Fourth Vector Ch. 24

"Thank you," replied Abigail briefly. "Nice to meet you too." To no one's surprise, she didn't say much of anything else, her usual chattiness still on pause due to the circumstances.

Despite the awkwardness of the moment, it was little Blake that broke the tension. He stared at Kat with awe before he finally worked up the courage to ask what was on his mind. "Is it true you're a Fourthie?" he asked, swallowing heavily after it was out.

Kat giggled and bent down next to him. "I sure am. You must be Blake."

Blake jumped slightly when she moved closer to him but he stopped short of running away. He didn't seem to know what to make of her until he got a chance to examine her head once she'd lowered herself. "I don't see any horns, Mom."

Jocelyn clapped her hand to her mouth as she started to laugh. "I'm so sorry, Kat." She then lowered herself to Blake's level. "That's just a story, sweetie. Fourthies don't actually have horns on their heads."

The event caused all of them a good deal of laughter, even Abigail, who managed a tepid chuckle. After Blake had to be reassured that Kat was still human (and after feeling her head for actual horns), he warmed up to her rapidly.

"I can't wait to tell my friends I met an actual Fourthie!" he said with a beaming grin, knowing that he was going to be the man of the week at his school when he returned.

Kat tried to explain to she was actually Galician and that they didn't refer to themselves as Fourthie but that seemed to take some of the magic away from the interaction for Blake. After he became slightly confused on the terminology, she shook her head and smiled at him.

"Actually, let's just go with Fourthie for now," she said with a laugh.

"This is the coolest," he said in reply, causing another round of laughter for them.

"So where did you want to go, Jack? Any place in particular to spend the day?" asked Jocelyn once they'd settled down.

"I thought we'd go out to the countryside for the day," replied Jack. "There's actually a big park just on the outskirts of town that would be a great start. Let us get away from all the city sights for a bit." It also helped that the snow had largely melted, and the temperature was temporarily rebounding to something more manageable.

"Sounds like a plan to us," said Jocelyn. "Lead the way!"

They were able to catch a ride all the way to the park, all five of them cramming into a small cab only with the tiniest available space. Looking in the backseat, Jack felt for all of them crushed together, but surprisingly they made the most of it, with Jocelyn and Kat chattering away like old friends. Abigail remained quiet still although at one point she made eye contact with him and offered him the briefest of smiles. He hoped that she'd be able to enjoy herself today, and hopefully take a step in the right direction.

Alas, it wasn't meant to be. No sooner had they arrived at the park than she pulled him aside, her eyes already heavy and partly filled with tears.

"I'm really sorry, Jack. I just can't do this today," she said as her hand went up to wipe at her eye. "I'm just not in the right space to be happy."

Jack shushed her and pulled her into his arms. "You don't have to explain it to me. I understand. Do you want to go back to the ship?"

She nodded without saying anything further.

Jack flagged down the cab before it could leave and paid the driver to go back to the docks. "Take all the time you need. I love you."

She kissed him briefly on the cheek and whispered, "thank you." Without anything else, her dark hair soon disappeared into the cab and it went moving back to the city.

"Is she going to be okay?" asked Jocelyn once Jack rejoined them.

"I hope so," said Jack. "She's been taking this really hard, which is understandable. I'd hoped that we could show her a good time today but she's just not at that point yet."

Both women nodded, neither knowing what to say in the moment. The impasse caused by Abigail's departure was broken once they turned their attention back to the park. By now the sun had crested high in the sky, making for a temperate day that was perfect for seeing the sights the park had to offer. With nearly one hundred acres of land to traverse, there was always something to see. The highlight though was the fountain near the center of the park. The sprout shot water nearly one hundred feet into the air, making for an excellent display of aquatics while the large pond that it sat in seemed to draw all attention of the newcomers.

As Kat took Blake closer to the fountain to check it out (his apprehension about her being a Fourthie all but forgotten), Jocelyn stayed close to Jack as they walked a lap around the pond.

"I like her," she said, gesturing to Kat. "She seems sweet and well-meaning."

"I'm rather fond of her as well," said Jack with a small chuckle. "Abigail too."

