Chapter 6

The lake spread out calmly meeting the setting sun in a picture perfect image of serenity. Yet Olivia didn't feel calm. Inside chaos swirled as she pulled her jacket a little tighter against the chill of the setting sun. This cabin had been in her family for years and when she was younger they would all come out here for a weekend or two. Mom, dad, and her sister all appeared together in childhood memories that played through her mind.

"Olivia?" the voice broke her out of her reverie. Olivia turned, surprised to see her mother coming up the walkway.

"Mom? What are you doing up here this weekend?" She had thought to have the cabin to herself in order to figure out some things in her life which the fast pace of the city simply did not allow time to question.

"Well your father was feeling cooped up and on the spur of the moment packed us up. He's getting some boxes out of the car. What on earth are *you* doing here? Sakes alive! I think it's been a good ten years since we had the chance to drag you up here!" Mrs. Faucett hooked her arm with her daughter's as she led the way into the cabin.

"Needed to get away from the city for a while is all." She tried to shrug it off as no big deal, but the tension showed in her forced smile.

"Problems at work?" the older woman's voice took on a more concerned tone.

"No… not really. I don't want to talk about work up here." She didn't want to tell her parents about the recent attack and have them worry and fuss over her.

Sitting down at the rough wooden table Mrs. Faucett wasn't going to give up that easily trying to find out what was troubling her little girl. "OK, if you don't want to talk shop… How are things going with that handsome young man, Toby? " She had only met Mr. Logan a few times, but he had certainly made an impression worth remembering.

"Fine mom, everything's fine." Her mother's eyebrows rose at that.

"Fine? Hmmm doesn't sound too cozy. You kids have been together about two years now, right?"

"Year and a half. " Olivia corrected, straining her neck to see if her father was coming yet so she could get this conversation on a different track.

"Seems like a long time for things to be just 'Fine'. "

"All right… it's been a little rocky lately." Through clenched teeth Olivia admitted that they were having some issues. Her mother would never simply leave a subject alone. She had to beat it down and personally sacrifice it on the fire.

It had been a long day and Toby was glad to finally be home. He set the journal carefully on the table while he grabbed a beer. For a while he simply stared at the seemingly innocent journal as he worked up the courage to open and read it.

There wasn't much about the present included in the handwritten pages, but there was a lot of reflecting on the past as Maya tried to understand how she had arrived where she was. Victor Clooney had discovered her from her involvement in a police case that she mysteriously solved, and he grew curious about her. Clooney had contrived a meeting to have an excuse to start getting the answers he sought. Not long after gaining her trust Maya told him of her ability to hear other's thoughts and know what they were thinking. She couldn't have known the malice behind his interest nor that he would go so far as to trade on her affections to further research goals born more of a hunger for power than knowledge. Finding out that her son shared her abilities only heightened Clooney's interest and caused him to tighten his grip on her. Clooney convinced Maya to stay at the institute to learn more about her and her son's gifts. Before Maya uncovered the true nature of his interest, she discovered she was pregnant by Clooney. He took the news with a glint in his eyes that began to truly frighten her, and it was then that she started to try to find a way to break free.

It took months for Maya to find someone within the Institute that would help her. Frank was only a low level cleaning attendant, but he had a good heart and could see the torment in her eyes. Even with inside help it took months before an escape could be arranged to circumvent Clooney's security measures. The trailer had been a quick half way point that was hastily utilized when Maya had started to go into labor earlier than anticipated. Frank was off securing the second half of the journey for Maya and her sons when Clooney showed up. How he found them, she never knew. With her baby taken from her, she was all the more desperate to protect her other son. The leap off the cliff into the river was indeed to try to keep Clooney from regaining control. Maya simply had been too panicked to consider the danger such a decision might pose.

The last few lines brought Toby to a halt with tears in his eyes.

I hope he can forgive me for abandoning him to Frank, but I couldn't risk taking him back. I lost everything that day – both my sons. Maybe it's too late now to –

The writing stopped suddenly as if she had been interrupted. Toby closed the book, and put his hands over his face. His shoulders shook as the racking sobs overtook him.

The night air against her skin felt good as Olivia sank down into the deck chair to gaze up at the stars. Her mother finally had drifted off to sleep, and now maybe Olivia could get back to focusing on her own thoughts.

"Hey Bookworm… " Olivia's father affectionately called her by her childhood nickname as he brought out two steaming cups of hot chocolate and offered her one.

"Thanks Dad…" she gave a slight smile despite the unrequested company.

He sat down quietly in the chair across from Olivia. For several minutes they listened to the sounds around them without saying a word. Unlike her mother, Mr. Fawcett would allow his daughter to come to him if she needed help instead of trying to dig into her life. Time had proven that such an approach worked better with his very independent daughter.

"Something just isn't fitting with my life… and I'm not quite sure what it is." She finally confessed softly.

"What happened to spark you coming up here after all this time? " his tone showed concern yet left how much to expose up to her.

Olivia hesitated a moment glancing back to the cabin where her mother slept. There had often been events in her life that her mother would have grabbed onto to insert herself further into the problem whereas her father would take it in stride and allow himself to be a good sounding board.

"There was an incident at work with a junkie that came in … he grabbed me and held me at knife point for a while. I don't know why I'm letting it get to me so much." She shook her head softly trying to minimize the experience.

"Could it be what happened at work is not the real issue? I know you have had close calls before working in that ER yet this is the first time you seem thrown." Mr. Fawcett was a very insightful man who knew his daughter well, and wasn't afraid to play devil's advocate when the situation warranted it.

