It's My Life

Chapter 21 - A history lesson

Louise and Jeremy Silver were led from their rooms, a puzzled look on their faces. Other than a brief interrogation at the beginning, bloods and DNA taken, they had been left alone to wonder and fret. So this was a new event. They were flanked by guards, and taken to a room with a table and four chairs, two either side. They were told to sit down and wait, and a few minutes later Dr. Stevenson entered.
"Mr. and Mrs. Silver, hello again. Thank you for coming." He said, and sat down opposite them.
"How long are you going to hold us here? Where's Cassandra?" Jeremy asked. Louise took his hand in hers.
"Oh she's quite safe, I assure you. In fact, Director Jones will be here shortly, he can fill you in." Stevenson said. Louise looked around, looking at the guards.
"You didn't answer Jeremy's question. How long are you keeping us here?" Louise asked. Stevenson looked at her.
"That will be explained by the director. He will be here very soon." Stevenson said. Sure enough the door opened then and a man walked in.
"Thank you for waiting. My name is Director Andrew Jones, and I was hoping to meet you both." Jones said, sitting down opposite Jeremy and Louise. Jeremy frowned at him.
"Where's our daughter?" Jeremy demanded. Jones looked at him.
"Why don't you tell me, Mr. Silver, as we all know that Cassandra isn't your daughter." Jones said. Jeremy froze, a look of utter shock on his face, and he almost slumped in his chair. Louise let out a soft sob.
"She didn't know that, so you ran DNA tests." Louise said.
"I did indeed. The results were quite intriguing. We have learned a lot about your...about Cassandra. She's told us everything." Jones said. Louise smiled wryly.
"Now I know you're lying. She wouldn't have told you anything without you dragging it from her, or you would've been here sooner, asking about her." Louise said. Jones watched her.
"Well, yes, okay. She clammed up tighter than an oyster shell, but we managed to pry her open, as it were. She is one stubborn girl." Jones said. Both Louise and Jeremy beamed.
"That's our girl." Jeremy said. Jones looked at him.
"I am going to get straight to the point, Mr. and Mrs. Silver, as Cassi is very unwell, being kept indoors hasn't boded well for her. But it has helped us. She didn't know she was adopted. That's normal, I know. What baffles me is there is no record of any adoption anywhere, and with very deep searching we learned that you had a baby that was born still-born. Yet Cassi has a birth certificate with your names on it. Care to explain?" Jones pressed. Jeremy looked at Louise, holding her hand tight for support and strength.
"I best tell this, as most of it Louise doesn't know well." Jeremy said, and took a deep breath. Louise squeezed his hand. Jones almost leaned forward in his eagerness.
"Louise had terrible troubles during her pregnancy, which resulted in our baby being born dead. She was inconsolable, so I left her under the care of the nurses and went home, grieving too. It was our life long dream to have a baby, and we were told that it wouldn't happen now. I was walking along the beach behind our house when I heard a baby crying. She was lying a few feet from the surf, and she looked no more than a few days old. I picked her up and brought her home, cleaned her off and took her to the hospital. The minute Louise saw her she was in love. We investigated but no one had reported a missing baby so she was placed in a crib and brought to Louise's bed, even fed off of Louise's milk. We took her home the following morning." Jeremy said.
"How did you learn that it was ocean water she needed?" Jones asked. Stevenson listened intently.
"She started getting feverish, cried non-stop, but doctors couldn't find out what was wrong. She stopped crying, grew very weak, so we insisted we take her home to hold her as she passed. On a whim I took her to the beach I found her at, and we went into the water. The minute the water touched her it was like..." Jeremy paused, then went on, "she felt instantly better, her fever vanished, and she was fine. We learned then that she needed the ocean, and each time she cried one of us would take her to the beach. For the first four years we mostly took her at night, building a gate in our fence so we had easy access to the beach without people getting in." Jeremy said. Jones was watching his face, when Jeremy had paused, Jones's smile broadened.
"So she transformed into her mermaid self, hence why you went at night." Jones stated. Jeremy blinked, and Louise gasped.
"She wouldn't have told you that. What tests did you run?" Louise asked. Jones looked at her.
"All that we needed to. She managed to escape from us a few days ago, but one of my men, oh yes you know him, Brad Thompson, put a tracking chip in her body, so we found her and brought her back." Jones said, watching the two as he spoke. When he'd mentioned that she'd escaped their faces had lit up with pride, which irked him, but when Brad was mentioned and they both looked livid, Jones smiled. 
"So, you know her secrets. Why are you here talking to us?" Release us, and her." Jeremy said. Jones shook his head.
"I can't do that. Not yet. We still have a lot to explore, and she is going for a swim tonight, if things work out. She has, unfortunately, been a little stubborn and the ocean water we replicated for her makes her sicker." Jones said. Jeremy's face went red with anger and he leapt to his feet.
"She needs it daily, you'll kill her!" Jeremy bellowed. Louise still held his hand, though tears ran down her cheeks. A guard started to move over but Jones waved a hand, and the guard moved back. Louise coaxed Jeremy back into his seat. Jones watched them as Jeremy gripped Louise's hand.
"We know. If she had told us to begin with, we would have accommodated her more." Jone said.
"She needs her freedom. As Jeremy said, you're killing her." Louise said.
"Then answer questions about her, tell her to cooperate with us. and we can do all we can to keep her well." Jones replied.
