Real.Doc - Part 2 - Joe (English Version)

It's you who's driving me nuts

The next day, Rony and I woke up to the smell of breakfast. Jase was frantically making coffee and the famous bacon and eggs. What he was doing wasn't that complicated, but his expression was serious.

"Mornin'," Ron said.

"Oh, hey man."

"Didn't get much sleep, huh?"

"Not a wink. Lilly, how'd you sleep?"

"I slept well, thank you for asking."

Jase looked very nervous, and Ron did his best to calm him down.

"Don't fret. You'll see that taking care of Lilly isn't as hard as it seems."

"You think I'm worried about her?" Ron and I didn't understand, so he continued, "It's you who's driving me nuts."

"Me?!"

"You're not yourself, are you?"

Still not understanding, Ron asked, "Not myself?"

"She hid your... senses, that woman."

"What?" Ron still didn't understand, but then...

I remembered.

"She did."

"What?!" Ron insisted, still confused.

"If she hid this from him and didn't give it back, it could be that she's still using him."

"He's harmless."

"She's not."

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?"

"Don't you remember, Ron?" I asked. "What you used to do? What your power was?"

It was only then that Ron understood we were talking about his mind-reading power. He was utterly shocked.

"How the hell do you know this?" Ron asked Jase.

"Just do," Jase replied, unimpressed.

"That won't cut it."

"Too bad. That's all I have."

Ron was dumbfounded after our little realization. We could practically hear the gears in his mind turning.

"But it can't be...," he was talking almost to himself. "...it happened before I was reunited with her."

"How about her son?"

Ron thought some more and looked extremely annoyed.

"Are you trying to say that she took my ability to read minds..."

"Yes." Jase replied calmly as he ate his Cheerios.

"...so that I wouldn't read Chaos's mind..."

"Keep going."

"...and that way, I wouldn't be able to find her? Is that what you're saying?"

Jase didn't say anything else. It wasn't needed.

"This is ridiculous!" Ron protested. "I mean... this is absurd... why would she hide anything from me? She... she loves me! It makes no sense that she... she would never...."

"Maybe being a mother was, or is more important to her," Jase remarked, sending a shiver through both my and Ron's spine. We realized that we had a big problem if MaryAnne was only there for Chaos and not Ron.

After a long while, still stunned and watching Jase eat his cereal, Ron spoke up.

"Okay, so, now she's a mother. She had her kid, and she raised him like she wanted. She reunited with me, so... there should be no reason to keep my power numbed out."

"Unless she's still has something to hide."

"And what would that be?"

Jase hesitated.

"Perhaps you should ask her."

"Tell me!" Ron demanded, punching the table.

Jase didn't say anything, and Ron was furious. He backed away from the table, staring at us in amazement. Finally, Ron grabbed his stuff and left.

I was still watching in amazement when Jase spoke.

"You know what I'm talking about."

After a short while, I asked, "How do you know all this?"

"I just do."

Then, after some more time, "Did you purposely drive him away?"

"He was driving me in-sane."

"You do know that he's family, right?" Jase didn't respond. Instead, he grimaced as if I wasn't going to like the answer. "Right?"

"III knoooow..." He replied in a bad mood and got up to clear the table. I got up to help him.

We spent some time in silence organizing things, so I decided to take advantage of the moment alone with him to ask the difficult questions.

"To think that in this very place we...."

"Don't even think about it, mother," he said, putting a lot of emphasis on the last word. "We all know what happened to your last guardian."

"Cesar is different. He's..."

"Gone mad?"

And it was there that Jase gained all my admiration.

"He has, but the circumstances made him that way," I tried to defend Cesar. "You would have gone mad too."

He made a face like he was politely disagreeing.

"What?" I challenged. "You don't think it could happen to you?"