"And they are beautiful, Jack. Kat alone could make beauty contestants cry at their poor fortune at not looking like her. It's hard to believe that they are both willing to be in a relationship with you, at the same time."

"Do you think bad of me for it?" he questioned. "Do you think there's something wrong with me in being with both of them?"

Jocelyn gave him a small grin. "I think it's a bit odd, yes. I'm glad our parents don't have to see it, as I'm not sure how they would've taken it. But are you truly happy?"

"I am. They are wonderful and I do believe that they are perfect for me," said Jack. "Our relationship may not be conventional but no one is being forced to do this. In fact, it was their idea, not mine."

"And I'm sure it took a lot of leg-pulling to get you to agree, didn't it?" she teased.

Jack laughed. "I'll admit I was a little shocked at first. Like you said, look at them. They could easily have their choice of any man, and especially one to call their own without having to share. And for some reason, they want me."

"Not like you're not a catch, mister rear admiral," she said with a giggle. "Famous all over Java as being a war hero. They could do a lot worse than you."

"Thanks for that ringing endorsement," he said dryly.

Jocelyn chuckled. "I do wish mom and dad could have seen you now. I bet they would be surprised."

Jack stumbled in his walk, his sister's words reminding him of the inevitable discussion that needed to come.

His parentage.

Just how much did she know? Did she know anything at all? She'd only been fourteen when their parents died, much too young in his opinion to carry that kind of secret. Besides, if anyone deserved to know, wouldn't he be the first choice? It was his life after all.

"You got quiet on me, Jack. What's on your mind?" she asked after their first lap around the pond.

Jack took a deep breath. "There is something that we need to talk about. Something big. I'm not sure the best way to approach it though."

"Oh?" she said with an amused look. "Which one is pregnant?"

"Not that," he said with a brisk laugh, breaking some of the tension. "But it's probably bigger than that."

"Okay, then tell me, Jack. What is it? You've really gotten my attention now, so talk to me."

Jack turned to look at her. "Did you know that . . . we're not actually related?"

Jocelyn gave him a weird look but then it relaxed into a smile. "What are you talking about?"

"No jokes, Jocelyn. We're not really siblings, at least siblings by blood."

The smile disappeared quickly and she shook her head. "Jack, that's not funny."

"I'm not trying to be," he said. "Mom and dad were your actual birth parents." Jack took a deep breath. "But they weren't mine."

"That's not true, Jack. What gave you such an idea? Who put it into your head?"

He could tell she was getting upset. She had every right to be. What he was telling her struck at one of the bedrocks of her life—namely the fact that her family was all related by the same blood. He couldn't be surprised that she would have such a strong reaction to this.

"You really didn't know, did you?" he whispered. "No one ever told you? Mom or dad?"

A tear slipped out of her eye. "Jack, this is really confusing me. What's happened? How did this even come up?"

"It's a long story," he said finally. "But I'll start from the very beginning. It happened around the time I met Kat." It took them six more laps around the pond for him to get through the entire story. Jack told her everything—the meeting of Vera, the introduction of Kat as their timely guide, the stop at Evelyn's house, the sword, Galicia, the pictures, everything. He left out no detail to the story, knowing that each point would be crucial to her understanding. It was only after that sixth walk-through that she was finally able to speak up. Unfortunately for him, the tears never seemed to stop.

"It's so hard to believe," she said finally as he wrapped it up. "Not that I doubt what you say, but if it's true . . ." Jocelyn shuddered. "It would mean everything we knew was a lie."

"Not so much a lie," replied Jack. "Our parents did something that no one could blame them for. They wanted a child and had problems having one. They saw that I needed a home so they took me in. It was only after that you came along, completing the family. It was only natural to keep the secret until we got older, I'm guessing. It's just they died before they could tell us about it."

"When they died, it was so hard on the both of us," said Jocelyn quietly. "You were barely out of high school and I was still a young teenager. It was awful but at least I knew I always had you with me. We may not have had them, but together we could get through it. I guess that's the part I'm having the most trouble with. That I'm alone now."

Jack put his arm around her shoulder. "You'll never be alone. Blood or not, we'll always be siblings. We've spent too much of our lives together to let something stupid like this get between us, and I refuse to let that happen."