"That depends on the questions you ask. As to her cooperating, well she's an adult now, we can't tell her to do so. And nor would we. As you said, she's stubborn. We raised her well." Louise said. Jones bristled, his fists clenching on the table. Stevenson was listening to them talk, a look of incredulity on his face. He never imagined it would go like this.
"I understand that, but surely you want to be free, to go back to your lives, your jobs. I wouldn't be surprised if your jobs are now gone." Jones said.
"It actually wouldn't surprise me if there are missing reports on all three of us - From the university, our workplaces, friends, neighbours. A family simply cannot vanish in today's society." Jeremy said. He had calmed down visibly, and a smug look had appeared on his face. Jones frowned a moment, and inwardly cursed. Jeremy was right. It had been nearly a week since the three of them had been apprehended, and questions would be raised. Jeremy saw the conflict on Jones's face, and squeezed Louise's hand.
"We'll just have to contact them all on your behalf. We can't have police involved. After all, we don't want Cassi found out and taken away to be locked up for the rest of her life." Jones said.
"No. We don't want that either. We just want our lives back." Louise said. Jones smiled.
"I can come up with a deal between the five of us - namely myself, Dr. Thompson and the three of you. Cassi will stay with us until we learn everything about her, and once we have tested to our satisfaction she will be released, but the tracker stays in for the rest of her life. If she falls sick you'll bring her to us, if she has a family they will be tested by us." Jones said. Jeremy was shaking his head.
"She'll never agree." Jeremy said. Jones took a deep breath.
"If you two agree to it, then she will. If I draw up a contract and you two sign it, she'll see you agree. If I have it drawn up in the next few days, you and Louise here will be home by Wednesday. Once you have signed." Jones said. Jeremy and Louise looked at each other.
"You can draw it up, we'll read it, but we want our lawyers to read it too before we sign it." Jeremy said. Jones waved a hand, almost impassively.
"Fine. Write down their details, and I will get in touch with them." Jones said. Jeremy nodded.
"I can do that." Jeremy said. Jones looked at him.
"Just a few more questions. I know Cassandra was home schooled until she went to secondary college, I'm guessing one of you taught her." Jones said. It was a question as such, but Louise nodded.
"I taught her, yes. As she got older she swam less, so I tutored her more." Louise said.
"She's a clever girl then? Dr. Thompson told me she was valedictorian." Jones said.
"She never missed a day of school in her life." Jeremy said proudly. Jones looked at him.
"So what do you do that keeps you so well situated? I live not far from you. I have seen Cass at the beach several times." Jones said. Louise Gasped and Jeremy stiffened.
"I work in Business Management. Also my parents died years ago, before Cassi came to us, and left me the house on the beach. We moved in a few months before we found out we were pregnant." Jeremy said.
"And now that Cass is at college, what work do you do, Mrs. Silver?" Jones asked.
"I work in an administrative role in a security company, Monday to Friday from nine to five." Louise said. Jones wrote it all down.
"I understand why you never took Cass to the doctors, or hospital, but you two hardly have any history either with the doctors or medical clinics." Jones said.
"We have had our share of illnesses, but thankfully most of those were before Cass came to us. We have been sick at times, naturally. She is nineteen." Jeremy said.
"How did you explain never bringing Cass to the local doctors?" Stevenson asked. Jones looked at him, then to the Silvers'.
"We told them that she went to a children's doctor nearby. Going to a local doctor instead of a regular doctor, they tend to not ask many questions. She had her school injections, though we had a feeling they wouldn't affect her, we knew about her healing." Jeremy said. Jones sat forward.
"How did you find out?" Jones asked eagerly.
"She was a typical child, Director. She crawled, walked, ran. She would fall and scrape her knees, bang her head, the usual. But within a minute or two cuts, wounds, the like would vanish. She rarely cried. But..." Louise stopped, and looked at Jeremy.
"What?" Jones pressed.
"She only heals if the wound is unobstructed. If she's impaled she won't heal until it's removed." Jeremy finished Louise's sentence. Jones nodded.
"We found that out the other day. One of the doctors used a spreader to keep the wound from knitting back together when they implanted the tracking chip. I'm sure we can test the extent of her healing. What about hair cuts, or strength?" Jones asked. Louise and Jeremy both stared at him, wondering if he was serious.
"She's not Supergirl or Goliath. She's, mostly, human." Jeremy said. Jones nodded.
"Of course." Jones said absently, but made notes.
"I think we're done now." Jeremy said and stood up, Louise following him.
"Take them back to their quarters." Stevenson said to the guards. They flanked Cassi's parents and led them out. Once the door had closed Jones cursed.
"That did not go according to plan. I don't care about the parents, they're worthless except for a history lesson. But Cassandra won't do much more until she knows they're free. She's very clever." Jones rambled. Stevenson had written down a few things, but looked at Jones as he talked.
"So, tell her that her parents have been released, or freed, whichever way you want to word it. Knowing her parents are safe she might cooperate if she believes she can join them soon. As soon as the contract is written take it to the lawyers, and do what you need to." Stevenson said. Jones nodded.
"You have a point, and I'll get my men to run the normal tests - physical, mental, keep her occupied. She can go for a swim tonight. I don't care right now." Jones said. He gathered up his paperwork then walked out of the room without another word. Stevenson watched him go, then went about his business.