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I am so so so very sorry, I know I say it every time, and I know I'm late with the update, again. School, homework, after school stuff, family, and life has just been so very crazy and hectic that unfortunately updates are going to be longer then they are. It's looking to be about 1 to 2 updates a month. I'm sorry, I'll try and make them sooner then that.
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There is a means to every end. A root to any cause. Sometimes the root is more evil than the cause, though it's the cause that is usually more vilified. [Michael Connelly in The Poet]
Chapter 14: Worthy Changes
It was so darn quiet that I swear I could hear the clock tick by the seconds and minutes. This was probably my imagination for the one very good reason. It was digital. Clint had told me not to be late, and so to prevent myself from being late, I came early. Only five minutes early, but still. Those five minutes seemed to last forever. I was off in a daze when the door opened. A man it what looked like his late 20's, he had short brown hair and blue eyes. He looked tall, but then again to me - at barely 5 foot 5, everyone looks tall.
"You must be Alison Dalton, I'm so sorry to have kept you waiting. I'm Doctor Reese, but please call me Scout, but then again you can call me anything you feel comfortable with." He said with a friendly smile.
"Scout?" I asked a little puzzled, it was an interesting name to say the least.
"My parents are huge To Kill A Mockingbird fans." He said shrugging.
"Oh." I said vaguely remembering the book that I had to read one summer for high school.
"So how do you want to do this?" I asked suddenly not knowing how to sit in a chair.
"Well that all depends on you, I have received your past records of course, though I haven't been able to go through them yet. Since your going to be a regular patient, today is more of a day to figure out schedules and times." He kept a serious face and I nodded.
"How is twice a week, Mondays and Fridays?" Dr. Reese asked taking out a planner and a pen.
"Once a week and on Wednesday." I said straight forward, Dr. Reese chuckled.
"This is not debatable, twice-"
"I call compromise!" I said quickly and Dr. Reese motioning me on, "How about we start at once a week on Wednesdays and if you believe after awhile I will benefit from twice a week then will go twice a week Mondays and Fridays." He thought about this for awhile and then shook his head.
"Nope, twice a week first and then once and week after a while." He said, I nodded and a winning smile overtook my face.
"Perfect." I said and he looked up from his planner.
"Times, how about 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.?" He asked, I nodded and he wrote it down quickly then shut the planner.
"Is that all?" I asked and he nodded.
"Yeah, your free to go." He said with a smile. I quickly waved and then left. I slowly made my way back to the apartment. When I opened the door I had received about as many surprises as I could take for the week. I didn't know we had games, but apparently we did. Hayden, Eve and Clint were sitting on the ground and playing a board game. I shut the door but no one looked up.
"Hurry up and choose already Hayden."
"Its an important choice don't rush me."
"Eve could you start sorting the cards?"
"Sure," I walked over towards them. They were playing what looked like Clue.
"What are you guys doing?" I asked breaking my silence. They all looked at me.
"We're playing Clue, do you want to join, we haven't even sorted the cards yet so its not to late for you to join." Hayden said, she had two figurings in her hand.
"Hayden, what are those?" I asked pointing to her hand.
"Oh its Miss Scarlet and Mrs Peacock, I can't decide which one I want to be." She said putting then put them back down.
"How about this, I'll grab popcorn and you'll be Scarlet." I said going back into the kitchen and popped some popcorn. I felt arms incircle around and had the slight impulse to ly whoever it was on their back.
"How was the meeting with the shrink?" Clint said, I leaned my head back until it was resting on his chest.
"Fine, though all we did was figure out schedules and stuff." I said putting the popcorn in a bowl.
"You okay Alison?" Clint said turning me around to face him.
"Yeah it's just I'm a little anxious about seeing a therapist again I guess," I said shrugging, "Now come on before Hayden changes her mind." We went back over to the living room area and after Hayden changed her mind a couple more times we finally started playing.
"Clint, I'm just warning you, but if you drag my player to another room again, so help me God Alison's going to have to get a new boyfriend." Hayden threatened, from what I knew of Hayden, it wasn't a completely empty threat. I once saw another agent in training take Hayden juice box and less than a hour later that agent was in the medical wing with a juice box straw sticking out of their shoulder, let's just say no one steals Hayden's juice box or piss her off and gets away with it.
"I'm sorry it just can't be helped sometimes.'' Clint said as he then tried to dodge an empty bowl of popcorn that was thrown his way.
"Sometimes! Sometimes! For the last five of your turns you have dragged my piece around with you! First the billiards room, then to the conservatory, then you took the secret passage way all the way to the fricken' lounge, then the dinning room - back to the lounge - then lastly the hall. Now your in the study - and if you even think about it! So help me God!" Hayden yelled giving Clint a death glare. I kept my amusement down, but Eve was in a full blown giggle fit. Clint kept her stare as he contemplated his choices. His hand leveled over the Miss Scarlet piece and I eyed him.
"Clint as much as you don't want to piss Hayden off anymore then you already have, I assure you I am just as deadly and even more. Oh and may I add there are two pieces that no one is using." I said motioning to to the Professor Plum and Colonel Mustard. Clint just shrugged and grabbed the Mrs. Peacock piece from the ballroom and sat it down.
"Hey! I was going to go to the library right after you were done! It's taken me so long just to get to the ballroom!" Eve yelled and punched Clint in the arm.
"Congratulations Clint, you have successfully angered the three women who are in the room with you!" Hayden declared throwing her hands up in the air.
"Alison you have to help me here?" Clint pleaded.
"Um last time I checked you moved my piece around a lot too, so your on your own." I said with a grin. Hayden and Eve gave a couple more little punches before Clint finally caved.
