Chapter 17

As I followed Dad into the den, I reflected that I was really not shocked at his behavior, or that he apparently knew at least some things about us. A little surprised, but not shocked. He must have suspected quite a bit to have pulled that little stunt with Amy. Dad would never have attempted anything that would have risked injury to his precious granddaughter in any way. He knew she would not be hurt! Amy and Megan followed me into the den behind Dad. Megan was her normal, unflappable, 'I saw this coming a long time ago' self. Very little fazed her. Amy was smiling broadly, having a good time. She loved her Daddy and her Grampa and both were here together, with her likely to be the center of attention. What more could she want?

The thing was, I just didn't know how to go about this. This would be the first time I had ever told anyone about us. Even though it was my Dad, at least in theory the safest person to tell, still I was very nervous. After keeping a secret for so many years, it just seemed... wrong, or at least dangerous, to tell anyone.

Dad sat in his favorite chair, whereas I sat on the couch, with Amy and Megan sitting on either side of me. Both of them cuddled up close, trying to comfort me, for they both picked up how nervous I was. I just didn't know where to start.

Dad raised his eyebrows at me, waiting for me to begin. I still hesitated. Megan squeezed my hand in support. She didn't seem upset about all this. Of course, she probably knew it was going to happen. Amy finally got impatient (Amy?!? No! Never!), waiting for me, and decided to help out.

"It' ok, Daddy. Grampa loves all of us. He wouldn't do anything to hurt us. He already knows a lot of it anyway," she said as she smiled reassuringly at me. Then she turned to my Dad.

"He's a little nervous, Grampa. He takes protecting us very seriously. It's not that he doesn't trust you; he just has never told anyone this before. He worries about us. It's one of the reasons we love him so!" Amy smiled brilliantly at me. How could she be so calm about this?

"It's because we know it has to happen, sweetheart. He has to know. He can protect us. He already has. It really is ok, Patrick," Megan assured me. Then Dad got into the act.

"Patrick, I haven't told you this nearly enough in your life, but I love you and Victoria. I love your children... all six of them," he smiled at Amy's and my look of surprise, "and I am very fond so far of your future wife." He smiled indulgently as Megan and I blushed. Amy leaned over to whisper to me.

"SIX children?" I didn't think Amy had known yet. Apparently, I was right. Dad continued.

"I would never do anything to hurt your family. I will do everything to protect it. I don't have to know this, Son. If you don't want to tell me, it's ok. But it is sometimes, oftentimes, useful to know someone of my... power, and the more I know, the more I can help." He looked at me expectantly. Amy decided to help again.

"Do you want me to tell him, Daddy?" She smiled eagerly. That, more than anything, convinced me to tell him. Megan tried to hide her smile. She knew that having Amy tell this story was probably the last thing I wanted.

"Our family is a little... different, Dad. You've seen Amy's shield. You weren't surprised because you already knew about that, probably from our mutual friend you interrogated. All of the girls have them, each their own color. I probably do too, although I have never used mine. The girls take very seriously protecting their Dad." I smiled tightly.

"Do they use that energy offensively, also?" Dad asked. He wasn't having any trouble believing me, apparently.

"Usually not. Megan has. Amy tied to once, until I stopped her." Amy looked at me, not a happy look, and stuck out her tongue at me. I grinned. "She still hasn't forgiven me for not letting her kill her surviving kidnapper." She grinned at me to show me she was not really still mad.

"How many kidnappers were there? Where are the others?" Dad asked.

"The other two were apparently unable to survive Samantha's and my energy used offensively," I explained. "We are the only three that have been offensive." I ignored Amy's giggle and Megan and Dad's smile. Perhaps I could have phrased that better! Dad let me continue.

"We also have a certain ability to read each others emotions and physical position in space. That ability is especially strong between sets of twins, but does exist outside that also." I ignored the look Megan gave me. I was not willing to explain mind reading and knowing the future just yet.

"You have seen the speed at which Amy moves. That is complemented by her fighting ability, apparently without any previous training. Megan is even better than Amy." I ignored Amy's look of disgust and incredulous disbelief. Megan just smiled at her gently. 'Shall we dance?' her smile seemed to say. Amy looked eager. I swatted each of them on the leg to make them behave. Dad smiled at the byplay.

"It is my belief that all of the girls have this ability to move fast and use deadly force with great expertise, when needed. So far, Amy, Megan, Victoria and Samantha have showed it." Dad's eyes widened briefly when I mentioned Victoria.

