Chapter 12- Forgiving
Jak and the rest of his group had the next two weeks off. Jak had gotten into a rather large spat with Keira about Jaklin and who was a worst parent. Jak won the argument but still felt like he was the bad parent. Jaklin wouldn't even look at him, the only things she would do is let him change her diaper and her clothes other than that she would walk and let Tess give her food. Jak wasn't sure what to do at the moment he felt horrible. He hadn't yelled at her but he was sure that she had felt how angry at himself he was.
'Maybe she thinks you were angry with her?' his light side asked. Jak realized that he hadn't thought about that. Maybe all of this was his fault like Keira said and she is acting out because he never really punished her before. Jak shook his head she must have felt his anger, yes, but as to her "acting out" there would have to be some reason.
All Jak knew is that he needed to make it up to her. Maybe he could find out what was going on, something was there but only the kids knew what it was and they couldn't talk very well yet so they couldn't really help. Maybe he could talk to Jaklin and maybe come up with some other way for her to communicate with him about what was going on.
Jak walked out of his room and into the main room. Keira glared at him and said nothing, Jak wasn't going to give in to her if he had to spend time fixing his own race car then so be it. He would have Jaklin to help him. Again as it was yesterday and the day before all the way back to the day Jaklin some how got into the race car she had been sitting in the corner.
Everyone but Keira had tried to get her to come out of it even going as far as to pick her up and move her but she would just go right back to it. She was facing out right now because it looked like she and Dez were in some kind of argument, a one sided one but still.
("Jaklin please, I don't have anyone to play with, the boys say I'm icky") Dez pleaded with Jaklin for who know how many times.
("I can't,") Jaklin said simply.
("Why?") asked Dez sadly.
("Daddy is still mad at me, and I almost got you killed like Keira said, why do you even still want to be my friend?") Jaklin said trying hard not to cry.
("You didn't it was my choice to come with you, it was my toy, you didn't have to go get it! Kendra was just trying to get a rise out of you and it worked, and I don't think your daddy is mad at you he is more mad at himself.") Dez said. Jaklin only looked down and picked at a random piece of fuzz. She knew Dez was right at least about Kendra.
("Your right about Kendra, but my daddy I don't know.") Jaklin said with self-doubt. Dez could only sigh and slump her shoulders. Teagan toddled over with a business look on his face. Jaklin switched into business mode when he came over even standing up.
("Stop acting like this, all of us are leaving so that Jak can work out what ever he needs to with you while we are all gone, of course I cant say much for Keira and Kendra though, from what Kyle said, his mom was going to go see their grandpa so it looks like its just you and your dad.") Teagan said. Jaklin sat there for a moment and nodded her head. This was going to have to be done sooner or later.
Jak had noticed what was going he wished now more than ever he could understand what it was that they were saying. Ashlin came a few moments later and picked Teagan up and go him ready to go. Kyle, Kendra and Keira had already left. Jak could already put two and two together. Every one was leaving so he and Jaklin could have alone time. Sadly Daxter and Tess had to drag Dez away from Jaklin, though Jak knew that Daxter wanted to stay as well to see things threw but Tess wouldn't have it.
It was about a half and hour before Jak thought it was safe to start his negotiations with Jaklin, it wasn't going to be easy he knew that much. He walked around until he found her facing the corner. He crossed his arms how was he going to get her attention when her face was to the wall? He couldn't just stand there staring at her.
"Jaklin," he said to her. His only response was her head tipping as if she were telling him that she was listening.
"Turn around," he said to her, he bit his lip waiting. For a moment she started to then stopped for a minute as if she were thinking about what to do then fully turned around. She was looking at his boots not his face. Even though he couldn't talk to her mental Jak found that he could feel what ever emotion was the strongest in her. Right now it was a torrent of emotions.
"I'm not mad at you," he said to her, but still there was no response from her. Jaklin was thinking hard, there had to be some way to tell Jak what had happened. that's when she noticed the chalk board that Ashlin had been teaching the letters of the alphabet to Teagan. Jaklin being smarter than she looks learned how to read in no time. A plan had already formed in her mind.
