by P. S. Power
Finding out that he'd actually been given up so his mom could go and party more wasn't a good thing though. He thought that had been what she'd said, but wasn't really sure that was really correct. It seemed a bit light as a reason to get rid of a kid, didn't it? When he looked back over at her, a tissue in hand from the Director's desk, the woman just nodded.
"That's really all it was. I was shallow and selfish, and wanted to have more fun, without being tied down. The fact that I could have hired a team of nannies and staff to care for you didn't even occur to me, regardless of the fact that I was raised that way. It would be nice if I could blame Braid for it, but that wouldn't be fair. She didn't brainwash me, just told me what I wanted to hear at the time. That I could have my child, and let someone else do the work. It seemed a lot more reasonable back then. It's also haunted me ever since." She dabbed at her eyes, so her makeup wouldn't smear, he thought.
The words weren't wonderful, but he was pretty well hardened to life not being fair, so he didn't rise to the bait, or the trap the words might lead him to. It would have been simple to attack, to yell, or accuse, but she'd already admitted that she'd been shallow and kind of dumb back then, in the way that some people are, before they live enough to learn that everyone has value. Blaming her for it now wasn't going to help anyone.
"So, we need to figure out why Braid was involved? That, and work out what to do about Clark. Lancaster said that I should stay with Bridget for the time being? Or at least keep better tabs on her." That, as strange as it seemed, was about all he needed to do for the time being.
Christian stopped crying, and the Director nodded, somberly.
"We need a female attendant for her too. My thoughts are that she's planning to run off at a later date, and meet up with Mr. Clarkson." It sounded reasonable, and the man pulled a file from a stack of them on his desk.
Next to him, Chris shook her head lightly, staring at him more than was comfortable.
"No. She did this right. She got him out, and to a good vehicle whose plates she very carefully never looked at. She paid cash for it, from a rather sketchy man at a rest stop. She handed him cash, maps and some food and told him not to let her know where he was going. She knows they can't meet again, and that I'd find him, if she did anything other than she had. I hadn't been paying attention, but she did an excellent job of it all." There was enough respect in her voice that the Director gave her a quelling look.
"I'm sure she'll be pleased to hear that. I'm tempted to not allow her to attend the shooting of the holiday special. She isn't strictly needed for it, after all. I just don't know that leaving her here would be the better plan."
They all agreed on that, the not knowing part. Luckily no one expected him to go from finding out that he not only had a mother, but that he'd loosely known her for years, to planning out how to control a young superhuman mastermind inside five minutes. Or at all really. The only rough part was that Doctor Burrows had to go back to work, and Christian really wanted to get away from the emotional scene. She stood and then gave him a tiny hug, whispering in his ear.
"I'm sorry." She cringed away, even though he didn't think anything bad at her or tense up. It was more that she probably just expected him to.
"No big thing. We should talk sometime, or... send letters? Emails?" He was trying to be considerate, and she actually smiled. They lived in the same building after all, but her first mode would make being too close a problem.
"That would be nice. Maybe dinner sometime?"
He nodded, agreeing. After all, he didn't know what else to do. That let them all get out of there however and the Director didn't claim he needed to get his ugly butt off his team of pretty people, so it wasn't that bad. Lancaster followed him out, but didn't say much, until he got to the stairs.
"I'll keep you in the loop on Chambers. Can I count on you to sit on her for the time being? Just in case?"
"Yeah. For all the good that will do."
That got a chuckle, and the man strode off, letting Tobin go back to the restaurant where he found the girl shoving pieces of garlic bread into her mouth almost whole. At the same time she was glaring at Prime and Charlot, and casting hard glances over at her grandmother when she wasn't doing that.
He just headed over, since it was crowded in the place and he didn't really want the hostess to see him. That got a chair pulled over from another table, by Prime. There were people at it, but they weren't anyone he recognized at all.
"There you are. I saw Daryl drag you away earlier. Meeting with the Director?" Prime spoke confidently, and looked at his girl, who rather angrily took a bite of bread, tearing it off with a jerk.
"Yes." That answer got everyone to look at him, which probably meant that the man had been using him to tease his daughter, or something. "I was in with Christian Poures, Agent Lancaster and Doctor Burrows."
"Probably plotting against me." Bridget narrowed her eyes at him, until he looked away. She kept eating the whole time, which made her seem like a very upset and chubby five year old, without the chub.
He nodded though, and made his face look like a frown. It would make him look a bit like the Grinch, or would if he were green at the moment, instead of mainly brown.
"Not really. We were just being yelled at for letting you help Clark escape. Well, Chris and I. Lancaster just huddled in the corner, softly sobbing. I don't know why the Doctor was there, but it was scary." None of that was true, except who was there, and Bridgie seemed to get that without being told.
"Ha. I had to do it. What are they going to do with me? Lockup?"
He shook his head.
"No. Slave labor. You have to pay everyone back for their time, and the money you took. You aren't going to have a lot of free time for the next few years." It came out sounding soft and shy, but that just made it seem more real and Rachel pushed the girl's shoulder a bit.
"I told you they'd figure something out. You aren't beyond being corrected. Even if you truly believe that you're right in this, you aren't above the law."
