Thanks again to my rockstar betas, Nancy and Carol, for getting this back to me in time to post today. You two are amazing!
PART TWENTY-THREE
*~Jay~*
I didn’t need super hearing to detect Kaylie’s approach as she stomped down the hall to my door. I just had time to flip the lock and swing the door open before she stormed through, throwing a package in the general direction of the sofa. She entered my kitchen and began helping herself to the coffee I had prepared. She hadn’t said a word.
“What’s wrong?” I asked her sensitively.
“Read it for yourself,” she grouched, snatching a mug from the cupboard.
I reached down, and opened the package, finding a stack of wedding invitations inside. I hadn’t even read past the first line before my lips began to twitch.
“Jonathan Kent and *Kyle* Stewart?”
“It’s *not* funny,” she snapped sourly.
“Yeah, it is,” I countered.
The look she gave me was enough to make me back off, although just a little. “So they made a typo,” I shrugged.
“It’s more than just a typo!” she exploded. “They screwed up nearly one hundred invitations! Do you realize how difficult it’s going to be to get these printed off in time so they can be sent out? The company has a waiting list a mile long. At this rate, Jon and I won’t be getting married until 2050!”
“If they can’t get them reprinted in time, you could just send them electronically,” I shrugged.
A look of desperate hope came over her face. “Are you allowed to do that for a wedding?” she asked. “Isn’t that supposed to be really tacky or something?”
“Kaylie, since when do you care about societal conventions?” I asked. “It’s your wedding. Who cares whether or not people think it’s tacky.”
She sank into a chair, groaning loudly and exhaustively. Her head hung down and rested on her hands. I finished getting her coffee ready for her, and set it before her silently. Then I settled myself in the chair beside her at the table. It wasn’t long before she sat up and took a woeful sip of her drink.
“Sorry for freaking out,” she apologized. She was much calmer than she had been when she first came in, although she still looked a little frazzled.
“I imagine it’s pretty stressful for you right now,” I replied.
“Ugh, you have no idea. It’s enough work just doing everything once, but it seems that everything I do gets undone somehow. Like the whole world is conspiring against my marriage.”
“You know, I was kind of surprised that you two decided to have a more traditional wedding,” I mentioned. “I didn’t think that was your kind of thing.”
“I figured I could be normal for once in my life,” Kaylie shrugged. “And you only get married once, so you might as well make it count.”
“Well, even though it’s a lot of work, I imagine it’ll be worth it in the end.”
“I’m starting to have doubts,” Kaylie remarked dryly. “Sometimes I think the whole thing would be better if we just ran off and got married on some Caribbean island or something.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. But then I remember everyone here in Metropolis. You know, the wedding isn’t just for us. It’s for friends and family, too. And eloping would cut a lot of people out of the experience.”
“Hey, I wouldn’t mind if you guys flew off to the tropics,” I told her. “I say go right ahead. Anything to make it easier for you, right?”
“You would do anything to make it easier, wouldn’t you?” she asked, suddenly sly.
“Um, yeah,” I replied warily.
“Including hiding what Dad’s plans are with the Kent family?”
I winced. “You found out about that, did you?”
“Yeah, I did, Jay. No thanks to you,” she pointed out, becoming more upset.
“Look, I just thought that you wouldn’t want to deal with it on top of all the wedding stuff.”
“Well, you thought wrong,” she replied snappily. “This is important, and it really hurts me that you shut me out of it, Jay.”
It was at times like this that I really noticed how Kaylie had changed since she met Jon. In the past, she had a tendency to keep her personal hurts and disappointments to herself. Now, she wasn’t afraid to let me know when I had let her down. Although it sometimes made life more difficult for me, I was glad that Kaylie didn’t hide her feelings anymore.
“I’m sorry,” I apologized sincerely. “Honestly, Kaylie, I didn’t mean to shut you out. Ellie was the only person I told. Lois and Clark found out from Uncle Jack, and I assume they’re the ones who told you?”
She nodded.
“I think I’ve been maybe putting off telling anyone,” I confided in her. “I have no idea how to deal with this. Dad definitely knows that something’s not as it appears. And you know him. There’s no way we can convince him otherwise, especially since he happens to be right.”
“So what’s Uncle Jack doing?” Kaylie asked.
“He’s trying to lead Dad off on the wrong path,” I replied. “The Kents aren’t sure if Jack actually knows the truth or not, but I think he probably knows enough to distract Dad. As far as I know, Dad still thinks the Kents are spies of some kind.”
