12. Cats Out Of The Bag Now

Sunlight from the window woke him from his slumber. Virgil had not even realized that he had fallen asleep after he tended to Alan's care. Speaking of that kid, he should be needing to change his bandages right about now so he had to open up his eyes despite the fact that he really-really wasn't a morning bird and in actuality just wanted to lay back down on the bed and sleep until noon. However when he turned his gaze towards the bed where the kid was supposed to be lying he found the bed empty and nicely folded. He placed a hand on the bed to see whether it was warm or cold. The bed was cold so there was no indication that the bed had been slept in recently, which he found overly suspicious and decided to check around the room to find him. Shockingly, Alan wasn't in the bathroom or hiding anywhere else in the room, he had searched the room from top to bottom and found nothing. Could the kid have decided to leave without telling him?

Something inside of him was causing him pain. What could it be? Was he hurt because the kid had ventured off alone with his injury or was it because he had practically abandoned him alone without a goodbye?

Nothing made any sense to him. Alan was his kidnapper, who had taken him away from his family against his will just to get a way to escape. Their relationship didn't go beyond that. They weren't friends or even acquaintances. So he shouldn't sad or hurt over Alan's sudden and unannounced disappearance, but no matter how much he tried to deny it his feelings didn't change or simplify the matter. As weird as it might seem he liked the kid, he reminded him of a younger sibling like Gordon, both charming and annoying, and would stir up protective behavior that would drive most people mad. Despite those feelings towards the young teen he couldn't put faith in someone who would simply disappear without saying goodbye, which brought back unpleasant memories on his mother and baby brother that left this world in the same manner and before their time.

Virgil shook his head, not wanting to think about such downy memories, and instead decided to find a phone or something and call his family to pick him up. There was no use for him to stay here in this motel room by himself when he could actually return back to his family's side where he belonged. However just as the thought struck his mind someone knocked hard on the door, which he was surprised over that anyone had bothered to knock the door at all since no one at the hotel had paid any attention to what he or Alan had been doing. And he didn't think any of Alan's 'old friends' would bother to follow after him due to the fact that Alan had been clear that they wanted to make the whole situation a game and he was the main player. So why bother messing up the game when things were starting to get interesting? Those were Alan's words, not his.

Nonetheless he walked up to the door and carefully opened it to see who was on the other side of the door, however the moment he had twisted the door handle and pulled it towards him someone forced them inside in a hard and desperate manner, which practically scared the hell out of him. And could blame him when men dressed in bullet-proof wests entered the room forcefully, even if they had the words FBI written on anyone would seriously be taken by surprised maybe even scared the hell out for such an entrance. However his surprise and fright quickly disappeared and was replaced with confusion and relief, especially when he saw the faces Agent Farrell and Agent Emerson, who must have volunteered to be a part the 'rescue' mission. Once the rest of the agents on the task force cleared the room, the two lead agents came up to his side and Agent Farrell asked in a serious yet maternal voice, "Are you all right? He didn't hurt you or anything."

By 'he' they must mean Alan, which sounded really ridiculous to think now despite the fact that he had kidnapped him and putt a gun to his head before, but anyways he shook his head to answer her question. Both of the agents looked relieved and also oddly enough not surprised, something he pointed out and asked them about.

"Even though we didn't have any proof that you were unharmed or even alive Alan Shepard informed and reassured us where you were and gave us his word that you were untouched by him," Agent Emerson answered gruffly, obviously finding the whole behavior the kid was showing to be quite unusual compared to most other criminals, and he wasn't the only one thought the same thing either. "At first we thought that he was playing with us, but we managed to track him down and confirmed his location wasn't far away from where he told us you would be, so we jumped on it and came here as fast as we could."

Virgil nodded his head, understanding and obviously surprised to hear that Alan had contacted the FBI on his own accord and finally explained part of the reason why he wasn't here, but that didn't explain the other part of why he really wasn't here.

"Where is Alan anyways? Did he turn himself in?" Virgil asked with both curious and suspicious. And clearly got his answer when neither of the agents answered the question right away and turned to look at each other with the lingering question on their faces that said 'who is going to tell him that the kid didn't turn himself in and we have now no idea where is and most likely wouldn't find him again unless he makes the move or make a mistake.'

After what seemed like a forever moment in awkward and incredibly uncomfortable silence Agent Farrell finally too the jump and said, "He was smart, using a public phone and timed everything while giving himself time for a clean exit before we arrived here. Never mind that for now, it is time to take you back to your family. They all have been very worried about you."