Jocelyn bumped into him. "Thanks, Jack," she said with a small smile. "I know the boys would miss their favorite uncle otherwise."

"Their only uncle," said Jack with a laugh. "But I'll take favorite too."

"So you really are a king then, aren't you?" she asked as she looked over to his shoulder. "That birthmark on your shoulder was the marking?"

Jack nodded. "It was."

"What are you going to do then, Jack? You're as Javan as they come," said Jocelyn. "I highly doubt the emperor is going to let you go off and play king some day."

"That's a question I've been asking myself for almost six months now," he admitted. "And I still don't have a good answer. I know the day will come that I have to choose. I just hope that day is far off in the future."

"It's a bit ironic, isn't it?" she asked. "You're famous here. On the cab ride over, the driver wouldn't stop staring at you. The whole country knows your name as their favorite war hero and you're not even ethnically Javan."

"It feels even weirder from my point of view," he said with a chuckle. "I feel like I see things with new eyes now that I'm back in Java. People that I thought I knew seem different. Places don't feel like they used to. Even Lockhaven felt strangely indifferent to me. Part of me questions whether I would feel this way if I didn't know about Galicia but I have to believe that it would. I think blood would always try to come out and find a way to express that feeling of unbelonging."

Before Jocelyn could answer, Kat and Blake returned, both laughing to themselves as if they were co-conspirators, their earlier trouble long since forgotten. Kat took one look at Jocelyn's concerned face.

"Everything all right?" she asked.

Jack nodded and took her hand in his. "I just told her. You know, the thing," he said with a short gesture toward Blake.

Kat made an ahh gesture and slipped in beside Jocelyn, and it wasn't long before the Javan woman turned to her. "Did you really search for him for three years?"

Kat nodded. "I did. I knew he was out there somewhere. He had every right to the throne, and there was also the small matter that Jack is the only way I could step foot in Galicia again without facing my cousin."

"So forgive me, but isn't a regent like a king anyway?" asked Jocelyn. "I'm just trying to figure out your status."

"More like a caretaker, but the regents do rule the country," Kat answered. "We were originally meant to take care of the throne until an heir could be returned to it." She squeezed Jack's hand. "Hopefully I can be the one to fulfill that pledge."

"Wow," said Jocelyn before getting quiet for a moment. "It's just a lot to take in."

"It was for all of us too," said Jack. "Even Vera."

Jocelyn's head snapped back toward him. "Tell me about her, will you? She's your actual . . . sister then, right?"

"She is," said Jack. "You would like her, I think. Vera is incredibly personable. You can talk to her about anything on the map and she'll always give you her full attention. She's warm and bubbly and smart."

"She's one of my best friends," added Kat.

"She does sound nice," replied Jocelyn. "I'd kind of like to meet her too. I take it though that she's not in Java though, right?"

Jack shook his head. "She's still in the Vector. She's struck up a relationship with one of our marines, and she elected to stay behind with him since he was working on clearing one of the countries there from enemy soldiers."

"I can understand that. I don't like being separated from Roger either," said Jocelyn, mentioning her husband. "Especially for a trip across the ocean for an unknown period of time."

"Which is why I didn't elect to stay either," said Kat with an affectionate look to Jack. "I'm as far away from my homeland as I've ever been. But in a weird way, I've never left it. Jack is my home."

Jocelyn smiled and then looked over at him. "I can see she's a keeper by the way, Jack."

He chuckled. "I feel the same way myself. I never really had a chance with this one. Or Abigail for that matter."

"Even if the bed feels slightly empty without her right now," said Kat with a drawn out sigh.

"What are they talking about, mom?" asked Blake, causing a round of snickering from all of them.

"Nothing that's your business," said Jocelyn to her son as her own cheeks turned pink. Kat mouthed the word sorry before Jocelyn waved it off. "You know how children can be."

At that point, Blake rapidly forgot the question he was asking as he spotted some wildlife in a nearby field. He went dashing after the deer that had appeared, spooking them completely as the adults followed in his wake. He led them to a small field where it was decided to set down for lunch, Jocelyn having packed a small bag with what ingredients she could get her hand on.

