Starting Again

Speech

I spend the rest of the night after Jackson goes to bed working on my speech for the next morning, getting very little sleep. When I do wake up I wake up to Jackson and Logan play on the bed. I smile over to them, "Good morning."

Jackson smiles over to me and laughs, "Good morning. We didn't wake you did we?"

"No, no, not at all." I smile and shake my head.

"Come on," Jackson picks up his phone, "takes take a picture cuz mommy is gonna do fantastic." I lean over Logan and Jackson snaps the picture.

We get ready and around so we can head out. When we get there the nanny is meeting us there just in case Logan needs to be taken out of the room, since Jackson doesn't want to miss any of it and I don't want to miss any of Jackson's. It's really weird having a nanny, I can't wait until we get back home and can be normal again. Jackson and Logan give me hugs and kisses before they go find their seats at the front of the room and I look out to see a sea of people.

I walk up to the side of the stage as a person some the sound booth with a microphone comments over the speakers, "Everyone we are about to start, if you would please take your seats." Everyone most to their seats but they are still talking and the sound of their voices overlaps. I know as someone who took on hybrids and animal armies I should be fearless, but I hate public speaking. After a few moments about fifteen minutes the same person calls out over the speakers again, "Everyone please welcome the woman we are all here to see this afternoon. Katherine Smith."

As he says this the crowd claps and I walk out onto the stage. When I look over to him, I see Jackson standing and whistling, this causes me to turn bright red, as if I wasn't already embarrassed and nervous enough. When I get to the podium, my speech is already printed and sitting on the podium. I take a moment and calm down, before looking out over the sea of people.

"Good Afternoon everyone. First I would like to thank you for coming to this presentation, even though I'm sure I am the least interesting person on the team." I chuckle and so does the audience, "Secondly, I would like to apology in advance for any and all mistakes I am going to make. It's gonna happen and I'm coming to peace with it now."

The audience chuckles once again. I glance over to Jackson again and he is holding Logan on his lap, pointing up to me as Logan looks up onto the stage and smiles. "As many of you know from Mrs. Campbell's book, varies new sources, and panels we have held over the past few days, that our team was brought together during the animal attacks of 2015 and were assigned the task to find out what happened to the animals and how to stop them. This adventure took us to some amazing places such as Paris and Argentina."

I look over to Jackson as I take a deep breath,
"We both made and lost friends along the way and we saw what we hope to be some of the hardest times of our lives. You also know that my husband, Jackson Oz, and I were two of the roughly 2.2 million people with,what our team named, the Ghost Gene. Thankfully, only a few people were truly affected by the ghost gene. Other than my husband, myself, and a Doctor by the name of Janos Kovacs. Luckily, the mutation the three of us suffered from allowed us to make a cure for the animals, sadly, when we did this, the Shepherds, a group who had told our group and the world that they were trying to cure the animals as well, used this as a chance to distribute what caused human sterility. A issue my husband and the Shepherds were blamed for."

I look over to Jackson, again, taking a deep breath. Jackson smiles up to me and nods.
"My husband and I spent the next eight years on the run and from 2018 until 2025 helped to relocate families in the North West to home East of the barrier. After being blamed for mankind's sterility, my husband felt so guilty about everything people were going through and had gone through, due to his father and the Shepherds, that while we were on the run, we risked our lives to make sure families could have a better life."

I take another deep breath, looking down at my papers, calming myself. "When the new hybrids began to come up, we came out of hiding to rejoin our team, and fight for mankind once again. Only to find that the Shepherds had been working on the new hybrids all before the animal outbreak. Fighting not the shepherd hunters and time, but also long lost family. Family members we thought died years ago or didn't even know they existed."

I remember writing this and thinking about if I should have mentioned Abigail or not. Since Jackson and I just got back into the good grace of the public, I decided it was best to leave that fact Jackson and Abigail are siblings out of my speech. "We fought and almost lost our lives hundreds of times. We almost lost each other and our family, but through all of it, we stayed strong and faced every obstacle together. I can honestly say I don't know what I would have done without all of the wonderful people I had by my side."

Once I stop and take a breath, finishing my speech potion of this, the crowd stands and claps. Once things have calmed back down and everyone is quiet, the man in the sound booth comes over the speakers again. "Mrs. Smith will now take questions, we will run this like the panels over the past few days, if you would like to ask a question, please step up to the microphone."

It doesn't take long for people to stand and line up, the first person approaches the microphone and smiles, "Hello, I'm Cameron."

I smile, "Hi Cameron, what's your question?"

"You said in your speech that you and Jackson spent eight years in the North West working to relocate families. What was the hardest part about that?"

"The hardest part was being away from our family. Since we were on the run and they couldn't risk giving away our location, our communication was one sided." I nod and smile softly.

Cameron takes the answer and walks away, soon after the next person walks up to the microphone, "Hi, I'm Taylor."

I smile, "Hello Taylor, what's your question?"

"What was the biggest risk you had taken during your adventure?"

"Uh..." I think for a moment, "There were several times when we were in danger, obviously." I laugh softly, "but I think the only time I felt like I was truly in danger was when we lost Chloe Tousignant. We had snuck our way into a Reiden party and we had found the gas that the government was going to us to kill the animals so that Reiden could repopulate the planet. But while we were getting rid of the gas, we were caught and shot at. Unfortunately, a bullet hit the tank and Chloe didn't make it out of the area in time. A split second decision was made and it cost her her life." I take a deep breath, trying to hold back my tears.

Taylor nods and heads back to her seat. The next young man comes up the microphone, "Hey, my name is Tate."

"Hi Tate." I smile to the young man.

"I just wanted to know, how you got pulled into the group?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, in her Q&A Jamie Campbell stated that everyone was gathered from around the world and meet in Japan. Dariela joined later after the groups trip to Argentina. So what were you doing to get wrapped up in this?"

"Ahh... Abraham, Jackson, and I were investigating the odd animal behavior back when it was just the lions. We found some of Jackson's Father's research on a island off the shore of Fukushima. While we were there we were found by Monsieur Gaspard, who was working for a Monsieur Delavane," I chuckle, "to this day I think they were looking for Abe and Jackson and just didn't want to tell me to leave and go back to Africa. That and they knew Jackson would leave too."

The audience laughs as Tate heads back to this seat. The man in the sound bottoms comes on over the speakers, "I'm sorry everyone but we only have time of one more question."

Everyone but the last woman heads back to their seats. The woman steps up and smiles, "Hi, I am Storm."

I smile, "Hi Storm."

"I would like to know, something I think we all want to know. What do you plan to do now?"

"I plan on living my life with the love of my life and continue our family."

"I'm sorry you said continue your family, do you intend to have another child?"

"At this point I don't think we have much of a choice." I laugh softly.

"Congratulations." Storm smiles up to me.