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Date Posted: 21:32:19 03/13/09 Fri
Author: Odelle
Author Host/IP: CPE0013f7f24246-CM0013f7f24242.cpe.net.cable.rogers.com / 99.234.121.213
Subject: When A Time Comes (Chapter 20)
In reply to: Odelle 's message, "When A Time Comes" on 22:50:15 03/07/09 Sat



“I live with fourteen children,” Nikita explained, cupping the sweet-smelling, steaming tea between her hands – the mug was one of the vibrant green ones she had picked out earlier in the week. Michael had showered quickly while she made them drinks and set out some fruit. Both of them had needed a moment to gather themselves – and Michael knew that she would need to figure out what she was willing to tell him.

He arched his brow at her and smiled slightly.

“Yeah, I know,” she chuckled, “It’s a bit like a circus.” She leaned back into his new plush sofa, tucking a leg under herself to face him. “But when you’ve had a day full of blowing up embassies and torturing terrorists, it’s a joy to have a big family at home.”

Michael’s eyes shifted away as he tried to phrase the obvious, “They are clones.”

“We don’t use that word,” she responded immediately, but nodded, “Jak, as you might have discovered, shares the same DNA as you do.”

Michael looked down to his mug for a moment, remembering their interaction many years ago regarding the children she originally found in Section. “Do you have –“ he paused to re-phrase, “Is there one who shares yours? The girl you saw, before?”

The air froze around them. Nikita stared deeply into him; then almost through him. Abruptly, her hard-earned mask of blankness fell down in front of her eyes, blocking Michael out; keeping the memories in. Michael felt the darkness flow into the room, and it made his skin cold.

Slowly, her gaze clouded over. “Yes. She’s dead.”

She continued to stare into him, now with a stoicism that would have made his former role as mentor proud. “I’m sorry,” Michael whispered softly, his eyes offering her haven from the choice to back out of this conversation.

Nikita nodded carefully. She looked down to the pillow behind Michael on the couch. She gathered the demons lurking in her memories and put them back in their cages. One of them obstinately screamed out the past events that Nikita couldn’t think of right now. She closed her eyes, patiently blanked out those thoughts, and then opened them again to Michael.

Her gaze was clear and level as she picked up the thread that they had been on before. “Jak, he doesn’t live with us – he isn’t like the rest of the children in that sense. He’s family, but he’s also a colleague. A friend.”

“They all work for Section?”

“No,” she shook her head, “None do. Not even Jak. I re-made the Section while I was there, and all the Sections have begun to be re-designed in the two years since I’ve been Centre; but still none are a place for children. They will never be a place for children.”

“Eighteen is the age that they can choose to apply for a job. I hire them only into Centre, Oversight, and places I deem appropriate for their skills,” she continued, arching a brow, “And skills they certainly do have – some of our youngest are among the most talented individuals you’ll ever meet.”

Michael avoided thinking about her use of the words our and us to refer to her home. “How many work?”

“Right now, five. The rest are too young.”

Michael took a breath and asked the question he was most wondering about, “Why did Jak come here?”

Nikita sighed and chuckled humourlessly, “I had lunch with him today, to tell him that you were here.”

“He knows who I am?”

“Oh yes,” she nodded then chuckled softly, “I doubt there’s anything past-present-future; Sections-Oversight-Centre-Senate, that Jak doesn’t know about. I knew I needed to tell him you were here before he found out himself. It would hurt him most, if I kept it from him.”

“Why?”

She shook her head, “I don’t know what he thinks about you. I see only shadows of his understanding of you. Your position in Section, your leaving with Adam – I think it troubles him that his...the person he probably models himself off of, has made choices he can’t understand.”

Michael nodded slowly. “He came to protect you from me,” he observed soberly.

“I don’t think he knows what he came for,” she quirked her lips at him, “He’s an amazingly talented kid, but he is completely – totally – different from you. Jak doesn’t like to think through the things he does. He just does them, and deals with it later.”

Michael smiled softly at that. He wondered privately what Nikita’s own twin might have been like. He wondered how much of her beautiful mannerisms and quirks were her own, or could be passed on. “Is it strange?” he asked softly about her life with Jak.

Nikita thought for a moment and shook her head, “No, not strange. Since he turned twenty-one last year, he started changing into more of a man – and so with each year he becomes more and more like you physically. But he’s still just Jak to me, the little boy I found. He’s a different person.” She shrugged, “The rest are the same – I knew all of their adult counterparts, but I love these people as individuals – they’re my family, not Section’s creations.”

Michael’s eyes shifted above her shoulder, thinking. “Perhaps I should meet with him again.”

She chuckled skeptically, “You enjoy conversations at gunpoint?”

His lips quirked, but he explained, “He alluded to wanting me to leave,” his stare hit home the seriousness of his intentions, “He’s your family, he should know I’m not going anywhere. Gun or no gun.”

Nikita saw the gravity of Michael’s promise in his gaze, and again felt her own assurance about his permanence. It caused her relief, as well as concern. The future was so unknown. For someone living a powerful and structured existence, Michael’s declarations of permanence were a source of comfort as well as anxiety. Taking a deep breath, she looked down and privately contemplated the important invitation that she had been considering extending for some time. Deciding to initiate the inevitable, she met his gaze evenly. “I want you to meet all of them. If you’re up for it, I think you should come have dinner with us at the house.” The arch of his brows was all that indicated his surprise at the enormous invitation. “I promise it will be totally overwhelming,” she added with a small laugh.

He smiled softly, shyly, “I’d love to, if you’d like.”

She nodded, “Walter lives at the house, too. He’s dying to see you. I think you’re in for a really big hug.”

The earnestness in Michael’s eyes at this bit of information made her heart melt. Of course Michael was missing Walter. Not that either man would be so vulnerable as to admit it. “Okay.”

“Good. Give me some time to let the older ones, who know stories about you, know you’re here.” And some time to tell Guillaume you’re back, she added in her mind, already dreading that conversation.

As if sensing her thoughts, Michael nodded with a knowing soberness.

The deed done, the inevitable permitted, an invisible tension slipped from Nikita’s shoulders. She shifted on the couch, her eyes sliding from his to the room. She suddenly grinned as she recognized the bookcases lining one wall across the open space. “Ha! They arrived did they?” she rose and went to survey them herself.

“Yes,” Michael stood also, a warmth filling his voice as he remembered their shopping trip together, “They arrived today.”

“Ah, that’s why they’re still empty,” she brushed a hand across one hard shelf. The coarse surface tickled her skin. Searching, her eyes fell to the boxes of books they had purchased, sitting a few feet from the base of the new ladder. She turned to him slowly; her eyes a little too mischievous for someone who spent most of their life as a covert anti-terrorist operative, and offered “Want to fill them?”

His grin answered her challenge.

************

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Replies:

  • When A Time Comes (Chapter 21) -- Odelle, 21:47:30 03/13/09 Fri
  • The more I read this.... -- steph, 23:31:58 03/13/09 Fri
  • Re: When A Time Comes (Chapter 21) -- Sheila, 02:59:14 03/14/09 Sat
  • Re: When A Time Comes (Chapter 21) -- Vickie, 07:24:58 03/17/09 Tue
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