For the next hour, they ate and conversed on topics much lighter than before. Jack and Kat learned all about the current goings of Jocelyn's children and even about her husband, Roger, and his new job in Belfort. It wasn't until Kat had gotten up to play with Blake after lunch that Jack was left alone with his sister once again.

To his surprise, when he looked over at her next, there were tears in her eyes. "What's wrong, Jocelyn? What are you crying?"

She shook her head as she wiped them away. "It's nothing, Jack. I'm just being silly right now, I suppose."

"It can't be that silly," he replied. "Tell me."

She finally turned to look at him. "You do belong in the Fourth Vector, Jack. I see that now. You made a compelling argument and even Kat put it elegantly too. You have a destiny over there, a greater calling than anything you would have in Java." Her head lowered. "I just hate to think you might go back over there and never come back. What if I never see you again?"

He scooted close to her and embraced her. "I can promise you that I'll come back. There's nothing that could stop me from seeing my sister and her family. I want to see the boys grow up, graduate, get their first jobs, get married, all of it. And I fully intend to. This whole thing with Galicia might have made it slightly more difficult, but I promise you that you haven't seen the last of me."

She buried her head in his shoulder. "I hope not. I love you, you know? You'll always be my big brother. Blood or not, Jack."

"And you'll always be my sister," he replied. "I love you too, Joce."

"I don't know when you have to leave, but I want to spend as much time with you as I can," she said, her voice muffled by his jacket. "I need to soak up a year's worth of missing you in this time."

"I have to be back in Belfort in two weeks' time," said Jack. "That's when they're having the victory parade. I imagine that we'll get another week in Aberdeen before we set out for the capital."

"Good, then you better expect to see us every day," said Jocelyn firmly.

Jack chuckled. "Count on it."

The rest of the day passed by uneventfully. It was late in the afternoon, as the sun was beginning to set and as the temperature started to drop, that the four of them made their way back into the city. Despite the promise to see them tomorrow, Jack found himself laughing as Jocelyn hugged him as tightly as if he were leaving for another mission. Even Blake had somehow deduced that something big had happened that day, clinging to him for longer than usual in his hug.

As Jack waved them off while he and Kat returned to the city, he couldn't help but be a little melancholy about their future. He stared out of the cab in silence as Kat rested her head against his shoulder, wondering if it might not be better to take Jocelyn and her family with him back across the ocean. The only reason he was willing to contemplate that was his foreknowledge of Bancroft's plans. No matter which way he cut it, more turmoil was coming to Java, and he didn't want his sister caught in the crossfire. Especially if she could be used to hurt him in some way.

The other half of him told him he was being too paranoid. Jocelyn didn't even carry their last name, losing it when she got married. No one knew they were related unless they did some digging, and he imagined that even the emperor would forget about her after this week. It was worth remembering that they were fighting their own war against Swabia in the Vector. She wouldn't be entirely safe there either. Besides, it wasn't like he could just bring civilians aboard for the trip across the ocean. Something like that would never fly with the Admiralty and smuggling them aboard would be a cause for his immediate dismissal.

As they left the cab to reboard theDestiny, Jack struck the idea firmly from his mind. Jocelyn would be more than safe in Java. And he would find a way to come back and honor the promises that he'd made to her, even if it might require some creativity on his part.

In the end, he'd have to count on her anonymity to keep her safe.

*****

"You're certain it was him? Did you check the hair?" asked Bancroft from behind his desk at naval headquarters. "There's no chance you mistook him for someone else, right?"

The beady man in front of him nodded almost too much. "I'm certain, sir! Can't miss a guy like that, what with his blond hair and that of the woman with him. They were joined by another woman in her early thirties I'd reckon and a small boy around five."

"His sister and nephew," said Bancroft out loud. "And where did they go?"

"The cab driver told me he took them out to the park on the outskirts of the city. From there, one of the women had to go home."

"Which one? The blonde or his sister?"

"Another one, sir, but let me back up. There were originally five of them, but one woman went home," replied the spy. "The one that went home was the commander of that warship of his."