“The only thing that would convince Dad otherwise would be if he decided against his conclusion after observing the Kents more,” Kaylie hypothesized. “And more observation is only going to lead him closer to the right answer. Dad’s impossible to fool, especially when you’re dealing with people as straight as the Kents.”
“All of this stuff with Jack is only temporary,” I told Kaylie. “Uncle Jack can’t distract Dad forever.”
“Well, maybe Dad will lose interest if he doesn’t uncover anything,” Kaylie spoke wishfully. Our eyes met across the table, both of us thinking the same thing. “Yeah, okay, a snowball’s chance in hell,” she grumbled. “So what do we do for long term?”
“Well, your wedding is really the only time Dad’s going to be seeing the Kents in the foreseeable future,” I shrugged. “Dad’s never shown much interest in our personal lives before, and I doubt he’s going to be talking to me at all since I threw him out of my apartment a few months ago. Maybe once the wedding is over, we won’t have to worry about it as much. I don’t think Dad will be able to find much new information given what he knows and what he suspects. We can just leave him to his obsession.”
“Great,” Kaylie groaned. “Another stress to add to that day.”
“I’ll try to help as much as I can,” I offered apologetically. “I’m not sure how much use I’ll be if Dad refuses to talk to me, but I’ll run all the interference I can.”
“Thanks.”
“Well, I have to be good for something, don’t I? I’m not in the wedding party, so I guess I’ll have to be useful elsewhere.”
Kaylie rolled her eyes. “Stop whining about that, would you? Apparently, Jon and Alex made a Best Man pact in college, and that’s one area of the wedding that we are keeping simple. Having a huge wedding party only adds extra complications and expense.”
“Yeah, but I’m the future brother-in-law. You’d think I’d get priority over a silly cousin who’s off living in Brazil anyway.”
Kaylie groaned. “I’m getting more coffee,” she announced. “And then you can prove your usefulness by helping me with the seating chart for the reception.”
* * *
***
Mom’s voice was always nice to listen to when we were reading stories. Dad only read to us sometimes, and even when he did, it was really boring. He went really slow and I couldn’t see the pictures very good.
But Mom was a really good reader, and I liked it when she read to us, even though I was getting to be pretty good, too.
“I want to read this one next!” Kaylie said when Mom finished the book. The book she wanted to read was called ‘Princess Prunella and the Purple Peanut’.
“You got to pick the last one,” I complained. “I don’t want to read *another* princess story.”
“Well, I don’t want to read another dinosaur story,” Kaylie whined.
“It’s Jason’s turn to pick the story now, Kaylie,” Mom said. “Remember, that’s how it works. But let’s see if he can find a story that we’d all like to read.”
“Mom, are you going to keep reading to us all day?” Kaylie asked. She was pretty excited, and I was, too. Mom wasn’t spending as much time with us as she usually did because she was taking a lot of naps. But today, she looked a lot better. Maybe she was done being sick.
“I’ll read to you for as long as you want,” Mom told us. “But I have some other things planned that we can do today, too.”
“Like what?” I asked.
“It’s a surprise,” she told us. “You’ll find out soon enough. But for now, how about you pick out another book?”
I went to go pick out the book. Today looked like it was going to be a fun day. Things were a lot better when Mom was healthy.
***
* * *
Leigh Watson’s headstone was not the most memorable one in the cemetery. It almost got lost amid the rows and rows of markers that blended together. It made me upset, almost, to see how well it settled into the background.
This one mattered so much more than any of the others. This one carried more weight, more emotion, more tragedy than any other death in this field.
Of course, reason told me my feelings were irrational. Yes, her death mattered to me, but to everyone else she was just another name. Even I felt a little disconnected from the grave. The name I used now wasn’t even connected to this woman. The person who was her son was so completely different from the person I’d become.
Ellie squeezed my hand tightly, and I tore my eyes away from the stone to look at her.
“This is her?” she asked quietly.
“Yeah.”
She nodded, and relapsed into silence, letting me sink back into the realm of childhood memories. It had been so long since I had let myself think about them.
“For the longest time, I didn’t believe that she was gone forever,” I confided.
“Really?”
“Yeah. Well, maybe it was that I didn’t understand. Can a six year-old really understand what forever means?” I asked rhetorically. “You know, she used to make cookies with us. That’s one of those mom things to do, right? But of course we made it hard for her. I wanted to make peanut butter, and Kaylie would insist on chocolate chip. We were little terrors, most of the time,” I shared. “Always competing for attention and approval. But somehow, she managed to balance the two of us. We each felt equal with her.