Olivia knew learning Toby's secret weighed heavily into her current state, but what could she say. 'I'm upset because I found out my boyfriend can read minds'. No, she couldn't tell her father what was really bothering her. Still he had picked up that the real issue was not the most obvious excuse she had tossed out to him. She decided to try to bring up Toby, but deal in more vague relationship issues.

"Toby and I have been having some issues lately." Lately? Was that really the truth? As she heard the words leave her mouth she knew better. There had always been barriers between them. Learning about his ability didn't make those barriers go away … if anything it had complicated the situation even more. She thought back to when they first met and how she had been reluctant to go out with him. But with his boyish good looks and charm he had convinced her to go out on a date. Before she knew it, that one date was a relationship that they had been trying to save almost since it began.

"Do you love him?" Olivia snapped out of her wandering down the past to stare at her father. He certainly knew how to get to the heart of an issue. Her lack of an immediate answer said more than any words could have.

"We've been together for a while now…" Olivia hedged on her reply.

"That's not what I asked. Do you love him?" his eyes bore into his daughter's and she couldn't think of a good evasive answer.

"No… ", it was only a whisper, "no… I guess I don't. We… he has tried so hard to make this relationship work, but it doesn't. " A soft sadness welled up in her. Not the grief of losing something dear, but the acknowledgement of a truth long denied.

"Then why are you still seeing him?" the question wasn't a judgment, but rather a gentle push to action.

"He's a great guy… and I know breaking up with him would hurt him. And we do have fun sometimes…" 'when he's not driving me nuts' she silently finished the thought.

Mr. Fawcett took the cup from his daughter's hand and set it aside to hold her hand between his as he looked her in the eyes earnestly. "Olivia, you say you don't want to hurt him, but you need to see that staying with him when you don't truly love him will end up hurting you both more than you know. It's your life, honey, and only you can decide what to do with it."

Admitting to herself that she really didn't belong with Toby, and her father's heartfelt honesty brought tears to Olivia's eyes. He kissed her on the forehead as he used to do when she was little and went back inside. It was a long time before Olivia got to sleep that night.

The next morning Charlie walked into her living room and her eyes landed on the folder from Ray's office lying closed on the table. Walking over slowly Charlie flipped to the back of the file where the earliest reports were kept. An intake photo of Toby pulled at her heart – there was so much intelligence as well as misery in those young eyes.

The folder was rather thick and she had finished reading it completely, but she needed to learn all she could to trace back the bread crumbs the investigation had left her with. She once again scanned through scribbled notes, computer print outs, photos, even data discs labeled with dates.

Suddenly an idea hit her. Why not talk to the creator of the file to see if he could give her some insight or a link to follow up on from what she had gathered off the videotape. Picking up her phone she dialed Ray Mercer's number.

"Hello you have reached the office of Dr. Ray Mercer…" the recorded voice droned on to list the available office hours of the professor, and Charlie jotted them down on a pad of paper by the phone. There was about an hour before she would be able to reach Mercer at his office. This would give her time to do a little more digging online to see if she could track down more information about Ethan now that he had put himself back in the picture.

"Heard back from Olivia yet?" Oz was cruising the streets in the ambulance glad Toby was back riding shot gun, but a little concerned over his partner's quieter than usual demeanor.

"No… she's still on leave." Toby really didn't want to talk about it since things with Olivia had been tense at best when she left and not hearing back from her at all was not a good sign.

"Toby… what is the deal with you?" Following Toby's 'gimmie a break we've been down that road look' Oz's tone became more serious. "I'm talking as a friend here. You two have been doing this tug of war for a long time now and I don't see things getting any better. "

Toby had to admit his friend was right even though he didn't want to concede that the relationship with Olivia might well indeed be over for good this time. How many times before had she broken it off only for Toby to cajole her into giving him one more shot? Now there was this issue with his mother being alive and his elusive brother popping in and out of town. Not to mention that she had not been too thrilled to hear about his gift. Oz had accepted it right off because he was Oz and Toby's best friend. Toby was grateful for his quick and complete acceptance even if it did mean having to play telepathic wing man occasionally. Even Charlie had accepted his ability with only minor hesitation and disbelief despite her predisposition to question such things inherent with being a police detective. Yet with Olivia her knowing seemed to make things worse not better between them.

Toby had beat himself up with 'what if's..' in thinking maybe if he had told Olivia in the beginning or maybe if he had not told her at all that things would be different between them now. But disclosure had gone so well with two others outside of Ray he had gotten careless with his secret. But the truth came down to Olivia was not dealing well with his gift, and this might be the last straw that broke them up for good. Strangely that thought brought a sense of relief or a lifting of a weight rather than the sadness he would have expected.

"Maybe not Oz… Maybe things aren't getting better. I just don't know, man. Telling her about the telepathy… I thought that would solve things you know. Wouldn't have to mislead her about how I knew things or where I was going… but it ain't working out that way. Not working out that way at all… " Toby sighed and ran his hand over his face looking very tired. Oz hadn't expected this response from his partner after so many similar conversations going the way of Toby telling him things were fine and to butt out.

"Hey I got your back, man. Remember?" Oz attempted to pull Toby back up from the black fog that had descended on him.

"Yeah I know, man. I know." The smile was genuine despite the tiredness remaining etched upon his face.

Author note: I have about another ten pages of this story already written, but I'm having trouble finding an ending point for this story so that it does not start to develop into issues that I want in my next story. There will be some issues that continue into third story in the arc just as first season spanned Toby's past across multiple arcs. Will put up the rest as soon as I can – Feedback helps to spark ideas on where to tie up loose ends therefore any constructive feedback is appreciated.