Chapter 12

Barnabas opened his eyes and realized the sun had set. Resignation and loneliness filled his being with its wanton need to exist and it did in him. Perhaps it would been best that he remain in this state and relinquish his love for Victoria, for once again it seemed fate had dealt him a crushing blow.

Not only was he returned to the life he had abhorred before his happiness, he had lost his love. The one thing that had given him hope was now missing and he had no idea where she was or if she was alive. Once again, Angelique had won in their deadly duel of her life and his death.

Rising from his coffin, he stood and closed the lid running his hands over the lid he glanced up as Willie came down the steps and paused, "I brought you some blood Barnabas its in Julia's lab."

Barnabas looked down at the top of his coffin; a reminder of his newly restored life. "Thank you Willie, is Julia here?"

Willie heard the sadness in his voice, a sadness that had not been there for a long time. "Um yeah, she is waiting for you in her lab. Professor Stokes is in your library. Um Barnabas, Adam is acting very strange, he is kind of grieving like you."

Barnabas glanced up and the sadness had encompassed his gaze. "Grieving." He had repeated the word then he paused and thought about that word. It was a word that had stuck to him and held him in its grips since his sister; his mother and Josette were taken from him.

"What about Quentin?" Willie watched the man he had feared then grown to respect become a shell of what he had been. Willie noticed he would not lift his head to look at him.

"He is with the Professor, they think they can find a spell to try and locate Vicki."

This was one of the most hopeful pieces of information he had heard to date. "Thank you Willie, inform the others I will be with Julia for a while."

Willie was hesitant to leave, "Barnabas?"

Barnabas turned to peer at the man who was his servant. "Yes, Willie?"

Willie cleared his throat, "Are you gonna be ok?"

Barnabas thought about the question, "I am ever hopeful we all will be ok, Willie only time will tell."

Julia sat at the lab table looking into the microscope. She glanced up with a contemplative look then looked back into the microscope. Raising her gaze from what she had been observing, she made a quick note.

"Julia."

Barnabas entered the lab looking around at a place he thought he would never need again. "Hello Barnabas. Roll your sleeve up. I have your injection ready."

Julia turned on her stool and studied her friend. Barnabas hesitated, "Is there a problem?" She asked as she slid from the stool gathering the syringe that she had prepared earlier.

"Is the injection going to be beneficial?" Julia paused as she waited for him to take his jacket off and roll up his sleeve.

"Actually Barnabas it is having some positive affects, it will not allow you access to sunlight at this time. It will keep the blood lust at bay."

Reluctantly, Barnabas removed his jacket and slowly unbuttoned his sleeve and rolled it to allow Julia access to his vein. "I understand Elliott and Quentin are in the library discussing spells."

Julia rubbed his vein with an alcohol soaked cotton ball. Finding his vein she completed her injection. "Elliott was researching most the night on location spells. He feels he can use this spell to locate where Vicki had been taken."

Barnabas rolled his sleeve down and slipped on his jacket. He then moved to the lab table and fiddled with the slides placed there by Julia. "Barnabas what seems to be troubling you?"

She folded her arms over her chest and leaned against the table studying her friend. "I was wondering at how life can be so cruel. I was given such a short time of happiness only to find myself back to where I was so many years ago."

From upstairs a terrific crash was heard and the sounds of Cook's screams echoed through the house. Willie came running into the lab, "Julia! Ya gotta come quick, its Adam he's goin nuts! He just jumped out of his bedroom window."

Julia with Barnabas following moved up the stairs pausing to get their direction to the front of the house. Grabbing her coat she moved to the front of the house where she observed Adam limping away towards the woods. "Adam! Stop!"

Adam was near tears, "I can't stop Julia, I can't feel Vicki, and I think she is in danger. I have to find her."

Barnabas frowned, "Adam, stop and come back into the house now. Elliott and Quentin are working on a way to find Vicki. You are hurt, let Julia help you."

Adam limped back to them and stood like a chastised child, "Do you think they will be able to find her?"

Barnabas sighed, "It is my hope and I would stake my life on it, that they will be able to locate and bring Vicki home to those she loves. I am sure Adam she has you in that category."

