the Centre," Susanna told the sweeper.

"Yes, Mrs. Grey," Minna spoke, and the line went dead.

December 13, 2010

2:27pm

Charlottesville, Virginia

Russell Family Home

Jeremiah sat up with a shock. Shakily he gasped for breath, beads of sweat dotting his face. The young Black File hadn't meant to fall asleep, but he hadn't slept in over twenty four hours. As soon as Sam had learned that his son had not slept within the past day Sam all but drugged Jeremiah to get the boy to lay down for a few moments.

Of course Sam wasn't aware that Jeremiah hadn't been sleeping because the teen was trying his best to avoid the nightmares. The nightmares in which he held Alex in his arms, her blood soaking through her clothes and his, pooling onto the floor beneath them. The worse part about the nightmare was that it wasn't a nightmare; it was real, it was a memory.

"Jer are you alright?" Andros asked concerned, startling Jeremiah who had been unaware of Andros's presence. All of the Black Files had cleared out of the bedroom, to allow Jeremiah to catch up on his sleep. Andros had only returned to collect the floor plans of the New Centre when he saw that Jeremiah had awaken and was shaking and deathly pale.

"Bad dream," Jeremiah whispered.

"Alex dream?" Andros guessed walking over to his cousin and sitting next to him.

"Thing is, it's not a dream. I hold her every time, her blood is everywhere... and...and there's nothing I can do. She dies in my arms sometimes and when she does I'm no longer sure I'm dreaming or remembering," Jeremiah said.

"Jer, what happened to Katie, wasn't your fault. She knew, you know that. Katie knew that she was going to be hurt, but she didn't say anything. That was her choice and there is nothing you could have done to prevent what happened," Andros told his cousin, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"I know...and yet," Jeremiah trailed off.

"Get some more sleep big brother. You do need it, and if you want a dreamless sleep then I can tell Will to come and pay you a visit," Andros said.

"I'll be alright," Jeremiah replied both he and Andros knowing he was lying.

"I'll go get Will," Andros stated. He then grabbed the floor plans the he originally came for and left to find Will.

In truth the last thing on Jeremiah's mind was sleep. He quickly got out of bed and made his way out of the window, using the tree outside of the room as his escape.

"Wouldn't the stairs be easier," A voice call up startling Jeremiah. He was so startled that he fell the remaining six feet to ground, but nimbly landed on his feet in a crouching position, his right palm bracing him as well.

"Sorry I didn't mean to frighten you," Bobby apologized.

"It's alright," Jeremiah said brushing off the dirt from his hands. "Why are you out here?"

"I could ask the same of you," Bobby replied a small smile gracing his features. "And might I ask what possessed Jarod and Sam to place a room that houses a group of teenagers next to a gigantic oak tree? What were they begging for the group of you to run away?"

Despite himself Jeremiah smiled and Bobby was able to see that Jeremiah had inherited his father's smile. "Dad and Uncle Jarod were pretty naive at first when it came to raising kids. Sides Jake, has always kept us in line, so there hasn't been much sneaking out after curfew."

"You aren't going to tell me why you're out here are you?" Bobby asked realizing that Jeremiah was trying to stay off the topic of what had lead him outside..

"I don't want to talk about it," Jeremiah replied his smile vanishing and he began to walk away. Knowing that it was now or never, Bobby followed behind his son.

"It's about Alex isn't it?" Bobby called out. Jeremiah stopped in his tracks. It was as though Jeremiah had been struck physically, as his shoulder's slumped and head fell down to his chest. Bobby quickly approached the boy.

"Please... I don't want to remember," Jeremiah said softly. If it wasn't for the fact that he was standing next to Jeremiah, Bobby never would have heard the boy speak.

"Okay, I won't push you about her," Bobby promised, his heart going out to his son. Bobby had never been truly close to anyone in his life. But he understood just how close the Files were to each other, Alex and Jeremiah especially. The Files lived for each other, and took it badly when one of their own was hurting. "Jeremiah-"

"Can we just walk? No talking; No apologizing; No bring up the past. I just want to walk," Jeremiah asked, nearly begging.

"Of course," Bobby answered taken aback by the plea in Jeremiah's voice along with the fact that Jeremiah didn't seem to mind Bobby's company. Together they walked in a surprisingly comfortable silence, with no destination in mind as they strolled through the forest behind the mansion.

Bobby took the silence as an opportunity to truly study his son. Jeremiah had inherited his red locks and bright green eyes from his mother. Yet his facial structure was all Bobby; the same jaw line; the same eye shape; the same nose; even their hair was styled more or less the same.

'In a way it's like looking into some strange fun house mirror and seeing me at fourteen only with red hair and green eyes,' Bobby mused. 'Just, please don't let him grow up to be like me.'

"It's my biggest fear," Jeremiah spoke breaking the silence between the two of them. Bobby was a bit bewildered that Jeremiah had read his thoughts considering the fact that the boy was not telepath, but the man then remembered that Jeremiah was a borrower.

"I thought you and the others had rules about reading each others thoughts," Bobby said, slightly embarrassed that Jeremiah had been able to hear what he had been thinking. There was once a time -back when he was Mr. Lyle- Bobby was able to detect when his mind was being probed.

"Sorry," Jeremiah apologized. "I didn't mean to violate your privacy. I was just so shocked that you actually weren't pushing me to talk that I wondered what you were thinking about."