"Okay, alright, I give up." Clint said moving away, "But I call confidential!"
"What?!"
"That's not fair!"
"Girls, circle." Hayden said as we huddled.
"I say we kill." Eve said in a tone that I couldn't tell if it was just joking or serious.
"Alison where did you put the guns?" Hayden asked turning towards me, I was starting to get just a little nervous.
"We could stab him?" Hayden offered.
"To messy." Eve said wrinkling her nose.
"Yeah, I don't even want to try and get blood off of this shirt." Clint called out sarcastically from where he was.
"Strangle?" Hayden said steering the conversation back.
"Sure if your willing to do it." Eve said, they were so wrapped up in their conversation they didn't even notice that I had left the huddle and joined Clint on the couch.
"Poison?" Hayden asked again.
"Trust me, it can take way too long." I said rolling my eyes.
"Yeah, and they could treat him by then." Eve said trying to think.
"Snap his neck?" Hayden said excitingly.
"Like I said before, only if your willing to do it." Eve said and they came back over and sat on the couch.
"I guess you guys are just stuck with him." I said leaning against Clint, "Now are we going to continue the game or call it a night?" I asked looking around.
"What's the point," Eve said getting up, "It was Colonel Mustard in the library with the knife." I grabbed the little file and opened it and sure enough, she was right!
"How on God's green earth did you figure that out?" Hayden asked confused, "I mean I thought it was the knife, but I was absolutely positive it was in the kitchen? No one had it."
"Don't worry your not the only one," I said looking to Hayden, "I asked too, I thought it was the kitchen too." I turned towards Clint and I wasn't the only one.
"I was going to say the kitchen, so don't look at me. You can even look at my cards." Clint said, thats when Eve gave a little cough. We turned.
"What? No one told me we had to show them our card if we had it." She said innocently and shrugging. Hayden slumped back on the couch and Clint let out a little chuckle.
"Oh you have a- you have something you have to do right now." Clint said being very cryptic.
"What? I'm pretty sure I have nothing at all to do for the rest of the day." I said totally confused.
"It's just that Coulson has something he needs you to do."
"Do you know what that is?"
"No," Clint said, sometimes he could be a terrible liar. But he was stubborn and I knew I wasn't going to get a answer.
"Where and when." I said sighing.
"His office and right now." I slowly got up and lazily made my way to the door.
"Well thanks." I said letting out a loud sigh.
*~ƸӜƷ~*
"Well thanks." I said letting out a loud sigh.
"Try not to sound so happy about." Coulson said giving a quiet snort.
"What? Am I suppose to jump up and down and throw a party? This is the man that killed my mother and tried to kill me." I said giving a slight shiver, "How am I suppose to react?"
"I don't know, usually when normal people hear that one of their parents has been stabbed and is in the hospital under critical condition, they're usually pretty worried. But then again, you don't really have a normal family life."
"So this is just a little for your information incase I have to go get a black dress."
"Well, you can see it like that," Coulson said shrugging, "But in my experience women don't really need an excuse to get a new dress." I gave a little chuckle.
"Well thanks," I said getting up and leaving. Walking back I didn't to feel the tears that dripped down my face. I guess it was because I didn't except them. Before S.H.E.I.L.D. if someone had told me that my dad was in critical condition I would have known just what to do. Buy that person a very good bottle of champagne and celebrate for days. But now I was a different person. I had changed. But for the better? Was it worth changing? To become more human. Here I was sympathizing for the man that was one of my main roots of pain. Was it worth losing those inhuman qualities? Qualities that had saved my life on many occasions. What it I didn't change? Could I still keep going - have friends, have a safety that I had desperately needed, have Clint? What was I kidding, I wasn't inhuman before because I didn't have friends, I was inhuman and therefore I couldn't have friends. But could I have both? I was thinking so much that I forgot to keep walking and evidently was stopped right in the middle of the hall. And this is how Dr. Reese found me. In the middle of the hall way completely stopped, silent, and slightly crying. If he didn't think I was crazy before he sure as hell thought I was crazy now.
*~ƸӜƷ~*
(Michael)
"You can start thanking me now." Madelyn said walking into my office with two cups of coffee and set one right in front of me.
"How did you know-" I started grabbing the coffee, but was cut off by Madelyn in the form of a hand signal.
"You don't even know the best part." She said, her whole demeanor simply glowing.
"Would you like me to guess?" I asked after taking a long gulp of coffee.
"Since the geeks mother board just got started again, I went through some old paper records." Madelyn said with a slight smile.
"You did?" I was completely blown away.
"Okay so I got a couple rookies too." I chuckled, only Madelyn could get other people to do her manual work for her.
"How?"
"The birth certificate and all of the paper work for the Daltons was from Florida, so we started there and lucky for you, we found a Alison Comrade, who fits the profile, and then everything else after that just fit right into place. Foster home records, birth certificate, and then there's stuff in there about her parents which you most definitely need to read," Madelyn said placing a folder down in front of me, then slowly start backing up, "I'll just let you read it by yourself." Madelyn then turned and left.
"Thanks Madelyn." I called to her before I hastily started reading the file. When I was done I closed it then grabbed the phone on the desk."
"Hey Mike," Ryan's voice rang out, "What's up?"
"Nothing much, but I was wondering if you could help me set up a interview with a Timothy Comrade at Miami-Dade Corrections."
"Ya sure, why? If you don't mind me asking?" There was a long pause, "Your not going to answer are you?"
"Thanks buddy." I said ending the conversation and call. It seemed seemed the closer I got to figuring out more about Alison the more I wish I could just leave this alone, but I couldn't. No matter how much it might hurt me in the end.
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