Adam looked more hopeful and sighed. "Ok."

He let Julia lead him back to the house and down to her lab. Adam only gave a precipitous glance to Barnabas' coffin standing in the center of the main room. Moving to Julia's lab, she sat him in a chair and began her cursory exam of his body finding bruises and contusions over a small part of his body.

Quentin and Elliot stood with Barnabas while Julia addressed his wounds. "Barnabas you must not give up hope, I am positive we can locate her and bring her home."

Barnabas turned away from his friends, "To what to be taken again or far worse than that to be turned into what I have become?"

Quentin looked with concern at his cousins' back, "We are going to find a way to cure you Barnabas, a cure for good. What you cannot do is give up hope or on the love you have for Vicki, that is what gets us through is the love we share for each other."

Elliott frowned studying the melancholic man before him, "Barnabas you must remember what Vicki would have you do, she would expect you to fight through this and find her, we have face very challenging odds before and there was nothing that prevented us from meeting our means or the end to those means."

Barnabas felt ashamed of his failure's attitude. "I know you are right Elliott. I am sure she would expect us to keep up hope and continue to try and find her. My fears are if Adam cannot feel her then she is not on this plane of existence which can only mean she is dead."

From behind the trio a new voice spoke, it was a deep voice that was young and full of hope. "No, it means she is cloaked on a plane that would not allow mere mortals access."

All three men turned to the dark figure that held no features, and held to the shadows.

The young man spoke again, "What you need to do is understand there are forces at work here that were out of your control but not ours. We are here to return balance to this family and nature. I have watched you Barnabas Collins and you think there is no hope. I assure you there is hope and Vicki will be returned to you. You and she will bear five children that will become extraordinary in all their right."

" You Professor Stokes should talk to your wife, she has been trying for days to tell you something amazing. You Quentin, will marry Daphne and together you will have beautiful children. The Collins family continues to thrive."

Elliott studied the male dressed in a mesh mask that held a network of sensors from head to toe over his form fitting jumpsuit.

"Am I to surmise that I am in the presence of one of those progeny?" Elliot thought he could see him smile behind his feature-hugging mask.

"You may," he turned to look at Barnabas, "You are my father, Barnabas Collins. I have come from the future to tell you that as we speak, your daughters are fighting to bring their mother home back to you where she will be safe in your care. I am also here to tell Julia she can cure you of your affliction by using the same methods Lang did with mother."

He stepped back into the shadows and was gone. Barnabas felt for the first time a glimmer of hope. Elliott heeding the advice of young master Collins moved into the lab, "Julia?"

She put the last piece of tape over Adam's injury and turned smiling at the arrival of her husband. "Yes Elliott?"

He studied her face and saw the flush of motherhood written in her eyes. He smiled, "Oh my dearest Julia." He gathered her into his arms holding her tight.

She laughed, "Elliott how did you know?" He pushed her back looked into her eyes and spoke softly, "Its written on your heart and in your eyes my dearest Julia."

She hugged her husband and laughed, "I just found out today. I wanted you to know what I suspected a week ago but we both were so caught up in what was happening in other's lives that I thought I would wait until I knew for sure."

Elliott kissed his wife deeply breaking the kiss he chuckled, "I guess I need to get some cigars."

Julia held onto the moment with her husband. "I suppose that might be appropriate but after the birth of our baby. We don't know the sex."

Barnabas quietly led Adam out of the room to give Julia and Elliott a moment alone to bath in the glory of the news Julia had just given to Elliott.

"Barnabas?"

Adam turned looking curiously from him to Julia and Elliott. "Yes, Adam?"

Adam followed Quentin and Barnabas upstairs. "Why is Julia crying? Is she unhappy?"

Barnabas smiled, "No, she is happy. She just found out she is going to have a baby and she and Elliott will be parents."

Adam frowned, "Do I have parents?"

Barnabas looked at the sad young man and thought a moment. "I guess in some respects I am your father and Vicki is your mother."

Adam thought about that for a moment and then he smiled, "Then should I call you Father and her Mother?"

