It was the middle of the afternoon, with all the kids off at school and Stephen at UDub, Nicole was catching up on her reading when the doorbell rang. She went to the door and opened it to see Brian Taylor standing on her doorstep.

"Good afternoon, Mrs. Trager," he said.

"I thought you'd left town," she said.

"I had," Brian admitted. "Grace Kingsley has asked me to come back. She has a job she wants me to do." Nicole stood, looking at him with a firm, unwelcoming expression. He opened his hands, gave a thin smile and said quietly, "Nicole, I'm not here to cause trouble or disrupt your family, I just thought it would be a good idea for the two of us to have a quiet talk in the afternoon."

Nicole took a deep breath, "You may as well come in." She led him into the living room and indicated a seat across from the coffee table where she had been reading, "Have a seat. Can I get you something to drink? I'm having tea."

"Tea would be fine," Brian said, "with a little cream, please."

When Nicole came back with his tea, he was leaning over reading the article she had left open on the coffee table. He read the title aloud, "'Developmental patterns in the highly gifted'," he looked up at her. "Does it help?"

She set his tea down in front of him and smiled, "Not very much, I'm afraid. There doesn't seem to be anything in there about the child moving things with his or her mind."

"There isn't any book that covers raising pod grown geniuses," Brian said. "We're in uncharted territory." He took a deep breath and let it out, "I really didn't do a very good job of relating to Jessi. Grace told me that she was doing well here. How is she doing?"

Nicole sat down and took a sip of her tea, "She's settling in, becoming a part of the family. She and Kyle have a strong affinity, of course, but she's developing a bond with my daughter, Lori, that I find very encouraging." She took another sip of tea and continued thoughtfully, "When we first got Kyle, he was deeply concerned with finding where he fit in the world. Jessi's situation was similar but much more extreme. She had to deal with the false memories that Madacorp implanted. Then there were her experiences with you followed by Sarah's appearance and subsequent disappearance. I really wouldn't recommend disrupting her again. She's just starting to have some stability in her life." She looked up at Brian with a concerned expression.

"I'm not here to try to drag her away, Nicole," Brian assured her. "She is my daughter and I want the best for her. If she needed a home I would offer her one, of course. But she seems to have a nice one here." He spread his arms to indicate the house. "Kyle certainly was determined to get back here and live with your family. It's clearly a nurturing environment." He paused for a moment and then continued, "I agree with you that she doesn't need disruption. And you seem to have a more effective influence on her than I had. Maybe it's your psychological training."

"I've worked with quite a few teenagers with varying types of problems. To a degree, she shares common characteristics with normal teenagers who have had a disruptive family background. On that basis, normal counseling approaches work. Of course I've never had to deal with someone who's had false memories electronically implanted so I'm on my own there. Both Kyle and Jessi seem to have a very strong longing for a sense of family. I think that's consistent with experiments with chimps that were raised in isolation, they crave human contact. And then there is the off the chart intelligence and unusual mental skills. The literature," she pointed to the journal, "can give hints. Many highly intelligent people have problems in social environments." Nicole paused for a moment and then added, thoughtfully, "One of the things that can be difficult in dealing with them is that their high intelligence and rationality masks the fact that their emotional maturity and social skills are lagging behind their physical age. You have to deal with a super genius, a normal teenager and an eight year old all in one package."

"You seem to have a good handle on them," Brian chuckled. "I suppose it helps to have professional training and the only two pod grown children in the world living in your house." He smiled at her and said, "You're the world's expert."

"Maybe I should write a paper," Nicole said with a laugh. Seeing Brian's expression she quickly added, "Don't worry, I have no desire whatsoever to call attention to them. So, why have you come back? What does Grace Kingsley want you to do?"

Brian said, "She wants me to take over the running of the University of Washington Latnok student group. She was only there temporarily and she wants to get back to her other duties. Since Kyle and Jessi work there it really needs to be someone who knows the truth about them and that's a very closely kept secret. I'm one of the few who know it, and I was available. I also know both of them quite well, personally." He shrugged, "Although I think I have some fences to mend with Jessi – and with Kyle for that matter."

"I knew Grace was only there temporarily," Nicole nodded. "It will, of course, concern Jessi to have you reappear on the scene."

"That's one of the reasons I'm here this afternoon," Brian said. "I think it might be best if you prepared them for my reappearance and if we present a common front. I do want to build a relationship with my daughter, Nicole. It doesn't have to be a custodial one. I would be grateful for your advice and assistance with that."

"The more she can connect with the world, the more secure she will feel," Nicole advised. "You could help with that. If you want to build a relationship with her, I would suggest that you be supportive but avoid pressuring her. When she lived with you, you discouraged her contact with Kyle and put a great deal of pressure on her to perform. This left her feeling trapped with no relief mechanism. Her connection to Kyle is the cornerstone of her connection to the world. I'm working to expand on that."

