Chapter 15

Julia placed the headgear on Barnabas' head, and then checked the probes on Jeff's head. She had amazed herself with the amount of work that had been accomplished in six hours. Barnabas peered up as Julia adjusted his metal band that was affixed over his head resting against his forehead.

"Julia, are you confident this will work?"

Julia patted his shoulder tilted her head and fixed those penetrating blue eyes to his dark brown ones. "I don't think I would be trying to do this if I did not think it would work Barnabas. Now, I want you to relax."

Barnabas offered a halfhearted smile and closed his eyes to prepare himself mentally.

As he lay there, his thoughts were on his wife and their unborn child. What was it his son said, they would bear five children and he was one of them. If that were the case, then what would he have to fear?

Fixing one single image in his mind, he focused on the beauty that was his wife's. He envisioned her smile, the sparkle in her eyes when she lay in his arms and snuggled close to his body. The feel of her breathe against his neck when they held each other.

Somewhere in the depths of his reverie of his wife, he heard Julia order Quentin "Power up." Quentin threw two switches and all eyes fixed to the power monitor on the wall watching it rise from 0-30-60-70-80- and at 90. When the needled pegged out and held. Julia nodded to Quentin and then held her breath waiting for Quentin to throw the last switch forcing the needle to dance at 100.

Barnabas felt the surge of energy shoot through his body and every fiber every cell every iota that he was, felt he was being ripped from his body. He screamed out in pain with the feeling of his body being ripped apart and put together. He clinched his hands closed his eyes and prayed that this pain would be worth what he was suffering and then at the back of his mind, he realized this was what Vicki had endured to bring life to Adam.

He wept, he wept for the pain his beloved must have felt during this time of trials and what it might have done to his child His poor child that had not had a chance to experience life and her first experience was to feel her mothers body torn apart to be reassembled.

Julia watched waiting and hoping that this was going to work. She meticulously studied each subject, Jeff's body covered with a sheet strapped to the table and Barnabas body. She cringed watching him react to the affects of the transference capacitor.

Julia watched Jeff's hand begin to move; first it was one finger, then another finger and then the hand convulsed into a fist. Julia moved to his body using her stethoscope to listen to his heart. "Shut it down, we need to see if we have a heartbeat."

Quentin dropped the heavy leavers on the wall he like the others in the room watched the power begin to dwindle down. She laid her stethoscope to his chest and listened and smiled. Then she moved to Barnabas noting that during the process he had fainted.

Moving her stethoscope to his chest she listened and heard what she expected, "We have a heart beat on Barnabas and on Clark." Julia stepped back and smiled. "We have a successful transference." Jeff opened his eyes and peered around.

He opened his mouth and then closed it, looking with confusion and anxiety he fixed his gaze on Julia and then the room he was in. Julia moved to his side and spoke softly with a gentleness born of practice with her patients.

"Jeff, you are going to be all right. You need to rest for now." He appeared more than disoriented, he was perplexed and she wondered if he had lost his ability to comprehend words.

Then his voice was dried and cracked with his words. "Where am I?"

Julia relaxed; he did retain his ability to use speech. "You are in my lab Jeff, you were ill and had to seek medical treatment and you came to me. How are you feeling?"

He was more than just a little confused; he was flummoxed by what she was telling him. "Why do you keep calling me Jeff."

Julia turned to Danielle who had stood with Elliott and Willie by the doorway as the experiment took place. She motioned Danielle over, "I am calling you Jeff because that is your name."

He blinked closed his eyes and then looked to Julia and then Danielle. "Darling, you have been through so much, you just need to rest."

Jeff cocked his head and smiled, "You are pretty who are you?" Danielle looked from Julia to Jeff her mind disconcerted with why Jeff did not recognize her.

"Jeff, darling I am your wife, Danielle."

He smiled, "You sure are pretty, you are my wife?"

She smiled, "Yes, darling we are married."