“I think I spent nearly all day in the kitchen the day after the funeral. I don’t really know why. She had been in the hospital for weeks before that. It wasn’t like she was just going to pop out of the cabinet or something.”
“But you felt her there, didn’t you?” Ellie asked. “Her presence, somehow.”
“Yeah, I think I did,” I realized. “Maybe I was too confused to think along those lines, but think that’s what I was doing.”
“She sounds amazing,” Ellie told me softly.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “She was. She would’ve liked you, you know. Well, maybe I can’t really know that for certain. I was so young when she died, I didn’t think of her much beyond her role as my mom. But I think she would’ve seen how happy you make me, and that’s all she ever wanted for me.”
Ellie smiled up at me.
“Oh, and there’s another thing she would’ve liked about you,” I added.
“What?” Ellie asked.
“Our house was always in chaos when she was there. She said she hated when people’s houses were meticulously kept. My dad didn’t like it, but every home had to have a little clutter, according to her.”
“Now I know for sure that she’s amazing,” Ellie grinned.
I remembered the way our house was all those years ago. Something was always going on. Every day, there was a new idea, a different activity, an incredible adventure. But once she was gone, the house was empty. Dad had always been gone for long stretches of time due to work, and those stretches only grew after Mom died. We had nannies to take care of us, of course, but they never measured up to the love Mom had shown us.
“You know, we’re just a few miles from where I grew up,” I told Ellie. “Well, for the most part, anyway. We moved around a lot, especially when we got older, but we stayed in D.C. until Kaylie and I were thirteen.”
“Is there anyone you want to visit?” Ellie asked me.
“No,” I shook my head. “It’s been too long. And besides, ‘Jason Watson’ doesn’t even exist anymore.”
Ellie nodded.
A lot had probably changed since I had been here. And I wasn’t sure how much of it I would even remember. It had been a long time.
Even the memory of my mom had grown dim with time. If she were walking down the street today, would I even recognize her?
I remembered her soft brown hair, and her lightly freckled skin. She always wore rings on her delicately manicured fingers. Those hands were the only hint of vanity anyone would find in her. The rest was all kindness and generosity. Kaylie had one of those rings now, as far as I recalled.
The rest of her was blurred. Blank, even, in some parts. And no matter how hard I tried to focus in on her, there was nothing for me to see.
I didn’t have any pictures of her. Dad still managed to keep a couple throughout our constant moves, but I hadn’t had any personal belongings during the time I worked for the NIA, and any pictures I had owned went to him.
And there was no way I was going to ask him for anything.
Ellie squeezed my hand again, and I focused my attention back to her.
“I’m going to go for a bit of a walk, okay?” she said. “I’ll meet up with you when you’re ready.”
“Thanks,” I told her. I was glad for Ellie’s support, but having some quiet time alone would be nice too.
She walked down towards the line of trees, and left me alone to my thoughts. I knelt in front of the grave, and placed the bouquet of flowers I had brought. I hadn’t purchased them at the florist’s. Ellie and I had flown out to pick them together. Mom really would have like Ellie, I decided. They had the same generous, compassionate nature.
Although Ellie had gone, I was not left alone for long. It was only a few minutes later before I heard footsteps muffled by grass come up behind me. I only saw the figure out of the corner of my eye, but that was enough for me to recognize him.
Had Ellie known that he was coming? She seemed to understand my feelings toward my father, but I think she was still hoping for some form of reconciliation. Which, of course, was not going to happen.
“What are you doing here?” I asked stonily.
“I could ask you the same thing,” he replied mildly. “I didn’t know you were in D.C.”
“Yeah, well I sure as hell didn’t come to see you.”
He sighed. “Yes,” he replied. “I know.”
His defeated tone surprised me, and I turned to look at him.
He looked tired. And for the first time I could remember, he looked old. A small bouquet was clutched in his left hand. After twenty years, he still wore his wedding ring.
My father knelt in front of the grave, and tenderly placed the flowers in front of it. Then he straightened, and resumed his perfect posture, hands clasped rigidly behind his back.
“I miss her every day,” he spoke into the silence. “I come out here as often as I can.”
I ignored him. Why should I care what he did?
“How long are you in town for?” he asked.
“I drove up with Ellie,” I fudged. It was close enough to the truth. “We’re not staying any longer, though.”
Dad adjusted his stance. “Would you have time to let me take you for lunch?”