"It's alight. Will and Alley use to do it to me all the time when they were younger, Alley especially," Bobby replied shrugging his shoulders. Jeremiah opened his mother to speak but then decided against it.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Bobby asked.

"It's nothing...just...old memories," Jeremiah said as he came to stop at a river that flowed along the back part of the mansion. He crouched down to collect a few pebbles and then stood back up again.

"Bad memories?" Bobby asked. Jeremiah sighed as he skipped his pebbles along the length of the river, Bobby watching. "Never mind you don't have to answer," Bobby said after Jeremiah had remained quiet for a few seconds longer that it normally took a person to answer such a question.

"It's not that, I'm just trying to figure out if it was a bad memory or not," Jeremiah replied.

"Why don't you tell it to me and we can figure it out together?" Bobby suggested. Jeremiah looked up at Bobby meeting his eyes...searching Bobby's eyes to see if Bobby genuinely meant what he said. Seeing that Bobby honestly wanted to help, Jeremiah took a deep breath and cast his eyes to the sky as if asking for heavenly help to go through with his story; "I went to go see Grampa Sydney, just to talk. We talk a lot now and well I really just needed to have someone listen to me. I was surprised to find that when I reached his door it was closed, you see it's normally always open."

"It turned out that Grampa was talking to someone at the time...you. I-I heard what you said. I don't hate you, not any more. I can't... nor do I want to. My mother -my real mother Alannah- wouldn't want it; Alex doesn't want it; nor do Greg or Lissa. They -Greg and Lissa- want to get to know you but by hating you I made things harder for them. They don't want to hurt me but at the same time a part of them needs to get to know you, if only so that they can learn more about their own selves," Jeremiah was rambling and he knew it, it was so out of character for him, but Jeremiah couldn't keep the words from tumbling out of his mouth.

"I know that you didn't kill my mom to hurt me, you didn't even know that I was in that air vent. In fact I think that had you known I was your son and I was there you may have even spared her life."

"You give me more credit that I deserve," Bobby said softly. "I think back then, being the person whom I was, I still would have killed her. But had I known you were there I wouldn't of killed her in front of you. It didn't matter if I knew you were my son or not."

"Why?" Jeremiah asked.

"In the seven years I was in charge of your group, I was never able to do much more than grip your arm tightly. I was never able to hit you, Lissa or Greg. I didn't know why until you three told me that you were mine. I always passed it off as the fact that you three -mostly you- reminded me of myself," Bobby answered.

"A part of you knew that we were yours," Jeremiah realized.

"Yes. I don't know why I ever denied it. I mean if the Centre went to create children from Morgan why wouldn't they do the same with me?" Bobby spoke.

"Do you wish you would have found out sooner? That we were yours?" Jeremiah questioned.

"I wasn't a good person back then Jeremiah, you know that as well as anyone. I don't know what I would have done I know I was your father," Bobby replied honestly.

"You would have saved us," Jeremiah whispered his green eyes meeting Bobby's blue ones.

"You can't be certain about that," Bobby said shaking his head sadly.

"That's the thing I am. I simmed it," Jeremiah said casting his eyes back down in shame.

"If you knew Jeremiah, then why didn't you tell me?" Bobby demanded to know. A part of him was hurt that there was a chance he could have started along the path to becoming a better man had he learned about his children earlier.

"I didn't tell you because I didn't want to be saved by the man who killed my mother," Jeremiah said and began to walk away. Bobby reached out placing a hand on Jeremiah's shoulder not wanting to lose his son forever.

"I would have done the same," Bobby said gently forcing Jeremiah to turn around.

"I guess I really am your son then," Jeremiah said. Bobby didn't miss the hints of fear and bitterness that crept into Jeremiah's voice.

"You aren't my son Jeremiah, you're Sam's son in every sense of the word except that you get your looks from me. Sam has been the father that you have always deserved. He has loved you, and Greg, and Lissa from the moment the three of you were born. I've seen the DSA's when it was just the four of you, there is no denying the love that was there. Do I wish that we could have that sort of relationship? God yes. And maybe one day we'll have something that resembles the relationship that you have with your Dad. Just know that I love you, your brother and your sister," Bobby told his son.

"I know," Jeremiah said looking away. Bobby was pretty sure he saw tears in Jeremiah's eyes.

"You should also know that you'll never turn into the monster that I was... that I am," Bobby amended. "You have a good heart Jeremiah; a good family; good parents. Despite, what happened to you your first seven years at the Centre you're going to turn out to be a wonderful man. I just wish that I could claim that I had some sort of role in that."

"So do I," Jeremiah said his throat clogged with unshed tears. Bobby then did something he never even dreamed that he would do. Bobby pulled Jeremiah into his arms. It was the straw that broke the camel's back, and the dam holding back Jeremiah's tears broke. The young teen cried in his father's arms; crying that neither father nor son would ever have the relationship with one another that they deserved. Crying that a group of men had decided their fate, twisting, manipulating their lives. Crying -as he did seven years ago, that time in the arms of his cousin Alex- as he let out all of the pain and anguish that had been eating at him; his anger and inner turmoil when it came to Bobby; the boat accident in which his mother lost the baby; and his fear and guilt from when he thought that he had lost Alex forever.

"It's alright Jeremiah. It's alright," Bobby whispered.

Up Next: Sam fears for his place in his children's lives. And the Triumvirate arrives at the New Centre. Things are not boding well for Peter and his group.

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