"I guess that is about it, Dad. I don't know what we are, really, and I don't know if the girls have other powers or not. Did you or Mom ever show any kind of abilities like this?" I didn't think he would tell me if they had, but he surprised me. He looked at me patiently, like he knew I was holding something back, then answered me.

"No, we haven't. But there is no reason why we should. Your Mom and I never told you this, Son, but you and Victoria were adopted. You are brother and sister, twins, just not biologically ours." Dad looked a little embarrassed. Now there was one to write on the calendar; Dad, embarrassed!

All of us looked at him in shock. This was new. I had never suspected that.

"Do you know anything about our real... ?" I stopped, embarrassed myself. "I'm sorry, Dad, you are our real parents. I meant our biological parents."

"It's alright, Son, I know what you meant," He said, smiling in understanding. He stopped to collect his thoughts, then continued.

"No one knows who your parents were. Your Mom and I were both working for the Wyoming State Police at the time. We were both called to a particularly bad accident on the interstate involving a van. A Good Samaritan came across the accident and called it in, but there were no eyewitnesses. Weirdest case I ever worked. There was evidence that two vehicles were involved, yet there was only one on the scene. The van was almost totally destroyed, so the other vehicle had to have been large to do that much damage and still leave the scene." He paused, remembering.

"When we got to the scene, we found two adult males and two adult females, dead in the van. It appeared they were two couples. We found four children, two boys and two girls, all about the same age, sitting on the grass by the highway. All the children were about four years old. From the little we were able to get out of the children, they were two sets of twins; each set a boy and a girl. We were never able to determine if the sets of twins were related; we were never even able to identify the adults, nor determine the relationship, if any, between the couples. Their history just seemed to vanish into thin air from two days before the accident, when they had spent a day and a night at a motel in Laramie." Then, Dad told us the interesting part!

"We couldn't believe the children had survived the accident unharmed. When we examined each child, however, we detected signs of very recent, massive trauma to each child. The trauma may have not been fatal, but it was certainly critical and debilitating. Yet, each child showed signs of recent... healing, for lack of a better term, from the injuries. They were happy, healthy, and alive."

"As you might suspect, we kept most of this information out of the public eye. We couldn't cover up everything, and indeed, didn't want to, as we hoped the publicity would help identify the parents and next of kin. It caused quite a splash in the media for about a week, as you can imagine. Four cute as a button little kids, miraculously unhurt in a devastating hit and run collision, unidentified and homeless. It didn't help. No one had any idea who the parents or children were or where they came from."

"Your Mom and I had been trying to have children, unsuccessfully, for several years. We had finally decided we were not ideal candidates for parents, being too selfish and busy with our own lives to devote the proper amount of time to raising children." He smiled at me, knowing that was exactly my assessment of their parenting skills also. "But your Mom, and I too, fell in love with the four darling little children that were suddenly homeless. It didn't take too long for us to arrange to adopt one set of twins, whose names, as far as we could tell, were Patrick and Victoria. We would have loved to adopt all four of them, but just did not think we could handle that. There was no evidence the two sets of twins were related anyway. They could have been, but we just weren't sure."

"What happened to the other children?" I asked, curious if they had ever been identified.

"They were adopted by another couple. In those days, the adoption agencies were very strict about releasing information about identities, so we never had any contact with them. I did hear through the grapevine years later that the boy might have died suddenly when he was about ten years old, but I was never able to verify even that at the time."

"So, you see, Son, your Mom and I would never have shown any of these 'talents' if they were inherited, as we are not of the same gene pool."

I had spent years listening to my Dad talk. He never says anything that he doesn't mean. No mistakes when he talks. Everything very precise. Listen to him carefully, and you can gain infinitely more knowledge than from other men. It was up to you to hear it and understand, then take advantage of it.

"The other boy and girl," I asked. "You said you had heard that the young boy might have died when he was about ten years old, but you had never been able to verify that at the time. You said 'at the time'. Have you verified it now? Do you know who the other boy and girl are?" My Dad loved playing these games. He was good at it. He taught me well, too. He laughed.

"You have learned the game well, haven't you? I miss you being around, Son. You must come by more often. I enjoy seeing your delightful children, and I am madly in love with your beautiful future wife! It is a good thing I am already married to a wonderful woman, or you would have to watch out!" He laughed heartily, his eyes sparkling with mirth and joy. Megan blushed prettily, her eyes sparkling also. I felt a tinge of jealousy; then she looked into my eyes and I knew I had nothing to worry about. Changing the subject was also something my Dad was very good at. He saw that I had noticed his diversion, and held up his hand to save me the trouble of repeating the question.