No surprise there they were a close-knit family and all, both on a professional and a personal level, but he didn't argue about it since he did miss them and wanted to get back to his reality and not the craziness without any control.

So shortly afterwards he and the other agents were gathered up and was soon driving back to Massachusetts, but what neither he or the agents knew was that across the street hiding in alley a young teen was watching the scene closely before he vanished from the alley like a ghost with plans that he was more or less ready to execute. It was time for the Ghost to come back and do some haunting for himself.

At some point he must have fallen asleep. Not exactly sure when, but Fermat woke up in a caught off guard manner when he heard someone shoving a desk over and the heavy object landed hard on the floor. Which probably could wake up the dead, especially when harsh yelling between two men followed it.

"How the hell did you managed to lose him?" the Boss explained angrily at Vinnie and some other goon. "You two were supposed to keep an eye on him, not lose him once he and that Tracy boy was left the Temptress and went to the motel for the rest of the night. So tell me how did this exactly happen?"
Fermat didn't catch whatever Vinnie and the other guy tried to respond and defend themselves with against this man, but it was clear as day that it was probably something unintelligent on both their parts because the Boss responded back in a sneer, "For your incompetence I suggest that you find him quickly otherwise this game might actually turn in his favor. Now go before decide to take pull apart one of your limbs as punishment instead."

It was easy to figure out that Vinnie and his friend got the message and quickly left the room in a haste that almost made it seem like the devil was chasing them. Ironic really considering that they seemed to be working for the devil, at least to him anyways.

Fermat tried to pretend that he was still sleeping, better that than having to stay awake and face those cruel and terrifying people, which ultimately gave him the opportunity to think what exactly had just happened back there. Not a lot to go on with the little that he had heard from the conversation, but he knew that Alan had done something that had pissed of the Boss gravely, and most likely that something was managing to disappear from their watchful eye even when he had been right under their nose this whole time. He couldn't imagine how he managed to do so, especially when he had no clue how the depth of Alan's abilities went, which left him with the concerning question what happened with Virgil and what were next to come. Knowing Alan, all safety manners from before were disregarded now when he finally has the space to run things his way, and his way Fermat suspect that it happens to be quite completely and absolutely insane.

Jem was going out of mind with worry and anxiousness. It was so bad that his leg went up and down like he was high on caffeine, which he was in reality, but that was beside the point. Alan had finally called him since everything went down, but instead off trying to explain or thinking about turning himself in to face the consequences for his actions that kid demanded to talk to someone in charge of the investigation. Seriously, this was the first time in months he had talked to the blond-haired kid and the kid didn't want to talk to him at all. That was simply just rude, but then again reprimanding him about it there and then might not solution due to the current situation. He could still recall and continued to remember the conversation and the aftermath of it in his mind.

(Flashback)

"Jem…"

It took a moment to recognize the voice, especially due to the disturbance on the other side of the line, but there was no mistaken who exactly he was talking to on the phone. Stunned, he managed to say, "Alan?"

"Yeah, it's me," Alan answered with simplistic tone, which definitely didn't fit in anywhere in their current predicament at all. He couldn't help but let out an exasperated sigh and asked frustrated, "Where are you? Are you okay? Virgil okay?"

There was a short pause before Alan once again responded in the same manner, "Yes, I'm fine and Virgil are fine. As for where I am part…well I was hoping to talk to one of the agents that were in charge of the investigation about it, though I would like to request that it isn't those two agents that interrogated me before. They were seriously useless and wouldn't listen to what I have to say no matter what kind of information I have. And what information I have will most definitely be a significant to them, both to capture the real bad guys and get to me anyways."

Insulted over that Alan didn't want to tell or talk to him about it instead wanted to talk to the Feds. That was definitely a blow on the self-confidence, which is why he forced him to tell him where he were or else he might do something indescribable to him as punishment once he finally got his hands on him. Alan definitely didn't look pass the threat and quickly gave him a short version of where they were and where they were staying, but as Jem listened something in the back of his mind didn't exactly take the kid's word about his wellbeing. Call it his cop gut that was talking, but somehow knew that Alan wasn't telling him the entire truth about him being okay. However he shrugged that question away for now, thinking that he would confront him about it later, and instead said forcefully, "I'm going to get someone here and then you are going to tell them everything you and afterwards you are going to turn yourself in and let the professionals deal with this."

