YOU GUYS REALLY DIDN'T THINK I'D END IT THERE DID YOU?
EPILOGUE
March 21, 2004
12:28pm
Riker's Prison
Riker's Island, New York
Sam, Jen, and Morgan escorted Greg, Jeremiah and Melissa to the room where Lyle was being held. Originally the adults wished to accompany the children into the interrogation room but the triplets had said no. This was something they needed to do alone.
The guard unlocked the door and the children entered. There Lyle sat cuffed to the table wearing an orange jumpsuit. The irony of the whole situation was not lost on the children. A year ago they had been the ones in a cell wearing their Centre issued gray tunics and pants and Lyle was the one that entered the room free to, more or less, live his life how he pleased.
Lyle looked up and was shocked at who entered the room. He had been expecting Jarod to come and gloat. At the very least, one of Jarod and Parker's brats. The red haired triplets were the last ones he expected.
"Sit." Lyle said indicating the three chairs across from him.
"We have no need to sit, Robert." Greg said intentionally using Lyle's given name. "We won't be staying long."
"We decided last night that even you deserved to know the truth." Jeremiah spoke.
"Even after all you did to us. To our family. To our mother. We felt that you should know. After all you too are a child of the Centre." Melissa said.
"What are you taking about?" Lyle hissed, Melissa had managed to touch upon on of Lyle's biggest insecurities and Lyle now wanted the children to be gone.
"Did it ever occur to you that if they created children from your sister that they wouldn't do the same to you?" Greg asked. Lyle stared at the three children in disbelief.
"That's right, Dad. And here's the file to prove it. Raines couldn't pass up the opportunity." Jeremiah said tossing a black file on the table. Lyle read it.
And then re-read it.
"This can't be." He said, shocked.
"But it is," Melissa said quietly.
"We want you to know that we want nothing from you. That we live with a family who loves us. Our parents love us very much. They are good people who would sacrifice everything for us." Greg said.
"So if you were going to worry about us or anything like that, don't." Jeremiah said.
"Do you think that you could love us?" Melissa asked after a moment. And at that moment Jeremiah realized how diffrent he and his sister were. Melissa would always look for the good in people. Even after the years she had spent in the Centre, Melissa was still relatively innocent. Jeremiah on the other hand had lost most of his innocence when he watched his mother murdered before his eyes.
"Maybe given time. But hell, you three wouldn't want me as a father. Sam will take good care of the three of you. He was the brother my sister never had, he might as well be the father my children never had." Lye answered Melissa's question.
"We never said that Sam was the one who took us in." Greg said.
"You didn't have to. She told me." Lyle said taping his head. "My sister wasn't the only one who heard our mother's voice. I began to her it the same time as Parker did. Unlike her though, I pushed it way. It's hard to be a monster you were ment to be when you hear the voice of your dead mother telling you that no matter what you do she'll always love you." Lyle laughed bitterly.
"There is something else you need to be told, but not by us." Jeremiah said and he nodded toward the glass. For a moment Jeremiah hesitated. He wanted to tell Lyle -he wanted to tell his father- that he wasn't ment to be a monster but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Morgan then entered the room and sat down at the table as her niece and nephews left.
"Hello, little brother."
"Sis, I see you've taken a leaf out of my old book. To what do I owe this pleasure?"
"It more of a whom than a what." Morgan said. "Our Father to be more precise. He wanted for you to know where you come from..."
"So who is dear old Dad?" Lyle asked.
"Sydney. He and Mom had an affair. Dad and I thought that you should know." Morgan said and got up from the table and turned to leave. She then turned to face her twin. "Oh, I almost forgot."
A moment later Lyle found himself on the ground cradling his broken arm
"That was for my little girl." Morgan said and left the room.
March 21, 2004
7:56pm
Charlottesville, Virginia
Russell Family Home
"I was wondering how long it would take before you came." Jeremiah called down. Alex climbed the ladder to the tree house. It had been built shortly after they returned from thier vacation in Canada. It was their spot. The other's came to the tree house but not as often as Alex and Jeremiah did. From the past week it had become the place where they spoke their deepest fears.
"How'd it go?" Alex asked her cousin. Jeremiah swallowed.
"It was hard. Harder than I thought it'd be." He admitted. "He said that one day given time he could come to love us. He didn't say he was sorry though, about what he did to us, to you and the others. What he did to my Mother. In away I didn't want him to. Because then, I might believe him. Then I might truly forgive him. Then I might come to love him. I might come to love him even though he killed my mom. Even though he did all those things to us." Tears were now falling from Jeremiah's eyes.
Alex pulled her cousin into her arms and he sobbed. Sobbed for the life that was taken from him. He sobbed for the man his father could have been had the Centre not interfered. He sobbed and for the first time in his eight years of life letting out all of the pain and anguish that had been slowly eating away at him. And in that moment, he was finally free of the Centre.
-FIN-
First and foremost I want to thank Jackie my beta even though she wasn't there with me in the very beginning she stayed with me through most of it. For that I am truly grateful. She edited -as Stephen King puts it- the bowels my muse decided to evacute in my head.
Secondly I both want and need to thank my reviewers. Especially those of you who reviewed almost religiously. You people reviewed more times than I've been to church in the past three years. Pretender Fanatic you were my very first reviewer, thanks to you I checked off the little box that says I'll except anonymous reviews and I then received a bunch more reviews. I lost some of my reviewers and gained some. I thanks all of you
Pretender Fanatic
LPJ
Morgan
Erikstrulove
Joy
Mrs. Rhett Butler
slayer-p
jeseryno1
NYT
Lilly
Michelle
youte
maragaige
Annette
Sango2
Jaclyn Parker
suspensewriter
Grace
Ara
Anna
winnievbt
Jarod/ Miss Parker shipper
Parker's Pretender
Atlantiandream
mfkngst
Kir
Katherine
mychakk
Sammie
AnnieGH4ever
Nicloe
msand
Ann
Sorry if I forgot anyone and if I did thank you for reviewing.
So that's it for now keep an eye out for my new story it should be up in a week or two.