Julia pulled Danielle back so she could speak with her, "He has been brought back to life, I think he has to adjust to being alive and his memory will slowly return to him. You just need to reinforce your feelings for him as he recuperates. It will take time, but I am sure he will regain most his memory. He may not recall that he tried to kill himself, and succeeded because those memories were the last ones he had. So you will need to be patient."

Julia turned to Willie and Quentin, "Lets get him in a bed upstairs, and maybe put Danielle in a room close to his so she can check on him."

Willie and Quentin moved to help Clark from the table and escorted him from the room. Julia turned her attention back to Barnabas.

Barnabas moaned moved his head and looked around the room. "Julia?"

She tilted her head and peered down. "I am here Barnabas."

He tired to move his hand to his head and found his hands secured in the restraints. "My wrists Julia."

She unbuckled the restrained and he moved his hand to his head. "I feel like my body was rendered apart and then put back together. Were we successful."

She handed him a mirror and he lifted it to see his reflection. He smiled. "I am human again?"

She nodded, "And will be human without having to take shots." He smiled weakly. "Elliott comes help me." Elliott moved to his wife's side and assisted in helping Barnabas to stand.

He leaned against the exam table as he regained his balance. "Steady there dear boy."

Barnabas leaned into Elliott as he and Julia helped him upstairs. "Once Willie gets done with Jeff, we need to get Barnabas in bed. Elliott I really think we need to spend the night. I don't want to leave Barnabas or Jeff alone until we know they are little stronger and have no complications from this process."

Elliott smiled, "My dear I had anticipated your request and packed some things for us and they are in our room." She leaned in and kissed him lightly on his lips.

Vicki lay in her medically induced coma; the procedure was a lot more difficult than Timothy had anticipated. He had to integrate so many details back into her system and he had been at one point afraid he was going to loose mother and child.

That just would not do, he could not loose someone he had grown fond of and had as a friend. Finally, he accomplished what he hoped would be the ultimate transfer of fetus to womb. He studied the monitors watching the fetus and the mother. His concern was enough that he was not about to leave them for the night.

In her apartment Josette did not feel right, her body felt light and she had a floating sensation, staggering to her sofa, she collapsed on it and closed her eyes. She reviewed her life to this point and could not help but feel she was about to come to an anticlimactic end.

She knew her fetus was in trouble in her mother's womb. She was dying and she could feel her body becoming less and less. Closing her eyes she thought how ironic it was she had fought so many demons and had fought hell and survived and now she was not going to survive her birth. Closing her eyes she allowed herself to sleep wondering if she was going to wake.

Jeanette watched the monitor of her mother and sister from her apartment, which was one floor up from her sister Josette's apartment. She frowned, there was something wrong, and she could feel her sister's life was slipping away.

She sat on her couch chewing her thumbnail. From behind she heard her voice, "Jeanette. Turn around darling." Shifting she looked at the spectral image of her mother floating behind her. "You must tell Timothy to awaken me, or your sister and I will die. I need to weave a spell for us both and by keeping me in a coma I cannot save us."

Jeanette rushed from her apartment to the flux lab, quickly she dawned a sterile gown, moving with determination into the lab to her mother's side. "Timothy, bring her out of the coma."

She glanced over to see a startled expression on his face, "How did you get in here? I have the door locked."

Jeanette looked down at her mother, "She appeared to me and she is dying, and so is Josette, she says she can cast a spell to save them but as long as she is in a coma she can't cast the spell. You have to bring her out of the coma!"

Timothy looked at the monitors then to the face filled with concern. He had thought she was the woman he had fallen in love as teens together. Then he had later discovered it was nothing more than infatuation. He could not get the look of determination from his gaze and it left him with no doubt he needed to act on her request.

Moving to the cabinet, he withdrew the syringe and bottle of medicine and moved to her intravenous tubing. Drawing out the solution he injected it into her vein. Standing back he looked at his monitors.

Jeanette watched her mother's face for movement, her eyelashes fluttered and she reached for the tracheal tube. Timothy moved to take the tube from her throat. Vicki looked around the sterile lab, turning to look at her daughter; she lifted her hand and stroked her cheek, "My lovely daughter."