Alan just gave him 'I couldn't careless' response and Jem quickly put him on hold in order to find Agent Farrell, Agent Emerson or Lady Penelope. Despite everything and his frustration about Alan's way of handling things he would fulfill his request in not asking Agent Monroe and Agent Harrods, especially when he too had a personal dislike towards them and it didn't get any better after they accused Alan's motivation for doing all of this was for the sake of money. What a ridiculous assumption. The kid was a screw up. A completely lovable screw up, who was a former criminal against his will even though he didn't know that before.

He didn't find neither of the agents so he went to Lady Penelope, explained the situation as quick and accurate as he could before he handed over the phone and she began removing herself from his presence and continued the phone call between her and Alan.

So here he was waiting impatiently for Lady Penelope to show up and tell him whatever she and Alan talked about, however when she came to delivered his cell phone she shared no useful information to him instead she went off to do lord knows what and minutes later a whole task force was gathered around before they too took off, probably to retrieve Virgil and hopefully to arrest Alan even though the chances of Alan still being on the scene was unlikely. Unfortunately do to all of the commotion the room was making it had woken up the Tracy members, who most definitely didn't waste time in jumping him on what was going on.

"What the hell is happening?" Scott exclaimed before he grabbed his shirt in a tight manner, like he was trying to intimidate him into confessing. Scott could have easily been a cop, had all the instincts and skills for it even though he could get lost in his own emotions, but reality was that he was not a cop or someone who could intimidate him into submission.

"I don't know, okay?" Jem replied hotly. "They may have Virgil's location and they are on their way now to get him."

He didn't mention Alan, knowing fully well that his adoptive brother was not well-liked around the Tracy members as of now and just getting Virgil back wasn't going to change their opinion at this point either. Instead he pushed Scott away and told him that they just had to wait before he and his family could badger the agents later. Thankfully Scott and his family went and did as he suggested and sat down and waited, impatiently, but still waited in silence.

Hours later the door to the meeting room once again opened and the agents entered, however this time they had another person with them. Virgil entered the room with a happy and relieved smile on his face and began hugging each of his brothers, his dad and Mr. Hackenbacker. However when the young Tracy man's gaze was turned on him and Haley he saw a facial expression he was far too familiar with. The young man had grown to like Alan despite everything that had happened and what he did and now he was conflicted in what he was suppose to feel, think or do about the matter. The moment lasted as fast as it had started and Virgil moved his attention back on his family as they asked about everything that had happened between the moments he was taken away and till the FBI finally got to him. Virgil told everything he knew, though at some point of the explanation he kept some of the personal details that he and Alan talked about to himself giving them the usual reason that it wasn't relevant to the investigation and of course the agents tried to argue and demand him to tell them those parts too, but Virgil was stubborn and continued his explanation and when he finally finished everyone in the room was left with even more questions than what they had from the start, which was not really a good thing at this point.

"How come that every time this kid makes a personal connection with someone, each one of them end up protecting him in some way whether it is the right think or not?" Agent Monroe pointed out, jabbing him, Haley and strangely enough Virgil for not being open and frank about what they knew. Neither of those three said anything and instead had their gaze turned on the ground, ashamed to be written up like they all were accessory to Alan's rogue actions. However before neither of the other agents could have a shot and grill them into admission Agent Farrell's phone started to vibrate and she pulled up her phone to see what it was about before she looked up and said, "They don't need to tell us anything. I just got Alan Shepard's medical file and the most interesting thing was that he suffered a head injury four years ago, which resulted with him receiving amnesia. And from the looks of things the teen still has it, doesn't he?"

Looks like cats out of the bag now, Jem thought to himself as he came to the conclusion that he couldn't stonewall the information any longer, however despite knowing that Alan has amnesia doesn't necessary mean that they would find out about his real criminal past. So he nodded his head and sighed heavily before he gave the people in the room the cliff note version of Alan's hospital stay and how he came into his and Haley's family. At least things couldn't turn worse. However as soon as he thought that things couldn't go worse on that regard was the moment when Lady Penelope's companion, Parker entered with an unknown man and said, "I think you all need to hear this…"

"This is a former colleague of mine from my old profession, " Parker explained as he and his mystery friend sat down on one of the empty chairs around the table where they all were having their conversation. "His name is Henri Royer and I will let him have the word and tell us more about Alan Shepard."

Jeff have never seen, heard or met this Henri Royer, which would have been naturally since he hadn't known Parker at the time when he used to be on the other side of the law. However it was odd how not even Penelope didn't even seem to know about this man and she had met most of Parker's old associates. What was so peculiar about his man that Parker had not even told his mistress about him, whom he had pledged his eternal loyalty to?

