Of Cinder and Bone

by Kyoko M

  “Will do. I’ll invoice you the medical bills.”

  Kamala pulled away. “Well, I come from a family of doctors. I think I can do something about that.”

  “That’s what I like to hear.” The playful tone faded. Fujioka’s gaze softened on the pair.

  “Take care of yourselves, huh?”

  Kamala’s hand found Jack’s after he opened the door.

  “We will.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  EQUILIBRIUM

  “Wow,” Jack muttered, staring at the assembly waiting beyond the check-in gate at Logan International Airport. “Kam, I think we might be popular.”

  To the rear of the crowd were members of the press all packed together like a school of fish, prepping themselves to go live, while others were already live and frantic as soon as the two scientists were in sight. In front of them stood a group of Jack and Kamala’s MIT compatriots—students, fellow post-docs, teachers, and general campus fans. They had “welcome home” signs boasting the school’s burgundy and grey colors as well as illustrations of Pete. The most important people, of course, were at the head of the throng: Faye, Edie, Richard, Daeshim, and Sahana, all equally apprehensive, but joyful as the pair arrived.

  A great roar of a cheer split the air and applause soon followed. The cheering spread as other traveling patrons realized who they were and joined in. Thoroughly embarrassed and humbled, Jack and Kamala put their luggage down and hurried forward to greet their loved ones.

  Edie enveloped her son in a rib-cracking hug and buried her face in his chest. “You idiot. I told you to take care of yourself.”

  Jack kissed the top of her head. “Hey, I tried. You have to give me an A for effort, right?”

  She eventually let go and Jack wiped the tears from her cheeks with his free hand, smiling reassuringly. “I’m still in one piece, Ma. Besides, what’s one more scar?”

  “You have more than enough, Rhett. More than you deserve.” Her eyes hardened a touch when Richard stepped forward. Jack stiffened a bit, expecting the usual strained greeting, but to his surprise, his father drew him into a hug as well.

  “Welcome home,” he said. “I’m glad you’re alright.”

  “Thanks,” Jack replied, unable to keep the befuddled look off his face.

  When he stepped away, Richard gripped his son’s cheek and met his gaze without flinching. “That was a brave thing you did. Foolish, but brave. I know I don’t exactly show it a lot, but I’m proud of you, son. And I’m glad you’re safe.”

  Jack glanced between the two of them and nodded gently, still shell-shocked. “Uh, thanks. Really. I’m glad to hear you say that. I know this whole thing has been hard on you both and I appreciate you coming all the way out here again. Once we’re done with the press, I’ll meet you for dinner.”

  “Oh, I’m not letting you out of my sight,” Edie said fiercely. “I’m taking you home.”

  Jack arched an eyebrow. “I’m not going home. We have to get Pete situated. I probably won’t see my apartment for a whole day with what we need to get done.”

  “Fine, then I’ll drive you to campus.”

  Jack snorted and shook his head. “This is as bad as when I broke my arm. You’re going to stick to me like glue, huh?”

  “Damn right I am.”

  He gave her a one-armed hug. “Who am I to argue with the Boss?”

  “Oh, my little flower,” Sahana sighed, squeezing her daughter tightly. “I was so worried about you. Are you alright?”

  “I’m fine,” Kamala said, drawing back. “Barely a scratch on me.”

  Sahana lifted her daughter’s bandaged hand and frowned. “What is this?”

  “Mother, you don’t fly to Tokyo to steal your dragon back from the yakuza and emerge completely unscathed. This is nothing. Jack was shot, for gods’ sake.”

  Daeshim hugged her next. “What if it had been you? We saw the chaos that erupted there in your wake. Do you realize how fortunate you are to still be alive?”

  “Of course, Papa. We were as careful as we could be. Please don’t fret. Everything will be alright. I’ll tell you all about it later tonight, okay?”

  He sighed and kissed the top of her head. “Very well, beti.”

  Jack and Kamala stepped away to make room for Faye, who seemed uncharacteristically stoic considering the circumstances. Kamala broke first and hugged her best friend. No words necessary.

  Jack stood by, smiling softly at the pair, until Faye shot him a look. “What’s the matter with you? Get in here.”

  He chuckled and leaned into the embrace. “Missed you too.”

  “Don’t ruin the moment, Lurch.”

  She let go a few seconds later, scowling a bit. “I guess it’s time for you to address these jackals so we can get the hell out of here and check on Pete.”

  “The sooner the better,” Kamala agreed. She glanced up at Jack. “Statement only. Don’t take any questions or they’ll never let us out of here.”

  “Roger that.” He shifted uneasily. “Are you sure you don’t want to do it?”

  “Once was enough for me, thanks.”

