Chapter 4

Standard Disclaimer Applies

AN: Whitewolf your continued support makes me feel all gooshy inside. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed I'm simply blown away by the number of people who are reading this story.

Chapter 4

Jack was a changed man when he came back from his mission. Not that it mattered, the marriage was already over. Over because neither party could talk to the other; over because he never came out and said it out loud and Sara blamed jack for the loss they had suffered but wouldn't say it out loud either.

Jack was the love of Sara's life, her one and only and no one after had ever seemed as special and they never lived up to him. There were still even now nights in the dark cold of winter when she would roll over in bed and dream that he would be there, she would reach for him on those nights only her hand would find the empty pillow then the pain
would feel just as sharp as those first few days when he was gone and she was left alone in an empty house full of painful memories.

Finally Mike seeing the sadness in his daughter's face and the desperation in her eyes announced that he would be moving in. He hadn't asked and she was glad of that.

Sara doesn't know how she made it home, only knows that it took a long time and that now she is staring up at her home, but can't find the strength to walk to the door. Her mind has been racing ever since she realised that the body photographed as her dead son, was not
Charlie.

Mike is walking towards the car when she looks up again and he pulls her door gently open.

"Honey?" He asks squatting down despite the twinge, behind seventy odd year old knees.

" It's not him." Sara gets out after a moment and leans heavily against the now closed car door and Mike sighs.

" We knew that baby, knew it couldn't be him."

" No Dad! You don't understand. " Sara tells him sternly with a shake of her head and Mike looks at her questioningly but doesn't speak.

Gently Sara pulls the autopsy photo from her pocket and she shoves it towards her father who outwardly gasps as he sees it and turns away.

" Look at it." Sara commands shoving the photo in her father's sight, who closes his eyes.

" This is not the way I want to remember my grandson." He fires back and Sara glares at him.

" Look at it!" She shouts and Mike drags his gaze to the photo, reluctantly.

" What do you see?" Sara asks, while her voice is shaking.

"Charlie." Mike states and Sara hands him the second photo, the happy Charlie.

" Look at them together. Look at their eyes." Sara instructs as she turns to watch her Father who inspects both photos dutifully and who is about to hand them back, when he literally stops.

" You see too, don't you?" Sara asks begging for confirmation.

"Oh, my God!" Mike exclaims as he looks up at his daughter.

"This isn't Charlie." He confirms indicating the photo of the dead boy. "Charlie's eyes were brown, this boy has blue eyes. Where did you get this?"

"The doctor that performed the autopsy had it in a file; Charlie's file. I noticed his eyes, when it fell on the floor. He doesn't know, that I know." Sara replied as she finally pulled herself away from the car.

"Alex could be Charlie Dad." She slams the car door hard.

" Sara don't jump to conclusions, all we know at the moment is…" Mike trails off, because he's unsure of what exactly the photo means.

"We should call Jack." He finishes and Sara snatches the photo from him.

"No!" She snaps tucking the photo back into her pocket.

"Why on earth not? He could help us to figure out what the hell is going on." Mike reasoned not understandings his daughter's motives.

"Who would fake the death of our little boy Dad? It certainly wasn't people at the accounting firm I worked at was it? No, it had to have something to do with Jack, " She is walking back to the house her brain ticking over in thought now,

"something to do with the mission he went on, maybe they were using Charlie as leverage to get Jack to do a mission." Sara continues stopping at the steps to her house.

"What if he knew?" She demands suddenly and Mike came to a standstill beside her.

"What if Jack knew what?" He questions.

"What if Jack knew that Charlie wasn't dead? What if that's why he went on that bloody mission, when I needed him so much at home? He went because he thought he could get Charlie back, and he couldn't" She is rambling now, " That's why he left us, he couldn't stop them or he couldn't get Charlie back and he couldn't be around me knowing what he'd done."

Mike is staring at his daughter and she knows she sounds like a lunatic but she doesn't care and continues.

"I never told you this, but when Jack came to the house that time. When he was sick and I had to take him to the hospital. I saw Charlie there."

"What?" Mike demands in shock.

"Jack took him away after Charlie came and said goodbye to me. One of Jack's Airforce
doctors told me that I was exposed to a toxin and that I was hallucinating. But what if I wasn't?" Sara demands and now she is angry.

"How could he do that!" She demands at a shout, " How could he keep Charlie for himself! Didn't he know what I was going through? I could barely make it through the day Dad, and all that time! All that time he knew!" Tears stream down her face and Mike reaches out to hug her, but she knocks him away.

" Sara, you know Jack. Jack would never intentionally hurt you." Mike reasons and Sara explodes.

" He left a loaded gun lying around for an nine year old boy to find!" She can barely speak through her sobs as they choke her words and close her throat.

"He left! I needed him so badly and he left. Why did he leave? If he would never hurt me, then why would he leave?" She shouted and Mike gives a small shake of his head.

"What are you going to do?" He asks finally after several moments when Sara looked to have calmed down a little.

" Tomorrow, when Alex comes I'm going to tell him. Tell him that he's mine and I'm not going to tell Jack. He had Charlie all these years, well it's my turn now." She states bitterly before turning on her heel and stalking inside the house.

Mike let out a deep breath with as much force he could muster and wandered over to the railing of the porch, grabbing it with both hand he pushed against it as he leaned forward and looked out at the street.

The noise of children playing crept to his ears, somewhere a dog barked and a black SUV steered itself out of the curb and rolled down the street. He would call Jack, Mike decided to himself. The man should know if there was a possibility his son was still alive and despite his daughter's hysterical claim Mike didn't believe that Jack would have ever willingly kept Charlie from Sara. Jack's number was inside somewhere, he'd given it to them a couple of years ago when he dropped by to collect a box he kept in the attic.

Tomorrow Mike would track the number down and ring Jack. Tomorrow.

End Chapter 4.

AN: So what do we think, time to bring Jack in? Time for more Sara and Xander one on one? The action starts soon let me know how I'm going and review!