Motion (Sequel to "Collide")

CHAPTER FIFTY

A/N: okay guys I might have gotten carried away with this chapter, it's almost 8K words long 😭 but I guess I needed a little feels before all the angst that's coming next 🫣 anyway, hope you enjoy lengthy chapters!

______________

September 3rd, 1993

Taipei, Taiwan

Dear Diary,

Here we are. The moment I've been dreading since I had that chilling vision of Alice calling our hotel room to tell us about John's evil plan is close. I don't know when exactly we'll receive Alice's call to tell us about it. I just know it's meant to happen here, in Taipei.

I would lie if I said I wasn't nervous, because I am. I am well aware that we must have changed the outcome of that vision by telling the press about Faraji, but still. John should only speak about me and my ability, and that's something I made my peace with. I don't quite care about how the public is going to react to that information. I care about how my family is. The Jacksons.

Since that phone call with Joseph back when we were still in Tibet, I have been wondering if I should come clean and tell them everything about me. Katherine and Joseph always said that I was special, but nobody's ever prepared for me to be that special.

I managed to push all these thoughts aside to celebrate my husband on his birthday last week, though. Back in Singapore, Michael got to celebrate his birthday on stage. His fans made sure to sing him happy birthday, which didn't fail to fill his heart with love. His eyes instantly filled with tears when Faraji and I walked on stage with a giant birthday cake and a bouquet of flowers. I'll never forget his smile, and how his eyes sparkled with unspoken emotions when he saw us. Faraji wore his most beautiful mask for the occasion, which consisted in a beautiful blue carnival feathered mask. Both of us reminded Michael how much we loved him, which was enough for a single tear to wash a path down his chin.

We promised ourselves that we would arrange a date night for us to celebrate his birthday properly, and we agreed on doing it here, in Taipei. We definitely could use this time together to get our mind off of things. Between my last vision with Branca and all that John mess, we definitely could use a time out.

My poor husband looked exhausted when he left for his press conference this morning. He's rehearsing as we speak, and I can't wait for him to get home so I can show him my surprise and relax together.

"Mama, look!" my son's voice tore me away from my writing, and I looked up from my journal. "Mary showed me how to draw a butterfly!"

Faraji excitedly skipped my way, his piece of art in his hands. He handed the paper to me, and a smile instantly spread across my face. "Wow, look at that! It's beautiful, baby."

"I did the wings in purple because it's one of your favorite colors," he proudly said, and my smile only grew wider. "I don't know if purple butterflies exist, though."

"I've never seen one, but I'm sure they do. Butterflies come in hundreds of different colors," I let him know, and his eyes sparkled with interest. "Would you like to visit a butterfly farm one day?"

"There are farms for butterflies?" He asked, half confused and half fascinated by my claim. "But who is the farmer? Do they have butterfly food like hay?"

"Probably. We'll have to visit one to find out," I told him, pinching his cheek. "Would you like that?"

"Yes! That would be so cool," he answered, jumping up and down. "Do you think we could create our own butterfly farm at home? Next to the zoo, so that they're among animals."

"I don't see why not. We'll have to talk about that with daddy, but I'm sure he'll love the idea," I nodded, beaming.

"Yay!" he excitedly exclaimed, before he ran back to the living room to tell everything to his nanny.

Faraji never failed to lift my spirits up. No matter how the day started, his presence was like a reassuring halo enveloping me when I was lucky enough to be around him. I didn't have any hospitals to visit in Taipei, which allowed me to work on my previous visits' followup and play tourists with my son.

For our first day in a different country, Faraji and I went sightseeing after we got breakfast. It became an habit of ours since the very beginning of the tour, and it filled me with joy to have this ritual of discovering new cultures with my son.

I happened to worry that this wasn't a normal childhood for him. Going from country to country, hotel rooms to hotel rooms that all faintly smell the same... But then I just... see him. In Singapore, he stood in the humid night air and asked why the trees looked like they belonged in a dinosaur movie. In Thailand, he bowed back to a hotel concierge with such solemn concentration that I had to turn away to hide my smile.

I was proud that Michael and I were able to give him this kind of education. Traveling the world isn't within everybody's reach, and we considered ourselves lucky to be able to do so. Teaching kids about how diverse and big our world is can only lead to openness and understanding. I believe it is a good mean to teach children about difference.

I put my journal aside and returned to the file from the hospital I visited in Singapore to review my notes before faxing them to the Foundation. There wasn't much written on this report, as the Pediatrics department was already well functioning. However, the staff asked me if I could tell them more about the paper I got published after my first Pediatrics residency. It was a comparative study of oral versus intravenous antibiotics on children with community acquired pneumonia. They recorded an increase of complications in pneumonia cases in children, and were eager to hear about my study. I was overwhelmed to see the amount of people who showed up in that conference room to hear about my work.

This new job was fulfilling beyond belief.