  “I don’t blame you.” Jack stepped into the semi-circle of reporters and cameramen, self-consciously smoothing his hair down before clearing his throat. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m sure by your annoyingly invasive presence that you already know who I am, but I’ll state it for the record anyway. My name is Dr. Rhett Jackson and this is Dr. Kamala Anjali. If you’ve been following the news, you know that we were able to develop a scientific method that produced the first living, breathing dragon since the 15th century. A few days ago, this dragon was stolen and shipped overseas to Japan by a criminal organization, with an agenda to possibly replicate our method illegally for their own profit. With the hard work and dedication of Misaki Fujioka, we managed to recover the dragon and return her safely to Cambridge, where we intend to continue studying her and hopefully get our project back on track, and expand to other extinct or endangered species.”

  Jack paused thoughtfully. “It wasn’t an easy journey, as I’m sure a lot of you know. We’ve suffered losses, namely Detective Colin Stubbs, who was killed in the line of duty apprehending the prime suspect, and his partner Julio Faraday who was injured while protecting him. I myself am sporting a gunshot wound in my arm, and one of my dearest friends is in the hospital recovering from the encounter. I want to make one thing perfectly clear. It would be easy for the media to paint us as heroes, as courageous underdogs who decided not to roll over and play dead when someone kicked in our doors and stole our dragon. That’s not what happened. We made this decision not because it made the most sense—hell, if that were the case, we’d have cut our losses and started working on another clutch of dragon eggs. We went after our dragon because Dr. Anjali and I were both in agreement that the exploitation of dragons would not become the precedent for their possible existence in the future. Dragons have already seen centuries’ worth of abuse at the hands of the ignorant, the spiteful, and the greedy. They are more than prizes, more than mindless brutes to be hunted for sport or dissected in a lab. All that we want to gain from this scientific breakthrough is to give them a second chance at existence, one that is fair and regulated properly so that these animals can be enjoyed by the people who have been inspired and captivated by them for decades. We believe in the dragons, but more than that, we believe that the world deserves the opportunity to truly understand them instead of using them. Pete is a remarkable dragon, and she is worth fighting for. Hopefully, you’ll all be able to see her worth and the importance of wildlife conservation, as we continue to move forward with this new technology and methodology. To all those who supported us, we are eternally grateful. Thank you.”

  The crowd rippled with applause. Jack, Kamala, and their loved ones pushed forward towards the exit. The press tried to close in, but by then, security converged to kick them out of the already busy lobby.
<
br />   “I’ll meet you there,” Jack told Kamala. “Drive safe.”

  “You too.”

  “My car’s over here,” Edie said, pointing to a silver rental car parked in the temporary pickup space. He followed and started to open the rear passenger’s seat, but then Richard didn’t enter the car and he paused. “Dad?”

  “I’m right behind you,” his father said, and kept walking until he reached a dark blue SUV two spaces down before climbing in. Jack blinked at that. Several times. Then he switched to the front passenger’s seat and buckled up. Edie shooed the remaining press away and pulled out of the space and they left the airport.

  Jack drummed his fingers on his knees awkwardly for a few minutes into the ride before finally cracking. “So, uh, what was that about?”

  “What was what about?” Edie asked in a calm, even voice.

  “The whole separate cars thing. I thought you both came up here together.”

  She didn’t answer. Jack sent a furtive glance over at her expressionless face. “Ma?”

  She sighed very softly. “Your father and I… are having some problems.”

  “Problems? Since when do problems require that you ride in two completely different vehicles to visit me?”

  Edie kept her eyes on the road. “We had a knockdown-drag-out fight after you left for Tokyo. We haven’t reconciled yet.”

  Jack palmed his face. “Ma, come on. I’m an adult. You can’t let the stupid shit—”

  “Language,” she reminded him.

  “—crap I do interfere with your marriage. You both know I’m two bricks shy of a load. Why would you let that get between you?”

  “It wasn’t just about Tokyo.”

  “Then what, Ma? Anything I’ve done to upset you isn’t worth the two of you being unhappy.”

  She flexed her hands on the wheel, her voice careful and quiet. “When we started arguing, I asked him why he’s always given you the cold shoulder and why he keeps treating you like you’re the redheaded stepchild. He told me he was frustrated that you never listened to him when he was trying to do what’s best for you. I told him he doesn’t always know best and you need to be your own man, and the only way you can do that is with his whole support. We argued about what that support was supposed to entail, and somewhere in the middle of it, I realized that it was more than just resentment between you two. I started thinking about when your dynamics first changed and it was right around your early high school years when you started shutting us both out.”

  Jack paled. She continued. “I remember when I came to the hospital after you broke your arm, and you were so quiet. You were in so much pain, but you just told me the same thing over and over again. ‘It’s alright, Ma. I fell. I just fell. I’ll be okay.’ And I took you at your word because I was so overwhelmed that my baby was hurt and I only focused on making you feel better. I didn’t ask any questions. I didn’t see any signs. Until this week, when Richard and I started that fight. I know you. You’re my son. And your behavior changed completely after you broke your arm. I always thought it was just the trauma of finding out you weren’t invincible, but it wasn’t. So, I asked Richard if he hurt you.”

  She swallowed hard. Jack wasn’t looking directly at her, but he could see that her eyes were wet. “He said he would never hurt you. I’ve been married to your father going on thirty years. I can always tell when he’s lying. So, I left the hotel room and got my own car and we’ve been separated for about a day now.”