Jaklin got up off of the floor and walked over to the chalk board and sat down in front of it. Jak had fallowed her wandering what she was up to. Then he felt it, the forbidden eco, it was an odd feeling one he hadn't felt in a very long time. He noticed that some of the chalk was moving. Was she going to do what he thought she was going to do?
Jaklin remembered the letters but had never written them before so slowly she used the forbidden eco and her mind and wrote the alphabet on the chalk board. She felt and immense amount of pride coming from her father. He couldn't see her face at that moment but she had a small smile on it.
"How did you lean to do that?" he asked her.
'Do what?' she wrote on the chalk board.
"What are you doing right now?" he questioned her question.
'Well right now I'm doing two things daddy, I'm using eco and my mind to write to you and I'm writing. I learned the letters from watching Ashlin teach Teagan the alphabet, and I taught myself how to move things with the forbidden eco and my mind, though I'm sure I don't even need to use the eco anymore.' she wrote out as she turned around and looked at him. Jak just stood there with his eyebrow raised for a moment.
'Oh come on, I'm a lot smarter than I look and you know it,' she wrote after erasing everything that she had wrote previously. Jak had to smile, yes he had know that she was smart he just could never gauge her intelligence. Jak was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't know his right ear was twitching. However Jaklin did notice it and knew who was coming.
'Dad that guy with the fake hair is coming with his floating camera, you might want to lock the door and close all the blinds so he cant see me writing like this and it gets all over the news and what not.' she told him. Jak was kind of startled by what she had written but did it because he didn't want anyone to know what was going on in his personal life.
After every thing was secure Jak came back and looked to see if Jaklin had said anything. She hadn't though he wandered if he should ask a question or just wait. She was just looking at him and the only thing that popped up on the board was three dots. Jak knew that she was waiting for him to start talking.
"So what's going on? I noticed that you and Teagan have something going on, and you and Kendra." Jak partly asked partly stated.
'Teagan and I are exchanging information about what is going on between you racing and what's going on between Kendra and I.' Jaklin said not elaborating on what was going on between her and Kendra though she knew he would ask.
"And what would be going on between you and Kendra?" Jak asked.
'She wants to kill me, though I'm sure you wouldn't believe me,' she stated. Jak frowned why would Kendra want to do that?
"Why do you assume I would believe you, and why would she want to kill you?" he asked her.
'You remember when I fell off of the rafters up in the sealing?' she asked.
"Yea," he responded.
'She threw Dez's toy up there and I climbed on a pile of boxes to get it down but she knocked them down so I couldn't come back down that way, I slipped because she was throwing things at me, and one of the things hit me in the head and I fell onto you,' Jaklin explained. She watched Jak as he sat there pondering what she had just told him. It made since but the only thing that didn't make since is why.
"But why?" he asked her.
'She wants you to be her daddy because her mom wants you, and she knows that I wont let it happen,' she wrote. Jak was kind of confused, yes he knew Keira liked him and had asked him to go out with her a few times but he had always assumed that it was just as friends.
"What's wrong with biz?" he asked himself.
'He has no power' she said. Jak blinked for a little bit but still didn't understand what it was that she was talking about he gave her a questioning glance.
'Your from the house of Mar, there for you have a lot of power if you wanted to you could take Ashlin's place, you can also control eco, its all about influence and money,' Jaklin wrote looking at him hoping he got it now. Jak let out a sad huff, did Keira think like this, is that the only reason why she wanted to be with him?
'Yes' Jaklin wrote answering his question that he didn't remember asking out loud. Jak frowned this was something new to him he would need to watch her more than he had before. There was still something that Jaklin wasn't telling him.
"What else is there?" he asked her, the chalk didn't move for a few minutes then it finally did.
'She taunted me that she had put Dez's toy in the car and I had better get it fast other wise it would be lost forever and I know how much Dez likes that toy because Uncle Daxter got it for her.' she said.
"So she fooled you?" Jak asked.