My eyebrows shot up as I crossed my arms in front of me defensively. “Are you kidding, Dad? Of course we’re not going to go for lunch with you. You’re investigating Ellie’s family!”
“I’m doing it for your safety,” he told me roughly. “And for Kaylie’s.”
“No, you’re not. You’re doing it because you can’t stand the fact that Kaylie and I could actually be happy without you breathing down our necks and controlling everything little thing that we do.” It felt so good to finally call him out on his behavior.
Of course, he was far from impressed. He squared his shoulders, and crossed his arms in front of his chest, mimicking my earlier gesture.
“Everything I’ve done for you has been for your own good,” he insisted. “You may not have realized it at the time, but everything I did was for you.”
“Right, so the constant moves were just to keep us safe and away from danger, then?”
“Yes!”
“Well, that danger wouldn’t have even existed if you weren’t so completely absorbed in work to the point where it spilled into our family,” I snapped back.
Dad’s face boiled, and his hands tightened. “Jason,” he growled menacingly. But he was too angry to even complete his sentence.
“I don’t even want to go into this anymore,” I told him. “Let’s just sum it up and say that everything you’ve ever done to me has been negative. You’ve pulled me down one criticism at a time, but I’ve moved past all that. And so has Kaylie, even if she’s still technically working for you. I’ve come here to pay my respects to the one parent who actually loved me for who I was, and not to deal with you,” I told him with finality. “Oh, and another thing: Leave the Kents alone,” I commanded. “They don’t deserve your crap.”
I turned my back to him, and faced the grave again. He stood there for a moment, but then finally turned to leave. I resisted the temptation to look, but I followed his every step until he was far away.
* * *
*~Ellie~*
I hadn’t seen Jay’s father coming until I had already walked away. By then, I figured it might be better for them to just meet up rather than me running over to tell Jay. I watched the exchange from afar, but didn’t listen in. When Jay’s dad started heading in my direction, I was tempted to leave so I wouldn’t have to deal with him, but something stopped me.
He looked so shaken. More fragile than I could ever imagine. He headed directly to his car, and placed his hands on the trunk, hanging his head down. I stood there, watching him silently from the trees, until my shifting foot cracked a branch. His head snapped up immediately and my feet froze to the ground.
“Hi,” I breathed afraid to do anything else.
He straightened up, and squared his shoulders. The effort it cost him to do that seemed monumental, and the mask he slipped on had cracks in it I hadn’t seen the last time I met him.
“It’s you,” he said blankly. “Ellie.” The nickname still formed in his mouth awkwardly, but surprisingly, there was a bare hint of a smile in the corner of his mouth. As if he realized his discomfort, but was still willing to address me as I requested.
“Mr. Stewart,” I nodded.
He barked a hoarse laugh. “You must know that’s not my real name. You’re here, with Jason, and you have to know the reason why you’re here.”
“Stewart is the only name I know for you, sir,” I shrugged. “If I were to call you something else, that would raise all kinds of questions about Jay and Kaylie. And besides, I haven’t told you my legal name, so maybe we’re even.” I felt courageous, making that cheeky comment, but he didn’t seem upset by it.
“You’re a smart woman, Ellie,” he told me.
“Thank you,” I replied.
His eyes still looked so bleak.
“Are you okay, Mr. Stewart?” I asked, not able to resist any more. I dared to take a step closer.
“My wife is dead,” he replied coldly. “There is nothing to be ‘okay’ about.”
I gulped. I could feel the rawness of his emotion, regardless of the chill he projected. I just wasn’t sure how to respond to it.
“I’m sorry,” I finally settled on saying.
He scrutinized me, his eyes roaming over the details of my face.
“You must know what I’m doing to your family, Ellie,” he told me.
“I do,” I nodded. There was no way I could deny it.
“Well? Do you have anything you want to say about it?”
“I want to say…” I paused. “I want to say that I love your son, sir. And I think that’s all that should matter.”
He stood there, not saying a word. Finally, he nodded definitively.
He clicked the remote on his keys, and opened the door of his car.
“I’ll see you at the wedding, Ellie,” he told me.
“Goodbye, Mr. Stewart,” I replied.
He climbed into the car, and drove off. I waited until he was out of sight before I allowed myself to lean again a tree, sighing with relief. I had no idea what his motivation was behind half of the things he said, but at least I hadn’t said anything indiscreet.
At least, I didn’t think so. But he had obviously gotten something out of our conversation, right? The only problem was that I had no idea what it was.
