| Subject: Chapters 7 & 8 |
Author:
Jaron
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Date Posted: 20:05:43 12/21/01 Fri
In reply to:
Jaron
's message, "The Green-Eyed Monster" on 09:13:01 12/21/01 Fri
The Green-Eyed Monster
Chapter 7
Michael found Rene stretched out, face down on his bed. He sat down next to his son and
placed a hand on Rene’s back. His touch set off an explosion of emotion as Rene jumped
up and flung his arms around Michael’s neck. Michael wrapped his own arms around his
son and they held each other for what seemed an eternity.
“Rene, you know I have to go,” Michael said softly. Rene clung even tighter to Michael as
if to stave off the inevitable, as if by holding on, he could keep Michael from leaving.
“Daddy, tell them you don’t want to work for them anymore! Tell them you won’t come
back!” Rene pulled his head back and looked at his father. “Please, Daddy?”
Michael felt as if his heart was breaking. “Rene, you know there is nothing I want more in
this world than to stay with you, but I have to go back. I’ll be back as soon as I can. You
have to understand.”
“I don’t want to understand! I want you here with me and Mom! Quit your job. Tell them
you don’t want to work for them any more!!” The threatening tears were now running
down his cheeks, as he once again clung to Michael.
“Listen to me, Rene.” Michael pried his son’s arms from around his neck and settled him
into his arms so that he could look down into Rene’s face. “There is something that I
have to tell you. It will be hard for you to hear, but you have to know. It’s why I cannot
quit my job like other fathers do. It’s why I will always work for the Section and why I
always have to go back.” Michael drew a deep breath and wished that this conversation
was not taking place. “A long time ago, when I was a young student at university, I did
something very, very wrong. I was sent to prison. Because what I did was so terrible,
they were never going to let me out of that prison.”
“Daddy, what did you do?” Rene’s eyes were wide with shock.
Michael sighed and knew he had to finish what he had started. “I helped someone build a
bomb. We were students protesting what we felt was an injustice and we wanted to
shock the government into listening to us. My friend told me he was planting the bomb in
a place where no one would be hurt, but he lied to me. There were a lot of people where
he planted the bomb and some of them were killed when the bomb exploded. I was
caught and convicted and put in prison for life. And I stayed there until the Section
stepped in and took me away from prison. They gave me another chance to live and they
trained me to stop people like my friend and those who were much worse than my friend.
That’s why I can never leave my job. It is my punishment for the bad things I did.”
Michael kept hearing Grace’s voice in his head, just keep things simple. Don’t give long
explanations. Just answer his questions simply and truthfully. He was shaken from his
reverie by Rene’s voice.
“But Daddy, you didn’t mean for people to be killed. It wasn’t fair for them to give you all
the blame and lock you up. Your friend wasn’t much of a friend if he let you take all of
the blame. I hate him! What happened to him?” he asked, quickly becoming angry on his
father’s behalf.
“He died,” Michael murmured, quickly deciding not to tell Rene that it was his namesake
that had set Michael on his current path. Neither would he tell Rene that he had once
been so tormented that he had almost allowed himself to die with Rene Dion. Only his
light, Nikita, had saved him. Another reason to love his Nikita, she had saved him for his
son, even though she didn’t know that at the time.
“Good!” Rene snapped, “I’m glad he got what he deserved.” The vehemence with which
Rene spoke shook Michael. Rene felt awful for what had happened to his father. He
reached up to touch Michael’s face and wipe away the tears that now streaked his
father’s face. “Daddy, you are my hero, you will always be my hero, and nothing you do
will ever stop me being proud of you. What you do now protects people, doesn’t it?”
Michael was speechless. He could only nod, and accept his son’s embrace. “Well, then,
you have an important job to do, and I will just have to accept that. Do you have to go
right away?”
Michael nodded and hugged Rene tightly. Giving thanks that Rene understood, and still
loved him. He also reflected upon the fact that it had been Rene Dion who had
inadvertently set Michael on the path that had led to Section and his wife, Simone. So,
in some small way, Rene’s namesake was responsible for giving him this warm, giving child
he now held in his arms. With one last hug and kiss, Michael stood with Rene still in his
arms and walked back out into the dining room where Grace and Carson waited to say
good-bye.
