“So… How was school?” Dad asked.

“Good,” Alice replied.

“Hmmm.”

Dad glanced at the backpack sitting in Alice’s lap, and she shifted in place as she felt the squirrel inside adjust herself slightly.

“Did anything happen today? You’ve been quiet.”

Alice thought rapidly and tried to come up with an excuse. What could she say? Jessica’s voice rang in her head as she internally panicked.

‘Infiltrator of Authority. Tell him about the fake apology. That should be enough of a distraction.’

“Well, I saw Mr. Taylor today. He spoke with me a little…”

“What!”

The car swerved and someone on the other side of the road honked loudly.

“What did he say?”

“I… Watch the road, Dad. You just blew through that stop sign.”

He relaxed his tight grip on the wheel and eased off of the gas and took a deep breath.

“Alright. When we get home,” he said.

‘Maybe that was a little too distracting.’

The rest of the ride was quiet as Alice shifted to try to cover Jessica’s readjustments in the pack.

He parked the car and they went inside.

“Alice, where are you going? What did that man say to you?” Dad asked.

“Just a minute, Dad. I have to put my stuff away then I’ll tell you about it.”

He mumbled something then started pacing a little as Alice left and went to her room. She put her bag on the ground and unzipped it. The squirrel scrambled out.

‘That was unpleasant. Why do they make textbooks so sharp? I’ve rested on more comfortable rocks before.’

The squirrel started cleaning herself after jumping up to settle on the bedpost. Alice watched her for a moment. The squirrel, Jessica? Looked back at her and waved towards the door with one of her paws.

‘Go. Go explain to your dad, we can properly meet each other later. I’ll just hide in here somewhere and wait for you to come back.’

Alice gave a little half wave before stepping back and moving to shut the door. Jessica returned the wave with her paw as the door fully shut, and Alice felt the bridge between their minds snap shut again. It had felt like such a natural thing while it was there that she had almost forgotten about it.

“Huh. Weird,” she said.

She walked back to the front where dad looked up when she appeared. She didn’t want to worry him too much. But the mysterious thing in her room had a solution apparently. She couldn’t tell anyone what was really happened until she heard Jessica out.

“Mr. Taylor just wanted to apologize," Alice said, "Just said it and then walked off.”

Dad stopped his pacing and looked at Alice in confusion. “Apologize? For his son attacking you and Julia?”

“Yeah. He was a real jerk about it, it was crazy how unconcerned he was with how Josh was doing. But that’s all he did, even if he was creepy still.”

Dad seemed to latch onto that point. “Creepy? Creepy how? Was he standing too close like on Halloween?”

Alice shook her head, “No. He didn’t do that again. It was just… He was too happy. Smiling really widely as he apologized. It was scary, like he knew something I didn’t. That’s why I didn’t want to say anything.” Oops, that had been a little too much.

Dad huffed. “Who knows a man like that is thinking. You tell me if you see him again, you hear me? No matter how innocent it may seem. The ADF aren’t everywhere, they might not know if we don’t tell them these things.”

The conversation had been anything but innocent. What would the ADF do if they heard what really happened? The Spawn’s words were right. Would the ADF protect her friend if it came down to it? She didn’t think so. And the Spawn would do it. He had set up the whole scenario just to torment her, she was sure of it.

“Alright. The ADF. Sure,” Alice said half heartedly.

Dad frowned at her response. “Alice, I know how you feel. But they are here to protect us and have been doing so for over a year without…”

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Alice interrupted him, “No. Look, let’s not argue about this again. You don’t…”

Dad’s gaze sharpened.

“Maybe we should have this argument again. All they’ve done this whole time is keep the two of us safe, and you still distrust them! When have they not acted promptly when there was some issue? How expensive do you think it is to have a full security team securing everything and scrubbing videos like the one of your fight? They do so much for us, and all we need to do in return is trust them with our security! All they’ve done this whole time is keep us safe.”

Alice felt angry now. That was what he thought they were doing? He really thought they were doing this all only for their safety?

She snapped.

“You’re wrong! You didn’t meet these people, if you think they care about us at all. The ones who are giving the orders, they kept us apart for months because I had something they wanted. It was like a prison, getting interrogated and talked down to by all those people in the ADF. Not an ounce of privacy the whole time, them always watching everything I did. That protection is just a way to monitor us to make sure I’m not dangerous! Did they even give you protection before I came back?”

Dad looked stunned at her sudden outburst. “No, but the ADF was just forming and everything was chaos…”

“That’s bullshit! They offered protection for us after the first week I got out. In exchange for the spatial bag. They were plenty organized. They just wanted to use your protection as leverage over me.”

