His dad went and sat in a chair on the opposite side of Matty's hospital bed from his mother. "What story were you telling your mother?"

Matty answered "I was telling her about the warehouse, and I was going to tell her about going to England with you. She thought it might help me keep my voice if I talk about it while I can speak. We are up to the part where you rescued me. You can help me because I could not read lips back then. So I have no clue what anyone said to me after I lost my hearing."

His dad smiled, "Sure. I would love to help you tell your mom the story. It will be interesting to hear what you remember."

Matty smiled at him, and he continued his story, "Dad and I drove for a long time. The gas light came on in the car. Dad pulled into a gas station. Luckily there was a jacket and gloves in the car from whoever we stole the car from. So, dad could hide his bloody shirt and bloody hands when he went into the gas station.

Dad filled up the tank and went inside to pay and got the bathroom key. He also bought us some Poconos sweatshirts and hats.
He took me into the bathroom. We both cleaned up a little bit. Then I think that is when he figured out, I couldn't hear anything. Because he was snapping his fingers by my ears. He was talking to me, but I had no idea what he was saying."

His dad spoke, "Yes. That is exactly what I was doing, kid. You had not said a word since before the explosion. I was not sure if you were just really traumatized by what happened or if you got hurt. I also noticed that your right ear was bleeding a little and there was a piece of shrapnel in it. That is when I decided to take you to a Barnstorm friend of mine, Doctor Tom Jarvis. He was not a human doctor. He was a veterinarian, but I figured he could help, and I knew he could keep his mouth shut that he had seen us. We were about an hour away from Milford, PA where he lived. Matty, you can continue the story until we get to Tom's place."

Matty continued the story, "So we changed our shirts. Dad threw away his bloody shirt and my dirty white t-shirt. It was just a white t-shirt, but it was really dirty from the explosion. We got back in the car and dad had bought me a couple of Chewy Chubby bars. He also got me a can of Coke. I never got to have candy at the warehouse. It tasted absolutely amazing. Dad got himself a coffee. I remember smiling at him while I ate the candy bar. Dad smiled back at me sadly. He looked so sad. I felt guilty about feeling happy eating the candy bar."

His dad interrupted him, "Never feel bad about feeling happy, kid. You were the only thing keeping me going at that point. If I had not have had you. I don't know what I would have done.

I will take this part of the story. We got to Tom's house about an hour later. I don't think you ever met Tom, Amanda. He is a very nice man. He is a middle aged good looking blonde man. He was my old partner Eric's younger brother.

It was the middle of the night. We had been driving for almost six hours at that point. I rang his bell and knocked like crazy. Hoping to wake him up. I saw the lights turn on and he came to the door and opened it. He was in his bathrobe and pajamas.
I had Matty in my arms.

"Lee, what are you doing here? I haven't seen you in years. Are you alright? It's 1:30 in the morning."

"I'm sorry, Tom. I'm in trouble. I need your help. I can't take him to a regular hospital or doctor. We need to disappear. So, you never saw us. This is my son Alex. There is something in his ear. I don't think he can hear anything right now."

Tom led us to his veterinary office. Then he looked in Matty's ears. He got out some forceps and took the shrapnel out of Matty's right ear. Then he cleaned Matty's ear. He also examined Matty to make sure he was not hurt anywhere else. That is when I saw all the bruises, burns, and marks on his back for this first time. It looked so much worse back then when some of them were fresh. I would have killed that bastard Gregor, a second time if I could. And if we catch Addi Birol he is not going back to prison. I am going to put a bullet between that bastard's eyes too.

Sorry, let me get back to telling the story.

Tom was visibly shaken by Matty's wounds. "This poor boy. The warehouse explosion in DC. That is where you came from isn't it? He is one of the boys the terrorists were training. Isn't he? It is all over the news."