The man was around Parker age, greying-hair and dark eyes. His body was pretty slim and firm, and for a man his age he didn't look his age at all. Appearance-wise that is.

The older man bowed his head slightly like he was accepting the attention and began saying with a heavy French accent, "Merci, Aloysius. From what I have gathered you have summoned me here due to the performance of one boy, correct?"

Everyone in the room including him nodded their head and gave him the sign to continue talking, hoping that whatever information he had would be useful because it would seem that Jem Cassidy's assumption about Alan was correct regarding the fact that they wouldn't find him unless he wanted to be found. However where did that leave them with finding Fermat?

"Before I explain my connection with the boy, did he mention anything to you before he broke all contact with you?"

He, his sons, the Cassidy siblings, Brains and even the FBI agents didn't answer, seeing as they hadn't gotten anything from Alan prior to this, but Penelope answered calmly and collected, "Other than the location of where he and Virgil Tracy had been staying he told me that it was worth to check on the criminal organization the Golden Cobra. Everything we needed to know about Fermat's kidnapper was linked to that organization, but when I looked it up there was few reliable sources that really didn't explain the connection between Fermat and the kidnapping."

"The connection is simple, Alan Shepard is the one who ties between those two things," Henri shrugged his shoulders before he retrieved something from his jacket pocket and placed it on the table for everyone to look. It was a photograph; a couple of years old, but it were a neat picture of three kids with two boys and one girl who was staring at the photographer with blank and emotionless expression on their faces. It wasn't a happy picture to see, but what had caught Jeff's attention was the youngest one in the picture. There was something familiar about it that he couldn't' place, something really important, but he didn't know what and he only assumed that the boy in the picture had something to do with Alan Shepard and his mystery past. He was not the only one who jumped to that conclusion when Brains said, "T-the youngest b-boy in the p-picture, is that A-Alan?"

Henri nodded his head, "Oui, he was around nine years old when this was taken. Shortly after I met him and the other in fact."

"How did you meet him in the first place?" Agent Farrell asked before she pointed out. "Are you related or something like that?"

"No," Henri denied hastily, but a warm smile appeared on his face afterwards as his gaze was focused on the young blond kid in the photo. "You could say that he and the two other kids were my apprentices."

His answer were left with an uneasy question regarding what kind of apprentices they were or had been, even though he had a feeling that it had nothing to do with learning how to cook or something basic in the practical sense either.

"What kind of apprentices are we talking about?"

And he was correct about his assumption when Henri shrugged and replied in a simplistic manner like there was nothing wrong about his answer, "They were trained to be professional criminals. And the boy you happen to be chasing after was and probably still is the prodigy between all of my apprentices and absolutely the greatest criminal you have ever faced before. And could probably outsmart everyone in this building using simple tricks."

The room went completely silent for a moment before everyone exclaimed in shock, "WHAT!"

The only ones who were an exception to this reaction were the Cassidy siblings, who looked honestly unfazed about the whole revelation and were perfectly calm about it. The only thing Jeff found peculiar about their reaction was that they didn't necessary looked pleased that this information had come to the light, but if that was the case what the big deal? Could it be that they already knew the truth and didn't tell anyone? If that was the case why would they do it and to what extent did they know about Alan and his former life or it is probably is current life now based on his actions up till now?

Henri continued his explanation, "I don't know much about the background and the details behind the operation, seeing as my contract was limited to training these three to go beyond the normal measures, but I know that Alan and those two other kids were part the elite class of the Golden Cobra. Highly classified, extremely dangerous and unbelievably good and superior to the other criminals that people normally handles. These kids weren't just perfect criminals. They are more than that they are monsters in how far their talents and abilities can go and make no mistake they don't make mistake unless they intend to do so."

"So what is the reason behind everything that is going right now and what does Alan, the organization and Fermat have to do with it exactly?" Lady Penelope asked softly, though hinting that she already had an answer to her question and was just checking to see if her answer was the correct one.

Henri folded his arms and said with deep thought, "I'm not exactly sure what happened, but the last time I heard about Alan was that he had escaped with help from someone from the inside the organization, the boy hated his life and wanted to escape the life of crime and the daily torture he endured from his training and his usual habit to disobey. The boy had a knack to disobey and not listen to what he was told and every time he got severely punished for it. At one point they punished him so hard that they had him pined to the floor by two knife going through his hands, he was lucky that the damage didn't cut or severe any of the nerves and instead left two distinctive scars on his hands. Anyways there are rumors going around about the organization that they wanted the boy back, but they knew that he wouldn't voluntarily come back even if his life depended on it. Which is why they used the one weakness that boy have and used it against him in the most terrible way."