Instead of whining about it, there was a shift in Bridget's energy and she seemed to take it all in stride. She didn't even call anyone names over it.
"Fine. I can take out the trash or whatever. I suppose I have to start right now?"
Tobin shook his head.
"You can finish eating first. You'll need the energy."
Plus, he needed time to figure out what to have her do, and a way to let everyone else know that he had a plan. Otherwise it would be harder to keep her occupied. The problem there was that the girl really wouldn't be easy to keep track of. Even with a chip inside of her, if it still was. He'd have to ask how they'd gotten Clark's out. He knew he had one himself, but not where on his body it actually was.
More food came, which was cake. The server frowned at them about it, so that they'd get the idea that he didn't think the young lady deserved anything like that after what she'd done. The man wasn't wrong, Tobin decided. As soon as she was finished, still not really having a clue what was going to happen, he stood.
"Rachel? Would you come with us?" It was hard to ask, but the lady stood fluidly, and didn't question it at all. Prime did too, but Tobin shook his head.
"No. We're going to have to be mean to her and you might feel you have to protect her. Come on." It sounded frightening, but she marched away with her head a lot higher than his was. Rachel was behind her, looking ready to chase her down if it was needed.
That it wasn't was incredible.
"First we're going outside and cleaning up everything from yesterday and setting the grounds right again. Then it's cleaning every floor of the building that you can get access to, including the lockup, and people's private rooms if they want it done. Then..." He didn't know.
After a few seconds Rachel spoke, her voice pleasant sounding.
"Then, you'll probably have to sleep. In my room. I don't know if you're going to that event in California now or not, but if so, I will be there with you."
&nb
sp; The hard part was making her work, and just watching it, without helping. She didn't complain and just did everything, until the adults decided it was finished, and then they moved to the next thing. The inside of the building was actually a bigger problem than outside, because things were kept clean all the time. They wouldn't let her into the lockup, or the eighth or tenth floors, since they were medical. She did have to go over the gym on fourteen, which took about three hours, but it wasn't until they explained what she was doing to Carl on the fifteenth floor that things got interesting.
"I want a new obstacle course set up. I'll show you the plans. It should take you four hours, if you use your full strength and speed and don't get stuck on any technical details." The man seemed enthused about the idea, rather than upset with her for springing Clark. That meant the man wasn't yelling at her as much as directing her actions, as others went about their regularly scheduled practice. Hobbs wasn't around, and they'd all kind of missed their early in the day routines, so Tobin found a stick and set it up for meditation, like he done the first time he'd tried.
He also had to watch Bridget, but at least there were two sets of eyes on the girl. At six, with the work mostly finished, Rachel pitched in.
"I know that I should let her do it all, but she has to be near starving right now."
He shrugged, all he wanted was to keep her busy enough that Tobin wouldn't wake in the morning to find out she'd run off. It got him invited to the evening meal on the ninth floor, which was already going on when they walked in. Tobin was kind of hoping that he'd see Christian, but she wasn't there. Either avoiding him, or working. Possibly both.
Brian was though, and already had half a plate of food eaten. Sitting next to him was Penny, who looked really nice. Her skin was a dark shade that went well with her black hair, and looked very smooth, and free of blemishes. Her lips were a bit brighter, and she had brown eyes, and perfectly balanced eyebrows. She was in jeans and a t-shirt, one which said, "My see-through negligee is at the cleaners..." which took him a few seconds to get.
Invisible woman. Right.
Mark looked up at them first though and waved around the table a bit.
"I think we have enough for everyone. Please, have a seat." He smiled at Tobin, but blinked in place, shifting a little. It meant that he'd used his power, but only Brian looked at him like it was something important. He didn't ask about it at all.
Rachel had a normal place and Bridget went by her right hand, both having heaping platefuls of food. Tobin didn't know where to go for a long time, but finally Penny pulled out the chair next to her, suggestively.
"Do you even need to ask where to sit?" She smiled at him, and gestured with her head, to get him in place, but didn't make too big a deal of it all. "We were all just discussing the holiday special. Denis, you had something you were saying?"
"Right. Alan called last night and left a message, he wants a behind the scenes 'making of' thing. That way we can have the big names doing the work for the public, and not alienate every minor celeb that's coming in for this who ends up in the chorus. I claimed that the IPB wouldn't care a lot about that kind of thing, but he still wants us to help with it. I don't know what it will entail at all. Or if it will ever be aired. Neither does he, but this is turning out to be pretty major. The news that the President will be there and that Glen Gillis is doing stage direction for the musical numbers has brought a lot of volunteers out for it."
Mark tilted his head and looked around the table.
"Honestly, I don't know who we can spare. Tobin is in a lot of this and Denis, well, you'll be needed to get Darla her coffee... I just don't know." That last bit seemed like an in-joke, but Bridget raised her hand a little.
"I could. If I'm allowed." She seemed at least a bit sad, and Rachel shrugged her medium sized chest moving just a bit under her tight bodysuit.
"Ask Tobin. He's in charge of you for the time being."