I answered him,"Yes, they had my son. My wife was killed in the explosion. Everyone thinks I am dead too or at least they will for a little while. The Agency will be after me if they find out I'm still alive. I committed treason to rescue him. I needed to get Alex away from those bastards. They took Alex as revenge against me. The terrorists will still be after him. It's personal to them. Please do not tell anyone you saw us. I don't want my son growing up without parents like I did."

Tom nodded in understanding."I am very sorry about your wife, Lee. I never saw either of you. His right ear the shrapnel destroyed his ear drum. He will never hear out of that ear again. His left ear. The scarred one. He might have some hearing in that ear. You would have to have a specialist look at that. You are both welcome to stay the night."

I did not want to stay. I wanted to keep going. I was afraid if I stayed still too long. I would break down. I needed to keep moving. Tom gave me some antibiotics and pain medicine for Matty. The medications were for dogs but Tom said that it should be safe for humans to take.

I packed Matty up and put him in the car. And we kept going. You want to tell the next part, kid."

Matty nodded yes. "I fell asleep in the car and when I woke up, it was daylight. We were on the highway going through NYC. We were stuck in traffic for a while, but I got to see NYC from the car for the first time. I had read about NYC in some books so it was cool to see it for the first time.

Once we got out of NYC the traffic was not that bad anymore. We kept driving for a few more hours. Dad stopped at a Marvelous Marvin's at a rest stop. I got a Torpedo Burger and a Chocko Blocko shake. Dad just got a coffee. It was so good. I loved it.I know I should not have been but I was having fun. I should have been more upset about your death too, Mom. It just was that I did not remember you. I did not realize you were actually my mother."

His mom interrupted the story, "Oh sweet boy. Don't feel bad. You got away from the bad men and you were only five years old. Believe me, I understand."

Matty smiled at her, "Thanks Mom. I'll get back to the story."

We drove for around 3 or 4 more hours until we got to Boston. Dad parked the stolen car in a long term parking lot. Then we went inside, and he went to an airport locker. He took out a duffel bag from the airport locker. He opened the bag, and he took out about six passports. He threw three of the passports back in the locker.

Then had me take a couple of antibiotics and painkillers and threw the bottles into the airport locker. He did not want to take that on the plane since it was labelled as dog medication. Dad told me he would find me another doctor when we got to England.

He showed me my passport. I looked really different in the picture. I did not think the boy in the picture was me at all. He looked so normal and happy. The only resemblance I could see was that we had the same eye and hair colors. The name on my passport said, Matthew Alexander Steadman. I saw dad's passport. His said Leon Jefferson Steadman.

Dad just tucked the other passport in the bag. I didn't see it then, but it was your fake passport, Mom. Dad took it with us so he would have a picture of you. Your fake passport name was Jean Amanda Steadman.

Dad took the duffel bag and then he went to the counter and bought us two first class tickets to London Heathrow on the next flight which was leaving in a couple of hours. We went through security.

Dad got himself more coffee while we waited for the plane. It smelled really good. So, I just took a sip of it. It tasted absolutely incredible. He saw me drink it and I thought he was going to get mad at first. But he didn't he just went and bought another cup of coffee and signaled that I could finish that one."

His mother interrupted the story and ruffled Matty's hair, "So that's when your coffee addiction started, sweet boy? Lee, he was five."

His dad then got up from his chair and walked over and kissed his mom, "It made him happy. Everything he had been through. He is really hard to say no to. Especially back then. I was not in my right mind. There was no good reason for us to fly out of Boston at all. We could have just flown to London out of Baltimore or any of the other airports on the East Coast. I have fake passports for the family and money stashed in pretty much all of them. I just needed to drive. To keep moving. I thought I had lost you. I would have shared my scotch with Matty too, if he had wanted it."

His mother hugged his dad, "Well we are never losing each other or any of our babies, ever again."

Notes:

Next chapter - Lee and Matty figure out a way to communicate. They arrive in London and meet Irene for the first time.