A moment of silence. “Why didn’t you let it go?" Dad said, "The bag? You just told me you could have been back in a week. You think I wasn’t worried, not seeing you for months after what happened? I had no idea how you were doing besides those little notes they gave me from you. We both knew you weren't ‘just fine’ after what you went through. You should have just given it to them.”

He was right. Looking back she should have just given it to them. It had been taken from her in the end anyway. But Francis had died to get her out, the weapons inside the pouch were his final gift to her. And the documents inside the pouch told her that there were others out there that knew about the people of Harmony’s higher than average Potential. And the unpleasant ways the weapons of the Neighborhood Watch could be fueled. How they had been fueled in the end inside Harmony.

She hadn’t slept for a few nights after reading about that. She knew she was going to be targeted again eventually. But she had never expected it to be like this, by the Spawn she had thought was dead. She hoped she could have gotten at least a few more years of being a normal girl.

“It was important, you wouldn’t understand." Alice said, "But it doesn’t matter anymore, they just ended up taking it anyway. Gave up when I wouldn’t take out the stuff that they thought was inside it.”

“...Whatever the past, the ADF is protecting us now. Doesn’t count for something?” he replied.

Alice looked away and mumbled. “I guess.”

“C’mon.”

She looked up and his arms wide. He stepped forward and they hugged tightly for a little while.

“Why don’t we sit down?” He said.

He maneuvered her to the couch and they both sat on opposite sides of the couch.

“I wanted to talk about your mother. More than I told you before.”

Alice’s head snapped around. He never talked about her, Alice’s mother had died when she was young and she barely even remembered her. His eyes were wistful as he began to speak, and Alice held her breath.

“She was in the CIA. She could never tell me what she was doing on missions, but she always insisted that it was important. It was the biggest argument in our relationship, when she went back to work after you got old enough for it. When you were five… She didn’t come back from one of the missions. I never found out why. I never got a body. You have this weight on your shoulders, like you have to be responsible for everything that was out of your control. All that suffering in Harmony. Holding onto that special bag. Like her. I wish I had told you earlier, so you wouldn’t have sacrificed for a mission you seem to have set yourself. You should have just come back. Mission be damned.”

Alice opened her mouth shocked. Her mom had been in the CIA? Killed on a mission? How had he never told her this before?! But…

“How can you trust the government when they got mom killed! That makes me trust the ADF even less than before.”

Dad’s voice grew angry, “You think I’m blind that they might have other motives? But it doesn’t matter. Because one of those goals is to protect us. And they have done it again and again to hide us from prying eyes. I’d rather help them do their jobs than hide something out of distrust that could get one of us killed.”

Alice looked away in shame. Information that could get them killed. But despite everything, Alice knew in her heart that the ADF wasn’t really looking out for them. She looked up. She didn’t want to argue about it any more.

“Can you tell me more about Mom? You never talk about her ever. Especially since Harmony.”

“I didn’t want to weigh you down with anything more after everything. But I guess it’s all out anyway. May as well tell you the rest.”

Dad huffed and leaned back against the couch. “Hmmm. Where to start? Well, we first met at a club if you can believe it.”

Alice gaped at him. Her dad? In a club? The image just didn’t compute.

“Hey, don’t look so skeptical! You’re hurting my feelings Alice, I know how to have fun.”

“Hm.”

“Unbelievable…” He said.

“Anyways, our eyes met on the dance floor and we ended up exchanging numbers at the end of the night." He continued, "Elena Valdine. I felt so lucky a woman like that was willing to dance with me. After that…”

Alice learned so much she had never known as her dad seemed to spill out all the things he hadn’t told her all at once. Her mom had always been away on some mission or another, and the two of them only met back up for short periods. Only the first few years after Alice was born were they really a couple for a serious amount of time. No wonder why he hadn’t said much. There only was so much was to tell. Alice wasn’t sure how to feel about that. Here she had finally gotten some answers on her mom, and all it did was lead to more questions. She still felt like she hardly knew her.

“Well, it’s getting late. We should probably have some dinner,” Dad said.

“Yeah.”

They spoke more at dinner, and Alice made sure to slip some vegetables into a little container to feed Jessica. The revelations about her mom had thrown her off, but she hadn’t forgotten the Spawn’s threat and Jessica’s supposed solution yet. Dinner ended, and Alice excused herself telling her dad she needed time to think and take it all in. True, but unfortunately she only had more things to add to the heaping pile first. Time to talk to Jessica and hopefully get some answers.