She closed her eyes for a moment then with words uttered so softly she began, "I call upon the balance of time, to bring forth the all encompassing light, the light that protects, the light that heals all wounds and seals the abbreviations of time, bring forth the guardians light of life and shower it down on us."

From thin air, a light began to emanate around the lab. It pulsated and began to grow brighter and brighter with each pulse until it became a blinding golden light pouring forth and from the light a man stepped, he looked around at those in the lab said nothing and went to Vicki's side, lifting her in his arms, the light glowed brighter and then was gone along with Vicki.

The klaxon began to alert that there had been a breach in the facility and boots hitting the floor were heard outside the door. "RELEASE THE LOCK STOKES!" Jeanette the first to recover from what had just happened moved to the door and released the lock. The security team swarmed the room.

The team leader looked around, "Where did the incursion occur?" Jeanette nodded to the exam table. Three men stepped forward wearing black biohazard suits and using hand held instruments that scanned the area for anomalies. "The EMF is off the charts here." The men converged on the area and began to sweep it with nuclear reading devices and were calling of their readings sweeping the area.

After the security team had secured the room two men moved into the room looking from Jeanette and Timothy. "Debrief, now."

The taller of the men said and turned to leave. Jeanette shook

her head. "You stay, it was my idea I am going to take the heat."

She stepped into the hallway and followed the two men down the hall. Stepping onto the elevator she folded her arms behind her back and spoke to the back of each man's head. "Tim's not coming its my mistake so I am going to take the heat."

They did not return comment standing silent waiting for the elevator to stop. Jeanette stepped off after they exited and followed them to the end of the hall to the scenario room. She frowned, "Since when do we debrief in the scenario room?"

The two men turned and looked at her, "We are not debriefing, you are going to chase and recruit. We have never had readings like the ones we just got from that room. So whatever was in there is of interest to the brass."

Jeanette frowned, "You expect me to chase something that powerful by myself?"

The men looked at her then their gaze was directed to the arrival of another person behind her. Jeanette turned and rolled her eyes, Radu stood looking innocent. "You gentlemen requested my presence?"

Again, the taller of the two men who were dressed very much like the men in black looked to Jeanette, "He is your partner, go and find this new power and bring it back as a recruit."

Jeanette turned and looked at Radu and noticed he had changed into a three-piece suit of dark grey with a navy blue tie and light blue shirt. "Come on mutt, we have an assignment and my mother's life depends on our success."

Jeanette moved to the locker room, with Radu following beside her his attention was immediately directed to what she had just said, "What about your mother?"

Jeanette moved into the locker room and to the rack of suits. "She was just taken from the flux lab, her life and Josette's life were fluctuating and there was danger that she might die and Josette might die. She appeared to me in my apartment, she said she needed to be brought out of her coma so she could cast a spell to save them. We brought her out and she cast her spell."

She moved to the dress out room and began stripping off her day uniform. Radu had not moved. "Wait what spell did she cast?"

Jeanette stepped into her suit and zipped up the front. Moving out of the dress out room so he could use it, she went to slide on her sensor slippers. "Something about a guardians' light."

Radu paused in mid strip of his tie, "Did you say Guardian's light?" She nodded.

He smiled, "She has been taken by Michael her arch harbinger the bringer of her power. I can assure you we will not be able to recruit him. He is above all others and had more power than the darkest of the denizens that inhabit those nine hells we just visited. The spell she cast could cost her life if Michael chooses not to grant her wish, it could also cost her five years of her natural life."

Jeanette frowned, "How do we find Michael?"

Radu shrugged, "I have no power to summon a greater deity and I am not so sure he would be inclined to answer my request considering I was the Captain of Tepes' guard for three hundred years."

Jeanette stood and seated her foot in her sensor boot. "So where do I begin?"

She moved to get her mesh sensor mask. Tying up her hair and tucking it under the mask, she looked at Radu; "I would begin where your mother first learned of her powers as a white witch. That would be at the old house in he year 1967."