"Yes, I do know now who the other young boy and girl are. The boy did indeed die when he was ten. The girl is still alive." He sat there, looking at me, his hands crossed across his stomach.

"May I inquire as to her identity? It could be important to know the identity of others who may have our same powers." I knew the answer before I asked. Megan smiled at me. Of course she knew what he would say!

"You may inquire. I will not, however, give you that information. The young lady deserves the same privacy that you wish to enjoy. I have never asked her if she would like her identity disclosed, and would never do so without her permission. In my job, I know many things about many people. That information is always secret as long as it can be. If it ever becomes critical that you know her identity, for the good of our family or our nation, I will give you that information. Until then, her identity remains unknown." Dad smiled at me, attempting to rob his words of any offense or rebuke.

I breathed a sigh of relief. I was actually glad of his response. Too often, men in his position played footloose and fancy free with the information they had; oftentimes, it was information they should not have had in the first place. I was glad my Dad had the integrity I had always hoped he had. His answer actually did a lot towards bringing us closer together and relieving my anxiety at what I had to tell him. But things were never simple or easy around my Dad.

"So, Son, since I have been straightforward with you in the questions you asked, are you now going to tell me the rest of the story?" Dad smiled as he pinned me to the wall. He loved to do that! Megan laughed and Amy giggled, both finding the humor in my Dad's riposte. I, of course, still tried to act innocent.

"I don't know what you mean, Dad," I objected innocently. Even I could not keep a straight face as I said that, and we all laughed together. Dad played the game, however.

"Well, let's see. You haven't told me about the ability some of your family members, whose names I shall not reveal, have to heal injuries. There is also a little matter of Amy supposedly being dead, yet coming back to life. I have also seen reports periodically about the ability to read minds and know the future. There even seems to be an ability that some may have to affect events and interface and affect computers almost instantly. Seems to extend to remote security cameras also. Amy, please tell Katie to pick some other shows; I worry about her taste in television. Not to mention I had to watch the whole thing to verify there were no breaks in the coverage. Yuck! I won't even mention some other interesting and unusual patterns of behavior in the family that may be going on behind closed doors. Not that I am judging, mind you; just curious. How am I doing, Son?"

Suddenly, Megan, Amy and I were no longer smiling. Not that we were upset, mind you; it just was now a very serious subject. Apparently, my Dad knew a lot more about us than I had ever expected. He certainly didn't get all of this information from the kidnapper. I looked at Megan and saw her give me a tiny nod.

"Where did you get all this information, Dad?" I asked softly. This wasn't a game anymore. I needed to know if there was a serious leak somewhere, or if we needed to worry about who knew about us. If this was just Dad's uncanny way of gaining information on everyone, that was less frightening. Amy looked at him closely, and I saw her swallow hard. He had her attention also. Dad looked at us with sympathy.

"Please don't be alarmed. You are not in danger; at least, not anymore. You may have been at one time. What I am about to tell you is classified as top secret and cannot be repeated. I am only telling you because I think you should know. No one outside this room, except your Mother, knows about this." He stopped speaking for a minute, and I waited patiently for him to continue.

"A number of years ago, I worked in the department that would pass for the Internal Affairs Division of the organization I now work for. At the time, my attention was drawn to one of the 'managing agents' in our organization, that seemed to be paying an unusual amount of attention to unusual, unexplained events, particularly involving young girls. At first, my investigation centered on the theory that he was a pedophile that was attracted to these girls, since all the girls he paid attention to were extraordinarily pretty. However, it soon became apparent that he was more attracted to certain talents they had, not their bodies. I began monitoring the girls he was paying attention to. Imagine my surprise, even shock, when I realized that four of them were my own granddaughters, and two of their friends! I began to watch very carefully. I became particularly alarmed when I found that he had purchased numerous tracts of land, all out in the country, that seemed to be set up as some kind of camps. There did not appear to be any evidence that these camps had ever been used, but there was a certain amount of activity around them at that time that indicated they were being prepared for use."

"As you might imagine, being in an Internal Affairs type division, I had a lot of leeway in whom I investigated, how and when. I could even investigate my own boss if I deemed it necessary. One day, when he was out visiting his camps, I entered his office and conducted a thorough on-site investigation. What I found surprised, shocked and frightened me."

"This man, whom we will call Richard, knew everything about Megan, Patrick and Victoria. He knew all about the powers you have, having documented them very carefully. He also had detailed records of each of your daughters. I also found detailed floor plans of the various camps."