"I'm afraid that was more about my needs than hers," Brian admitted. "At first she was eager to expand her abilities, she's amazingly like her mother in that, but I didn't realize that I was pushing her too far. The people at Latnok thought that her existence was a mistake. I desperately wanted to prove them wrong. I guess she and Kyle did a better job of that on their own than I imagined. They're on the Latnok board now."

"That was certainly a surprise to me," Nicole agreed. "They say they want to encourage Latnok to follow Adam and Sarah's dream. I have to tell you that my experiences with Latnok have been less than comforting. It still bothers me to have them involved."

"I was Adam's best friend, and a good friend to Sarah as well, I would certainly like to see them succeed," Brian said. "But I also know that there are snakes in the garden and they need to tread carefully. I hope to help them with that." He finished his tea and set the cup down. He looked up and said, "I'm glad I came to talk to you, Nicole. It reassures me to know that you are looking out for Jessi. I would very much like for us to have a good relationship. I could certainly use your advice in interacting with both Jessi and Kyle. We both want the best for them." He stood up and Nicole stood up to see him out. "Will you tell them that I will be showing up at Latnok?" He asked. "I don't want to surprise them."

"I will," Nicole promised. "I think that that is a good idea."

They walked to the door. As he was standing on the porch he turned back, "I really enjoyed this, Nicole. Jessi and Kyle are very important to me and there really has been no one I could talk to about them." He looked up and down the street, "One more thing. I still need to talk to Tom Foss and I don't know how to reach him. If I know Foss, though, he knows I'm here. My plan is to go sit in my car and read a book. I expect that Foss will show up shortly. I don't want you to be concerned to see me sitting out there. I won't be spying on you. I'll just be waiting to see if he shows up."

"Thanks for the warning," Nicole laughed. "Do you really think that will work?"

"We'll see." Brian shrugged and turned to walk to his car. Nicole closed the door behind him.

After getting in his car, Brian picked up his book, found his current spot and started reading. He still hadn't finished the chapter when the passenger door opened and Tom Foss climbed in, closing the door after him. "Hello, Tom," he said.

"I thought I made it clear that you shouldn't come back."

"The situation has changed," Brian said. "I needed to come back for Jessi's sake."

"Jessi is happy living with the Tragers," Foss was firm.

"I know. I just had a pleasant conversation with Nicole Trager. I assured her that I wasn't going to interfere with Jessi's living arrangements," Brian told him. "I've been called in by Grace Kingsley. She wants me to run the University of Washington student Latnok office. As incentive, she warned me that Jessi was in danger."

"What kind of danger?" Foss asked.

"She said that Jessi and Kyle were digging into Latnok's finances and were likely to uncover things that some people didn't want exposed. She said that some of them were thinking of making Jessi 'disappear' to make them stop."

"Do you trust Grace Kingsley?" Foss asked with a hint of incredulity.

"Of course not," Brian said. "She's a snake and she's looking out for herself. Obviously, if I get them to stop looking then her interests will be protected. That doesn't mean the threat isn't real, though. What would happen if Jessi simply disappeared one day without a trace?"

"Kyle would drop everything and put all his energies into looking for her," Foss agreed.

"Exactly," Brian nodded. "So we have to treat it as a credible threat. She wants me to get them to focus on the more admirable parts of Latnok and leave the dirt undisturbed. I'm not sure that isn't a good idea."

"I think you will have a hard time getting Kyle and Jessi to go along with that," Foss said. "They're pretty determined."

"That may be, but I had to come to see what I could do to help."

"You weren't much help when I was tied to a chair in Madacorp," Foss bitterly accused him.

"I was more help than you give me credit for, Tom. You were pretty broken down. I had to get you angry to make you pull yourself back together. I was doing everything I could to get Jessi and Kyle out of there."

"You were helping them get the Zzyzx information out of Kyle," Foss accused him.

"I didn't care about the Zzyzx information," Brian said. "I just wanted to get them out of there with their brains intact. In the end, I called in the cavalry and they got rid of Ballantine."

"I still don't trust you," Foss informed him.

"I'm not asking you to trust me," Brian opened his hands. "I just want you to keep an eye on my daughter."

"I'm already doing that," Foss said. After a moment he added, "But I will take your warning into consideration."

"I'll pass on anything else I find out," Brian promised. "But Grace Kingsley runs the whole Latnok student outreach program so I will be reporting to her. She'll be controlling the information I get and I think she's already given me everything she plans to."

Foss looked at Brian with an evaluating expression then handed him a card, "Here is a number that you can reach me at if there is anything else you think I should know. Parking in front of the Trager house is not the best way to get in touch with me."

"It was the best way I could think of," Brian admitted. He took a breath, "Tom, I know things have gone wrong between us, but we worked together on Adam's behalf for years. I hope we can rebuild a working relationship." He held out his hand.

Foss looked at the hand and made no effort to reach for it. "We'll see," he opened the card door and got out, closing it behind him. He walked toward the rear of the car and away.

Brian Taylor took a deep breath and exhaled, relaxing the tension in his body. He looked at the Trager house and saw Nicole watching him out of the window. He waved at her and she raised her hand in response. He started the engine and drove away.