Deepening

Mick sighs and turns back to the pancakes. “I’m alright I guess…not to easy seeing a kid like that…he reminds me a lot of Dylan at that age.” He reaches up in the cupboard to pull out a bag of chocolate chips, creating a smiley face in the pancake. “And no…no one found anything that I know of. Under normal circumstances, we’d be obligated to take BJ into the authorities so they could find his family and place him proper care…” He shakes his head. “But we know this has to do with the Agency, and I’d be scared to let him go, especially if Sam was telling the truth.” He takes the plate and sets it on the table, along with a small cup of milk. “You’re right though…this kid has no idea what’s going on, which makes it even sadder…but maybe it’s a good thing.” He pauses in thought. “I think maybe it would be a good idea to take him in to JT and have him run some tests or an x-ray to really find out what’s going on. Until we’re sure there’s a chip or something in him, we’re just sitting at square one, not going anywhere…and come to think of it, I might give Damien an ring too…I’m still not convinced he doesn’t have a chip himself.”
Mick sticks his head out of the kitchen. “Hey, Bud, your pancake is ready, come on.” He turns back to Rosetta. “Keep an eye on him, will ya? I gotta go take a shower and get some clean clothes on.”

The mess hall door opens and closes, as others begin to filter in for the morning.


“Hey, Katie!” Scott peaks over the cubical wall with big grin. “Glad to see ya made it in this morning!” He shoves his glasses up further on his nose. “Listen, if you need anything at all, or can’t find anything, just give a holler and I’m all yours.”

“Scott! I need you!”

He turns around to see someone waving at him, and pointing at their computer. “I guess duty calls.” He shrugs and waves to Katie. “Catch you later then.” As he walks away, he bumps a table, knocking off a stack of papers onto the floor. “Oh, oh bother,” he mumbles. He bends down to pick them up, and when he tries to straighten up, he hits his head on the corner of the table, jolting it enough to spill the holder of pencils, sending them rolling in all directions. After several attempts to get everything back in its place, the other person is calling him again, and he’s finally able to leave behind the table in slight disarray.


Jason looks at his computer with frustration, unable to find where he’d seen that name before. There were just so many loose ends in this case. It was like a box of puzzle pieces that were from five different puzzles.

A tap on the door brings him out of his concentration, and he doesn’t even have to ask who’s there. He recognizes the light knock. “Come on in,” he calls.

Jade slips inside, and approaches him quietly, sitting down close to him on the edge of his bed. “Didn’t see you in the mess hall yet, so I guess I just wanted to see if you were alright.”

Jason scoffs. “Me? Alright? Yeah, sure.”

Jade sighs, looking at him with concern. “You haven’t exactly been yourself the last few days.”

“Would you be?” Jason turns in his seat to lean an arm on the back of his chair. He looks down, sighing deeply. “I’m sorry…I just…don’t know what’s wrong with me lately.”

“Well you’ve been through a lot,” Jade reasons. “I guess I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t anything I’d done.”

Jason looks up quickly, not having wanted to make her feel bad. “No, it’s nothing you’ve done at all. All you’ve done is be patient with me and stick with me despite all the messing up I’ve done.”

Jade grins a little. “It’s not as bad as you make it sound.” She pauses, cocking her head. “So what is it, really, Jason? Is it your past again? Or you and Austin, or…?”

“No.” Jason shakes his head. “I’m okay with the past…it flares up in my dreams, but I’ve learned how to get through that and control it. And Austin and I are okay at the moment…we talked.”

“What then?” Jade bites her lip, hesitating. “Is it Katie?”

Jason’s gaze drops again. “Logically I just can’t think anything I did was wrong, and yet something keeps trying to make me feel guilty about the whole thing. And on top of that, she’s back at TJY where I’m supposed to be.”

Jade gives him a small look of amusement. “So not only are you two on the outs, but you’re jealous that she’s back at your stomping grounds without you there.”

“I guess.”

Jade sighs, knowing it must not be easy. “I can’t say that I can blame either one of you for what you’re both feeling, but there’s a solution, I’m sure.”

“Was I that wrong?” Jason asks. “If you’d been Katie, would you have gotten that upset?”

Jade thinks for a moment. “Honestly? Probably.”

Jason quirks an eyebrow. “Well why? What did I do that was so wrong?”

“You hid things from her, Jason,” Jade replies gently. “Good friends don’t do that, especially with something so important. I understand you had your reasons, but if you’d really cared about her as a friend, you should have at least put all the cards on the table to begin with.”

“But I still would have said no!”

“That doesn’t matter.” Jade shakes her head. “You knew it was something extremely important to Katie. She at least should have had the chance to know about it and take another avenue herself if she so chose.”

“Well what about the whole thing about her being so upset I didn’t tell her about us?” Jason can feel his defense weakening, and fights it.

Jade’s face warms slightly. “Part of that is probably my fault…I guess I didn’t realize that she liked you that way, and if I had, I probably would have gone about things a little differently. But as it stood… I suppose you didn’t do anything wrong on that one… unless it was simply being a guy who can’t read a woman well enough to keep himself out of trouble.”

Jason’s eyes widen slightly. “What do you mean?”

A wry grin comes to Jade’s lips. “Let me give you a little hint…even if you think something is obvious to us, it makes us feel good to have you say it anyway. Katie liked you, Jason…whether you or I knew it or not. And…as a friend, she probably felt she, of all people, would know about something you cared about, but she didn’t. Instead, she saw us kissing, and it hit her harder than it should have.”

Jason lets out a long sigh, turning back to his computer, fighting his thoughts. “So I did screw up then.”

Jade shrugs. “What’s done is done. But any realizations you come to might help change the future.” She stands up, and leans over to give him a kiss on the cheek. “I’m going to get some breakfast. You want anything?”

“Nah…not now…I’ll get something later.” Jason hears Jade leave, and pushes his laptop aside. He’d been so confident of his decision…he’d fought his reasoning tooth and toenail….but…had he been wrong?