Family Ties

Part 68

Later that evening Jackson carried a sleeping Skye to his room, while Raymond got some coffee ready. A few moments later, he heard Jackson answer his phone. There was complete silence, which unnerved Raymond slightly. This was the call he'd been dreading all evening.

Stepping into the lounge, he watched as Jackson sunk into the couch, his eyes wide with shock, his hand over his mouth as he listened. Taking a seat next to him, he heard a firm no and watched as the phone was thrown across the room.

"That didn't seem like it was a good phone call." He gently nudged him, handing him a coffee.

"My mother..." He swallowed hard, "... They said that there was a break-in... That the entire house was torn apart and... that she seems to have lost her mind. They're moving her to a psychiatric hospital." He said in disbelief. So much has happened in one day, he found it hard to process it all.

From being attacked, watching as Skye brought down two grown men by himself, before getting them to safety, to hearing this. How insane can one day get?

"Do you want to go over to her?" Raymond felt slightly guilty at what he'd done, but the anger of what she'd dared to do started boiling inside him again.

"No," he sighed. "I'll go tomorrow. My dad will be there anyway and I really don't want to see any of them right now." Rubbing his face, he picked up his cup. "Why's it that your coffee is always better than mine," he briefly smiled at Raymond trying to change the subject.

"You went through a lot today. How are you doing?" He reached out to smooth his hand over Jackson's hair, resting his hand at his nape.

"All things considered, I'm almost over the shock, really and happy that we're alive," He sighed. "I was so caught off guard by all of it, but it seemed as if Skye knew what was happening and started to take one of the men down, as I struggled with the other. He'd turned into a highly trained soldier, saving both of us, while I didn't know what to do next."

"Skye was trained for situations like this. He would have reacted that way if any of us were with him. He's very protective of those he loves." Raymond smiled, to assuage his guilt.

"But I should have been the one protecting him! What sort of father will I be if I can't even protect our son?" He asked miserably.

"We're all skilled in different ways. Skye's training makes him better skilled than anyone for a situation like that. You protect him every day and make him feel safe in so many ways, so don't blame yourself or feel bad about it. He certainly doesn't. All he is happy about is that he saved his Pappie and that we're all safe."

"It's a lot to process. I was so scared he was going to get hurt the whole time." He shivered thinking about it. "But there was another guy with a white mask. Do you know him? He seemed to know your fathers."

"Oh?" Now comes the sticky part. Kelley would go with telling the truth, but he needed life to return to normal before he could even consider that conversation. "No, they didn't say anything to me." He lied smoothly.

"Even though he was there to save us, I felt like a killing machine had entered the room. He had a really ominous and terrifying presence." He shuddered. "Almost as if he could kill you without thinking about it. And the way he fought off all those men, was scary. He showed no mercy until they were all down." He shook his head.

"But, whoever he is, I owe him my family." He smiled, pulling Raymond closer to him. "I've got more bad news, though."

"What? What happened?" Raymond immediately jumped up, ready to take on whatever what happening.

"Nothing like that. Come on," He pulled Raymond back down next to him under his arm. "I'm on extended leave from my job at Dealers and stepped back from the board for a while, so... technically I'm unemployed."

"Technically?" He placed his hand over Jackson's chest. "You either are or you aren't. I think in your current state, you're unemployed. What are you going to do next?"

"In the meantime, while I work things out and become used to everything, I have a position at the bakery. Kelley recommended that I talk to someone, so perhaps I'll do that to try and figure out how to get out of this mess."

"You're going to work at the bakery? That's quite a change in pace isn't it?"

"It'll give me time to try and get my head into the game. You don't mind, do you?"

"As long as you bring home the bacon, I can't complain." He laughed reaching up to kiss Jackson. "You know I love you, don't you?

--

A week later Eric finally got Raymond to go back to the lab. After much begging and pleading, he'd finally given in. He knew that it was thanks to Eric and his team that everything went so well, but there were so many other things to sort out, that this was last on his list of things to do.

"Are you going to geek out now that you've got me alone?" Raymond looked at Eric as he was bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"Had to get you alone sometime, didn't I?" He clapped Raymond's shoulder. "I don't wish to diminish any of what happened and I really feel sorry that you had to through all of that, but do you think we can... you know..." He winked at Raymond.

"The suit, I know," He sighed, "Come on, let's go see what you guys came up with,"

"You have no idea how much data we have only from that one use. Imagine what would happen if we added some of our newer tech into it!" His eyes glazed over as he took Raymond to a bank of computers, what looked like a dentist chair and a whole array of sensor tabs everywhere.

"Okay, you're going to have to put the suit back on. We can't test it with anybody else or on a dummy, since it's locked onto your DNA." Eric answered his next question. Removing his clothes, he leaned back into the chair while the sensors were connected.

Looking at the group standing in front of him with very serious faces, he felt like a test subject. His breath was knocked out of him for a minute when the suit tightened around him again and the temperature dropped to below freezing.

"Damn, you all to hell!" He grunted as the suit returned to its normal temperature. Can you guys sort that little glitch out, please? It feels like I'm being dipped in liquid nitrogen."

"Sorry bro'. It's going to take a bit more time to get that sorted out." He grinned. "Seriously, though, we're working on it, but we've run into a few problems since you've been using the suit."

"A few problems?" He raised an eyebrow, looking at the other men in the room who were carefully watching the monitors and pointing excitedly at the graphs that were currently being displayed.

"Well, you did put it through the wringer a bit. Remember that this was its first real test run, so we're bound to pick up issues."

"Well, since you're sorting out some issues, can you make my mask lighter? Whatever you put in there, makes it heavy enough for me to notice.

"Stop bitching like a little child. Stay still and shut up so that we can go through the rest of our tests." He shut Raymond up, walking over to where the others stood looking at all the information in front of them.