The Shapeshifter | Deleted Chapters

62

"Meg..."

The girl heard her name swim through her mind like fish in a bowl of water. The memories of her mother flooded back to her like the liquid that had engulfed her mere moments ago. The woman who had raised her alone after her father's departure. Meg felt so guilty about leaving her mother when she was kidnapped by the Entity.

She had given up her shot at college to take care of her. Meg hoped her mother didn't think she abandoned her...

"Meg Thomas...?"

The voice that pounded in her head was much to deep to be that of her mother. Even when she had been rasping and dry speaking thanks to her illness, she never sounded like the masculine voice calling to her. What if that was her father?

She didn't remember anything about the other half of her. The man had left her when she was only a baby, so she had no recollection of him other than what her mom had told her about him. He was a coward to run away... Maybe that was where she got it from...

"Megan!"

Meg shot up into a seated position, gasping for her breath and looking around her in a panic. Water suddenly poured out from between her lips as she gagged and heaved. What happened?

"That's it... You're fine now." The voice soothed as Meg clutched at her gut and coughed up more of the once cold, now warm liquid. She slowly turned her head to face her saviour with weak eyes.

Jack knelt down beside her with a worried expression. It was some damn good timing that he happened to come here just as she was doing that. Meg started to hyperventilate as she realised she had almost kissed death for the thousandth time.

"Hey, hey, hey. Calm down." Jack put a hand on her back to reassure her safety. But Meg just shook her head, knowing that as long as she breathed, she wasn't.

"You should've left me..." She murmured, followed up by one last guttural cough. Meg laid down and rolled onto her back as her body felt numb. Jack shook his head.

"I know we don't talk much, so you have no reason to open up to me, but is this because of Eric?" Jack dared to ask. He had noticed her silence over the past day as much as anyone else. Meg looked the other direction.

"You can't get past your issues if you don't face them, Meg. I want to help you." Jack sighed as he saw the defeated expression on her face. Originally, he had underestimated the severity of the situation. Maybe that was just because of him going all soft in the last couple years. Back in his prime days, he would've whooped Eric's ass into a coma.

As Meg went silent, Jack tapped his teeth together a few times, turning and looking off into the trees. It was doubtful he was going to get anything out of Thomas, and he could understand that. But his instincts told him he needed to help her.

"I'm gonna talk to him." He said quietly. That was the only way he was going to figure out the full story. He doubted that he was going to get anything out of him if he was in one of those pissed off hissy moods. But maybe if he caught him while he was normal...

In his younger days, he had similar mood swings. If something upset him enough, he would fall into a rage possibly even worse than Eric's. He knew it was only a temporary contrast and something drove him towards the man.

"Wait..." Meg's voice quivered as she heard Jack begin to stand up. He glanced back at her with surprise that she had finally spoken back to him. The redhead slowly turned her head his way with painful eyes from the touch of the water that had filled them.

"It wasn't him..." She shook her head inch by inch. Eric had hurt her, that was true. But she remembered a similar incident that happened with her and the Doctor. It wasn't her first run in with torture for her actions. She despised him, but not as badly as the real abuser.