That was news to him, but he felt a surge of confidence, and nodded, getting what Denis was doing.
"We can do that, but she needs to actually be working the whole time, not sipping cocoa and eating little marshmallows. She's strong, so can move sets and that kind of thing, scrub the floors, repaint the outside of the building..." He could have gone on, but Brian looked at her and sighed.
"Not that we don't get the general idea. You didn't want him to die. If he tries to sleep with another young girl though, after this, it's your fault too. Keep that in mind. The IPB gets kind of touchy when their prisoners escape, so he might just die anyway. It would be best if he leaves the country."
The tiny girl just looked at the man, who was less than ten years her senior and her grandfather. Thank you, confusing time travel. Tobin smiled at the thought, which made Bridget glare at him.
"You think that Clark being killed is funny?" She was pissed at him suddenly, but he shook his head. For one thing he really didn't need her to kill him, if it was all the same. For another, it wasn't why he was chuckling, and she deserved to know that.
"Nope. But time traveling family drama is. I keep waiting for Brian to vanish and for us all to wake up one day realizing that we're all his great nieces or nephews."
That got a laugh, a real sounding one, except from Brian.
"It's... occurred to me. More than once." There was a hard core to the statement, as if it really wasn't a joke at all. "Between my own power trying to arrange the future for us all, and Braid having been doing the same for over thirty years, I just don't know what's going to come up. I can almost guarantee it will. It gives me nightmares."
That got the room to go quiet at least. Which meant that there was time to eat. It seemed that they were having meatloaf that night. Tobin had always liked that, but what they were eating was at least three times better than the stuff they got on Team Two. It was moist, and done all the way through. There were bread crumbs in it but they were tiny things that didn't look like slices of wonder bread had been quartered or anything.
They even got real bread with it. That tasted funny to him, since he was used to getting prepackaged stuff, but it wasn't bad, just different.
Thankfully when the next topic came up, it had nothing to do with anything dangerous, important or even food related. He'd gotten through half a plate and was stuffed already, having been dished up way too much food by Denis.
Den was the one that spoke too, which was a little different, since everyone seemed to think he was going to make some kind of sarcastic remark or something like that. Not Rachel, who just ate, but Brian and Penny tensed and Mark skipped in place as soon as he started talking.
"I hear that you got Terry Kines from Team Two partnered with Debbie Scofeld from Team One? The Director mentioned it to me earlier." He turned to the rest and explained, so Tobin didn't have to. "Snow Queen and Mongo."
It was Rachel, who had to stop shoving food into her face to do it, who went on, nodding first.
"Brilliant thinking. Kevin mentioned it to me too. The poor girl can't really touch anyone, and needs an assistant to help her bathe or even eat. Everything freezes around her. She can't shower at all, or she'd end up a small iceberg in her tub, and a bath doesn't work, not even a hot tub. She has to have damp compresses put on her skin and peeled off. It's like getting a Brazilian wax every time she washes. She gets clean at least, since it pulls off everything. Brushing her teeth has to be done in bursts, with someone that runs in and hands her a warmed toothbrush every minute or so. It's a bit better than the rest of it, because things don't freeze inside her, but still a hardship. She can't even go to a moist climate. She turns into a snowball."
Penny winced, and then looked at the woman making a less than perfectly pleased face.
"That sucks. Why is Terry a good match though? Isn't he mainly just super strength... and I think a better than average auto mechanic?"
The good-looking woman at the end of the table took several quick bites from her mound of mashed potatoes and gravy, both clearly made from scratch, and ge
stured with her fork.
"He doesn't have any biological reaction to cold. He doesn't feel it, and can't freeze. Before we had to have helpers for her that bundled up like Inuit and could only stay on task for about twenty minutes at a time. Terry can just stay with her. Plus he's kind of cute, so if she's smart, Debbie will be trying to stay on his good side. He has a girlfriend I hear, so that could be a problem."
Penny smiled and shook her head.
"Or not. That's Nan, from the second team. She's pretty good about sharing. They all sort of have to be, since there are more women than men there. I mean, Deb should ask first, but I doubt that she'll be told no. Even if Nan feels jealous about it. After all, if no one can touch the poor woman, and hasn't for years, can she ignore that?"
Tobin knew that she could, of course. Most people weren't perfect, and Team Two wasn't exactly some kind of Roman orgy all the time either. Nan might feel threatened by the pretty Team One member after all. It was strange hearing all of that though. About how hard things were for her. He normally just thought of the normal looking people as having an easy time of it, or at least easier than most. They were Infected, but it didn't show, so that meant life was simple for them, right?
Only not for her. Really, if he were going to be fair, it probably wasn't for a few others as well. Like Argos. Jason was really good-looking, and sure, he had to eat all the time, but a lot of people would think that was a super power in and of itself. A hassle, but nothing that would keep anyone from trading places with him. The man couldn't hold still though. Rachel and Bridget were much the same, if slower. Buzzing around, twitching and moving so fast that you could feel a light breeze coming from all of them if the air was still enough. Some of the people with sensitive hearing in the lower ranges couldn't stand any of them, since they all gave off a constant booming in certain ranges which got worse when they ran or fought.