'No it was there and it fell out of the car on one of the turns. You do know that if you were to tell her mom that she wouldn't believe you and try to turn your words around like she tried to when you guys got into that argument a day ago. She made you feel like shit even though you won that fight.' she said.
"Watch your mouth your not old enough to say shit," Jak said to her.
'Ug, its impossible for me to watch my mouth with out a mirror and you cant tell me that because it would make you a hypocrite because you just said it.' Jaklin replied to him. Jak face palmed himself at what she had just said.
"Ok ok, so what your saying is that you and Kendra are mortal enemies?" he asked her.
'Yes, I'm getting pretty good with eco stuff, I wander if I mixed the light stuff with the forbidden stuff if I could make myself older…' she mused.
"Oh no don't even think about it young lady, its hard enough to keep track of you when you are this age," Jak said half panicked making her laugh.
'Though it would make things easier for you I would be able to take care of myself for the most part and you wouldn't have to worry about me so much,' she wrote.
"No Jaklin, absolutely not it would make things much harder I'd have to worry if you were staying out of trouble or not." Jak said to her in a tone that said what he said was final.
'But dad I could even help you,' Jaklin wrote to him. the very thought of her racing made him understand why Samos wouldn't let Keira drive.
"NO! Thats final." he said making Jaklin flinch at the tone of his voice. She stared at him for a bit wandering why he didn't want her to help him. she sighed in defeat and lowered her head.
'Ok, I wont do it,' she slowly wrote.
"Promise?" he asked her.
'No, just in case there is a time that I have to do it.' she said logically. Jak nodded accepting that as her answer. Jak looked at Jaklin for a while then smiled. He reached down and picked her up with out thinking about it and hugged her. He was walking away with her when he heard the chalk on the board moving.
'Are you still mad at me?' she asked the writing was more messy, she was getting tired he could tell.
"No Jaklin I was never mad at you to start with, I was mad at myself for not looking for you and not doing a once over of the car like I always do." Jak frowned and gently squeezed Jaklin.
"You could have died, I was so scared, I love you so much and I nor any of the eco beings with me would be able to handle the pain of losing you like that" he said to her he was starting to lose control of his emotions, it was rare that that happened but it did. Jaklin was fighting just as hard as Jak was to keep from crying, though she was losing that battle she was to little to really control what her body did.
She lost control of the chalk piece and it fell to the floor. Jak sat down still holing Jaklin, he caved into the need to cry. That is what they did they sat there and cried for what seemed like forever finally Jak was able to get himself under control. Jak pulled Jaklin back to make sure that she was ok and still breathing. She was she had fallen asleep some time ago.
Jak could only sit there and watch her sleep while he cradled her close to him. When people told him she was going to be like him he had thought that she wouldn't be just like him but it was turning out that she was fallowing in his footstep pretty well. The sudden noise of the chalk on the board startled him.
'I don't fallow in your footsteps, I walk beside them so that I can see what you have done and learn from them. One day when I'm old enough and strong enough I'll be able to walk beside you, if I fallowed in your footstep I would have to walk behind you and not next to you, its pretty hard to talk to people who are behind you and I wouldn't be able to help you save the world when my time comes to start helping you do that. One day we'll do it together.' the chalk was placed with the rest of the chalk. Jak couldn't help but smile even though there were tears streaming down his face.
Jak laid Jaklin on the couch and grabbed a piece of paper and wrote down what it was that she had said. He would add this to the scrap book that he started keeping shortly after he had gotten Jaklin to mark all of her achievements in life. Jak picked Jaklin back up and when to their room.
Jak laid Jaklin on her spot of the bed and pulled out the scrap book that had so many things in it, it would have made Tess proud. Everything that she had done was in there even taking on the metal head and the race car. This was one more thing for him to brag about to Daxter when he got back. Stretching Jak thought that it would be a good idea to lay down.
Though Jaklin was asleep right now she had gone to bed without eating anything and would wake up some time during the night so she could eat. Jak laid down and fell asleep watching her sleep. The scrap book hidden back in its spot that only he knew were it was. He was unaware of a pissed of G.T. Blitz who had come to interview the "rookies" and show the world what the did on their time off.