"The most alarming evidence of unauthorized activity, however, was what I found in his computer records. He was the head of a project that focused on the use of paranormal and psychic phenomenon and the use of such mental talents in national defense. I discovered secret plans, outside of the plans he submitted to the department, for the isolation and experimentation on subjects to this end. He had plans to kidnap subjects showing these potentials, take them to camps for a short period of time, a week usually, train and test them in certain abilities, then wipe their minds of all memories of being there, replace their memories with the activities they were supposed to be involved in and return them to their families. He even had detailed plans on inviting the girls to certain activities — cheerleader camps, sports camps, even training sessions for various governmental internships, to keep their parents from being suspicious."

"Needless to say, I shut down his department the next day and made arrangements to have him arrested by our own security agents. The next day, Richard, the man we are talking about, killed the three agents that were working with him on the project and then killed himself. I destroyed all the evidence, so that nothing exists to this day concerning the project or our family."

Megan and I looked at each other in shock. You have to be pretty good to pull one over on Megan without her seeing it coming. I could tell she was thinking the same thing I was — Richard was the name of the man in the last cycle that Victoria had worked for, that had set up the camps, that had kidnapped our girls, and Victoria, periodically, taking them to the camps. He was the one that arranged the death of Cindi and then cloned her, tried to program Katie, then had kidnapped Julie when we went after him. All of this had been avoided due to the diligence of my Dad. Maybe he wasn't the world's best Dad at raising his kids, but we certainly owed him our lives.

I realized as I looked into his eyes when he finished the story that he had paid much more for protecting us than he let on. The sadness I saw there convinced me that Richard had probably not killed his agents and then killed himself. I saw no guilt there, however, just as I saw no guilt in Victoria's eyes after she killed Richard in the last cycle. Dad was convinced that Richard got what he deserved. Dad would probably never know how much grief and pain he had saved our family.

"So, Son, I have been honest with you. Now, who heals in your family? Who tells the future? Who gave my precious Amy life again? Either answer me or tell me it is none of my business." Once again, Dad smiled to rob his words of offense. I hadn't seen Dad smile this much in his whole life. I wouldn't have taken offense anyway, probably. Dad was always gruff and abrupt; it was his way. I used to worry when he was nice!

Megan nodded again, once, slightly. Amy gave me one of her precious little smiles. I wondered how long it would take Dad to catch on about my relationship with Amy. I thought he probably already had; I already knew he wasn't stupid.

"Forgive me, Dad. I don't mean to be obstructive. It's just hard for me to part with knowledge that my whole life has required me to keep secret. No offense; it's nothing personal." Dad smiled knowingly. If anyone knew about secrets and the difficulty in keeping them or telling them, it was Dad.

"We know Megan, Cindi and Julie can heal. Megan is our little fortune teller, who can see the future." Megan blushed and giggled as I said that. "She can't always see what is to happen. She's particularly blind about events just involving her or her children. She can't always tell us what she sees. She's not allowed to tell anything that will significantly change events. Sometimes, she breaks that rule." Megan blushed again, and looked embarrassed. "We love her especially when she does that." I kissed her nose, making her giggle and blush even more. "We know that Amy cannot heal, at least without causing corresponding damage to herself."

"Cindi can alter events, or the conditions of events, as long as they don't affect her only. Katie can manipulate computers, cameras, anything electronic. She and Becky can also manipulate minds, but only if the mind is willing to allow it. It's likely that Katie's and Becky's powers are identical, as they are identical twins."

"Megan, and now Julie, are what we call Scribes, or Historians." I flinched as Megan shot me a blazing, 'fire in her eyes' look. She still had not forgiven me for that! Dad smiled as he saw the look. I'm sure he recognized it from his own wife after years of marriage! "They record and remember everything, forever. For reasons that are too painful to go into at the moment, we don't really know the full extent of Julie's and Samantha's powers." I could see the wheels turning in Dad's mind.

"Did Elizabeth's and Robert's death have anything to do with all of this?" Dad asked. I saw his face fall with chagrin as he saw the look of pain, grief and guilt that crossed my face. "Never mind, Son, don't answer that. I'm sorry for asking it. Forgive me." I was surprised at Dad's sensitivity. I was beginning to think that I could actually get to like this man. I was sorry that Victoria hadn't come, to be able to see what he was really like. I decided to change the subject. Dad saw my pain and let me.

"Was there anything at all in the van or that you discovered in the investigation later that shed any light on my... parents?" I felt uncomfortable calling them that, as it seemed to imply to me that Mom and Dad weren't my parents, but I just didn't know what else to refer to them as. Dad's face lit up like a light bulb as he obviously remembered something.