Jeanette nodded, "Thank you Radu, will you do me a favor since you can't come with me this time."

He bowed at the waist and began to put his tie back on. "Stay with Josette, she is dying. I am trying my best to keep that from happening. I don't want her alone if I am not successful."

Radu looked touched by her sisterly devotion. "Even if it is with a mutt?"

He smiled and she smiled in return, "Consider it an endearment for now."

Putting her sensor bracer on her arm, she looked at him sighed, typed in the coordinates, looked up and said fading from view, "Wish me luck."

Radu watched her disappear and shook his head; "You will need more than luck to get Michael's attention." Jeanette felt the fabric of time fold in on her only this time it was different there was no static or the disorientation of the time fold. When she ended her transport she stood in a room of solid white nothingness.

A stark figure in her grey-black suit she turned looking for any sign of where or who had brought her here. Pulling her mesh mask from her face she walked a few steps forward and was halted by a voice. "Jeanette Collins, why have you come here?"

Jeanette spun around and saw the golden man from earlier, his blond hair tucked under a golden helm, his red cape draped over the frame of a man with wide shoulders and a broad chest. Eyes of the most beautiful crystal blue reminding her of the lakes up north, and strong chin which secured his helmet of golden wings.

He stood in a pure white robe that only made the light he emanated appear more intense. "How do you know my name?"

He smiled and the expression was one of indulgence, "Because I was there at your birth and watched you grow into the lovely young woman you are today. Where Josette is the guardian, you are her champion, now why are you here?"

Jeanette cocked her hip and folded her arms over her chest. "I am here to find my mother and you."

"Honesty it is as your mother said. She loves you very much; she loves all her children enough she is willing to give up her life to save your sister. I cannot allow that."

Jeanette frowned, "And who are you to say what rights my mother has or has not?"

He laughed, "Again stubborn and challenging, let me ask you Jeanette Collins, would you trade your life for your mother's life?"

Jeanette did not hesitate, "If that is what it takes to save my mother and my sister then take it."

Michael was touched by such bravery, "That is a foolish thing to offer unless you mean it."

Jeanette's face burnt with her irritation. "I mean it, and I say if it means to save my mother and my sister then take my life in exchange."

Michael thought a moment then pointed a finger at Jeanette and commanded her to die. In that instant, Jeanette found herself falling and going into unconsciousness. She was aware only of drifting and moving in and out of various times of her life, from the time she fell and cut her knee and her father made her owie better, to birthday parties and moments of happiness shared with her family and sister.

She found her body weightless and floating through the times of her life. Then she was there having to make a decision, and she had time to reflect and was glad she had been able to give her mother and sister life for her life and she smiled.

It was a benevolent happy smile because she had died and her mother and sister would now live. They would be able to have the life they so richly deserved and she felt only joy and peace for them. Then she was aware of her body and she breathed.

Sitting up she looked around and found she was back in the dress out room and Radu was just finishing dressing. He cocked his head and looked at her, standing before him, "That was quick."

Jeanette shook her head and looked around, "How did I get here?"

Radu chuckled, "The same way you left, you came through the time fold." Radu watched her stagger to the bench and collapsed. "I just died Radu, I was in this sterile white room and Michael was there and he asked me if I would give up my life for my sister and I said yes and he said die and I did. I was dead."

Radu frowned and moved to sit next to her. She turned and looked into his eyes. "I was dead and it was so peaceful and I was happy for my family."

He put his arms around her and kissed the top of her mesh-covered head. "You have just experienced the guardian's light and benevolence, your mother will live and so will Josette."

For the first time, he felt her body trembled and she cried. She cried that her mother would be safe; she cried her sister was going to live and she cried because she was not dead and in that peaceful place that seemed like home.

He held her close and let her cry as he looked over and saw just the barest outline of Michael who smiled at Radu and nodded his head and then disappeared. "You have been blessed Jeanette." He sighed, he knew she had transcended and her life would never be the same again.