  “Christ,” Jack murmured hoarsely. “Ma…”

  She shook her head. “Don’t lie to me, Rhett. You’ve been doing that already for over ten years, I won’t tolerate any more of it.”

  “I…” He took a deep breath to stabilize his voice. “I didn’t ever want you to go through something like that, to lose what you had with Dad. Maybe I just thought it was the lesser of two evils when I decided not to tell you. So did he. It wasn’t like he was trying to hurt me. It was an accident. An honest-to-God accident.”

  “Rhett, it’s not about the accident,” she said, her hazel eyes glinting in the sunlight. “It’s about the fact that he was teaching you to fight right underneath my nose. He was forcing you to be someone you aren’t. You’re a good man, Rhett. You’re kind and sweet and loyal and a thousand times the person you ever thought you could be when you were just a shy little bookworm. And he took that from you by forcing you to be someone he wanted you to be. Not everyone is a fighter. Not everyone needs to be. He put a wedge between all three of us that day, and I don’t think I have it in me to ever forgive him for that.”

  “But it wasn’t all on him. I could have told you at any time. I was a coward. I started acting out because I was too chicken to tell you the truth, because I didn’t want to be responsible for the two of you breaking up. I had a good home. I couldn’t tear it apart. You don’t deserve that.”

  “Honey, it’s not about what I deserve. It’s about what’s fair. It’s about what’s right. I know you didn’t want to see me hurt, but you took that pain for me instead. I’m your mother. I’m supposed to be strong for you, not the other way around. If he hurt you, then it’s my job to do something about it and to make sure it never happens again.”

  “It won’t.”

  She shook her head again. “It’s not that simple.”

  Jack ran both hands through his hair and massaged his forehead. A stress headache pounded in rhythm to his frantic heartbeat. “Would you at least consider a marriage counselor?”

  “Maybe. I need to stop being angry first.”

  Jack snorted. “I don’t know. If I can figure out a way to let it go, I’m sure you can. You’re not the walking nitroglycerine of the three of us.”

  “Like I said before, it’s not about that. Whether it was your decision or not, he went along with it. He let you lie to me for nearly half of your life and he kept it to himself as well. It makes me wonder what else he’s lied to me about, and if I can ever trust him with the truth again.”

  “You know him better than that, Ma.”

  “I should. But I don’t.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  She smiled sadly at him. “I know, honey. I’m sorry too.”

  Jack rested his hand over hers on the shift stick. “It’s gonna be alright. No matter what happens. We can get through this together. I promise not to shut you out ever again.”

  “Thanks, kiddo. You were always the bravest one in our family.”

  Jack returned her sad smile. “I learned from the best.”

  ~*~

  After six solid hours of documenting Pete’s overall anatomy and welfare, compiling the data in congruence with their research grant, juggling interviews with the local news, coordinating arrangements with the MIT veterinarian staff, and setting tentative dates for appearances on various talk shows and TV channels, Jack and Kamala were relieved to shut themselves inside a lab to finish up the day’s work. By now, Jack had drunk seven cups of coffee and hefelt like it would be a good investment to steal an IV bag from a hospital and just shoot the espresso straight into his bloodstream. Between the jet lag and the grueling amount of work they’d put in, he was sure he’d drop dead without the amount of caffeine he’d ingested.

  His weary eyes were trained on his laptop screen until a cardboard coffee cup floated into his vision. He blinked to refocus his gaze and found Kamala holding up his usual Starbucks order: venti Pike’s with a shot of espresso, cream, no sugar.

  “You are an angel,” Jack sighed, accepting the coffee and taking a sip. He didn’t even flinch as the lava-hot coffee slid down his tongue and renewed his energy supply for the next few hours.

  “Flatterer,” Kamala said, sitting down beside him and pushing an additional small paper bag next to his computer. He opened it to find a brownie and his eyes rolled back in delight.

  “Marry me.”

  She chuckled and sipped her own caramel cappuccino. “Do
wn, boy.”

  He ate the brownie in one huge bite before wiping his hands off and returning to work. They continued on in friendly silence for a while before Jack spoke again. “So, how mad are your parents?”

  “Furious,” Kamala said wearily. “We didn’t talk the whole time they drove me here. I suspect they’re winding up for the mother of all lectures for dinner tonight.”

  Jack shifted in his seat uncomfortably. “If you want, I could—”

  “It would only make it worse.”

  Jack frowned. “How would owning up to my own boneheaded decision make it worse?”

  “They already think that you make decisions for me. If you apologized, it would confirm it for them. Trust me, it’s nothing I can’t handle. It comes from a good place, it’s just…” She rubbed her face with both hands and smoothed her dark hair back. “They don’t understand what Pete means to me. They think she’s just an animal. They think I risked my life for nothing, that I was just being impetuous and rebellious instead of taking responsibility for the life I helped create. I don’t know if they’ll ever truly understand it, to be honest.”