Barnabas was not sure how that would look and then thinking of how Vicki would respond he nodded, "If that is what you wish Adam, you may call me Father Barnabas and Vicki can be your Mother or Mother Vicki."

Adam looked up the stairs towards his room, "I am sorry about breaking the window, do you want me to fix it?"

Willie came down the stairs, "I got it covered for now, tomorrow we will need to measure it and put in the new glass. You can help if you wanna Adam."

Adam smiled "I would like that very much, thank you Willie." Quentin moved into the drawing room and collapsed in the fireside chair.

"Well now all we need to do is hope that young man finds our Vicki and brings her home."

Joshua Barnabas or J.B. as his family called him shifted back into the SHADOWS lab. Pulling his mesh mask off, he slumped to a chair and looked up at the monitor. Little blimps on the screen denoted each agent in the field. Each team was assigned a color and number.

His gaze fixed to the blue blips and the numbers he followed with his gaze were 1 and 4, they were his sister's numbers and he was watching them with an intensity that was not normally his. As the number 4 blip disappeared from the front gate to reappear a fair distance from her teammates, JB had become more concerned. He wanted to be there but was told to stay behind. He had been content to watch the monitor until Timothy had rushed into the lab.

"JB, the timeline has been restored. The flux I am getting is from the field units. Something has shifted involving your mother."

He glanced to the monitor and watched the field ops as they made their assault on the Ninth Hell. "Truth be told, I am not finding her on any of the scans.

JB frowned, "Could the interference be her location in the Ninth Hell?"

Elliott shrugged, "I have called Nate in to see if he can clear up any interference, the problem is in the bio readings. I am not finding them or those of the nanite fetus she carries. Fetus Josette is also showing signs of distress."

JB stood, "Well I guess I am going in." His comm watch burped and the static voice of his sister Josette filtered into the room. "JB, send in RAV, armed with everything."

JB hit his comlink watch, "Will do Sis, um Tim is here saying there are issues with mother, they can't get a reading on her."

Josette's voice crackled back with more interference from her location. "We know. Tell him not to worry, we have eyes on and will be ready to evac as soon as you get here with RAV."

JB reached for his mesh mask. "Tell Nate to see if he can clear up the airwaves so we can have clear transmissions. From the surface."

Tim had relaxed after hearing Josette's transmission. He glanced over to the monitor, and frowned seeing Jeanette's blip disappeared. "Why is she so far from her team?"

JB glanced over to the monitor, "I don't know. I gotta get going Tim, just make sure Nate does a bandwidth clean up."

JB disappeared from the lab leaving concerned Timothy watching the monitor. "Nettie, you better get back here." He muttered softly while running his finger over the screen.

Jeanette had waited and when the zombie guard had turned his back, she jumped him, taking him down in four well-executed moves. Stepping back she looked the room over and then seeing her jacket laying on a table by the cell entrance, she moved with as much care and speed to the room and grabbed everything jerking her coat on, and sliding her weapons into her pockets.

Getting her bearings she moved with speed towards the juncture of the main hallway. Moving along the walls taking cover at the first sign of the enemy, pressing her self along the wall until she came to a juncture. Peering down the left wing then right wing of the hallway, she saw in mass movement rushing towards the opposite end, Pressing back, she heard a voice that was familiar.

Looking over her shoulder she saw a door, pressing into the door, she cracked it and peered inside. On the bed lay her mother and a man, who was not her father, cradled her mother to his body.

Anger hot and furious filled her, jerking the door open she stepped into the room and ordered, "Get your damn hands off my mother!" The man startled looked up, and grew shocked, gently he disengaged his hold on Vicki and slid from the bed. His astonishment was complete; he glanced from daughter to mother back to daughter.

"What did you call her?" Jeanette advanced into the room; her manner was one of being combat ready. She moved into a pivotal T stance and bounced on the balls of her feet. "I said stay away from my mother."

Sorin smiled, "A daughter we have a daughter as beautiful as her mother."

Jeanette relaxed her stance and cocked her head. "Excuse me what do you mean by we?"

He looked from Vicki to the lovely woman in front of him. "I mean you must be our daughter."