"What kind of way is that?"

"Despite everything that boy have a moral compass and loyal to a fault, which in this case it shows clearly since the organization wouldn't get him back the usual way they took Fermat as a price for him to return to his old life again. And I'm more than guessing here when I say that their method is working since he is probably on his way to them now in order to rescue his friend, though have to say I'm worried what is to happen after he managed to save him.

Hearing that information was both shocking and more importantly concerning. It was hard to believe that the sixteen-year-old teenager he had met before was a professionally trained criminal, even he haven't heard about such a thing unless the boy had come from a crime family and was taught the family business, however it really didn't seem to be the case based on how Henri Royer described. Even more shocking and concerning was it that this boy had endured such a harsh and terrible life that he somehow turned out okay despite everything, even though that probably was sue to suffering from amnesia for four years or so. Nonetheless this information brought an entirely different issue to the situation, and not in the good way either. If Alan was indeed trying to get to the Golden Cobra in order to rescue Fermat then Jeff could only imagine what kind of catastrophe could happen should Alan get there and do what he had in mind, which only the lord knows what exactly. The teen might not look like it, but based on his actions from his past and up till this point he had a destructive force like a hurricane taking down anything that was coming his way.

The music was blaring loudly in the room next door, which would give anyone a major headache if they listened to it for too long. Alan was no exception either, but thankfully he was in the sanctuary of the men's room in one of the more quiet nightclubs. As to the reason why he was hiding in the men's bathroom at a nightclub, he needed somewhere there was no cameras or people who would specifically take much notice of him, even though it was kind of hard feat to do seeing as he was a guy with long blond hair that girls were jealous of on a regular basis, but nevertheless when he went inside the bathroom and made sure no one but him was there he locked the door behind him and began placing the backpack he was carrying on the sink table. Then he began getting things out of the backpack, everything from clean clothes to scissors. Things were clear that he couldn't walk around with both the FBI and the organization looking for him, so he needed to change his appearance. So after he stripped out of his dirty clothes then he began cutting his hair with the scissors he had brought along. The long locks began gathering in the sink and while the hair cut wasn't exact or perfect in anyway, to be honest it looked horrible and he thought that he looked similar to a hedgehog with a terrible hair day. Afterwards his hair was cut short he began following the instructions and applied temporary brown hair dye into his hair, which would have taken even longer if he had applied the dye when his hair was still long and honestly he didn't have that kind of time to apply and wait for it to dry, but after an hour or so his appearance was completely changed and he was almost surprised how much he looked like Scott and Virgil now appearance-wise that is.

Alan stopped in his movements when the thought of his biological brothers had unintentionally entered his mind again. After that first flash back at the motel he had received more similar flashes about his biological family, not much considering the memories stopped around he was three and too young to remember anything distinctive. However as much as the happiness to know that he wasn't some orphan kid it didn't stop him from feeling conflicted about it. Jem and Haley had been his family for four years, while Renée and Blaze had been his family prior to his escape from the organization, which made the whole family issue just a bigger mess than what he was willing to deal with right now since he still didn't know what to think or feel about the fact that the Tracy family was in reality his real family. A family he didn't belong in anymore.

Anyways he shook his head, pushing those disturbing thoughts away, and stared at his appearance on last time in the mirror and muttered quietly to himself, "Fermat, just wait a little bit longer. I will find you and get you away from those people. I can only hope that I'm not too late."

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Thanks again for the response I have been receiving, hope you guys like this chapter.

So since school has already started I can't promise when or how often I will be updating on this story, but I will continue it and write on it during the few moments I have time to spare and write.

And as for those of you who reads my other TB story, Whispers In The Dark, I will be trying to weekly update the story on Mondays, but again I can't promise I will always be on time since I will be busy.

Sorry by the way that this chapter was sort of written fast, but I needed to get on with the story. People are probably wondering when the Tracy family learns about Alan's identity and the personal connection between them, and I can honestly say I'm not sure but most likely in one of the next chapters, not say which chapter since I have no clue. However it will happen at some point. So please, please, please continue reading and express what you think of my work because otherwise I might be dejected and more reluctant to continue and finish this story, which I really do want to finish.

With that said, please please please continue giving me reviews, favorite and/or followings, and the next chapter will be out as soon as its done.

xXrebelgirl07Xx