The Green-Eyed Monster
Chapter 8
The days passed quickly, and still we had no word from Michael. Then the phone rang and
suddenly Rene was full of smiles. I saw him as he ran to the phone and watched as his
face lit up. “Daddy! How are you, where are you? Are you coming home for Christmas?”
I watched as disappointment filled my son’s face, and heard it in his voice, as he said
sadly, “I understand.....really I do. You’ll try, won’t you? Okay ......just a minute. Mom, he
wants to talk to you. Good-bye, Daddy, I love you, too! Here’s Mom.....” He handed me
the phone and headed for his room. He passed Carson in the hallway and shook his head
as Carson asked if he wanted to kick around the soccer ball. Carson let him pass and
looked to me for an explanation.
“Hello, Michael,” I said. Carson nodded his understanding and turned back down the
hallway to talk to Rene.
“Grace, I’m sorry. It’s been one mission after another. I know that Rene is disappointed.
I had hoped to be able to visit, but it has been crazy here. Operations has not been a
happy camper in weeks, and I can’t seem to do anything right in his eyes. He has even
taken Nikita away from me. I am no longer her mentor. He told me I had to let go
sometime. And I guess he felt this was the right time. I have barely seen her since I
came back.” Michael stopped talking for a few moments.
“Michael?” I asked, “Is something wrong. Are you there?”
“Yes, I’m still here. That’s the problem. I’m here and Rene is there. I’m sorry I had to
disappoint him, but I just don’t know when I will be back. I was hoping to spend
Christmas with him, but now I don’t know where I will be. I’ll try to make it if I can.”
Silence again.
“Rene is in a Christmas pageant next week on the 23rd. He’s playing a wise man. He was
hoping you would be there,” I said.
“I want to be there, but if I’m not, I guess Carson will be there for him. He’s always
there for Rene, isn’t he?” The anger in his voice surprised me.
I felt like scolding him, but instead, I said, “Carson will take us to the pageant, Michael,
but only because you won’t be here. He will go with us because you told him to protect us
and that is why he does it, not because he wants to take your place. Your place will
always be here waiting for you. You know that! Now stop being a green-eyed monster
about this. Get over the jealousy and try to work something out, so you can have
Christmas with Rene!” Well, I thought, maybe I was scolding him. This sudden display of
jealousy towards Carson was so unlike Michael, I thought, he must be under a lot of
stress. “Michael,” I said soothingly, “Try to be here for Christmas, and bring Nikita and
Walter if you can, and Birkoff too, that is, if they can also get away.”
His anger abated, Michael’s voice seemed calmer, “I’ll try my best.” he said. “And I will
bring the others too. Oh, Grace, if Walter comes, don’t mention Belinda.”
“Why?” I asked, “Did that old man scare her off?” I laughed.
“No, Grace,” I stopped breathing when I heard the tone of his voice. “She’s gone. She
was killed on a mission last week. They had just been married that morning before she
left, and she didn’t come back from the mission. Walter was devastated, but Nikita and
Birkoff were there for him. He took it pretty hard.”
“Oh, Michael! Tell him that I am so sorry. I know he loved her so much.” I felt awful for
Walter. He had been so happy when he told me about Belinda. “It just isn’t fair!”
“You’re right, Grace. It isn’t fair, and it isn’t fair for Rene to be without his father at
Christmas. We haven’t had a Christmas together since he was three. Please tell him I
will be there if I can work it out. And tell him I love him. Take care, Grace. And tell
Carson I said thanks for watching over you and Rene. I have to go. I have a briefing in
10 minutes. Good-bye, Grace. And have a Merry Christmas if I don’t see you before
then. Good-bye.” And he broke the connection.
I sat down and cried. Life can be a real bitch sometimes, I thought. Hmmmm, I
wondered, with the tears drying on my face, should I call Operations and wish him and
Madeline a Merry Christmas? Couldn’t hurt, could it?
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