Dr. Ackles and Subject 7321 aka Jared Chapter 5 or 5
Chapter 5 and Epilogue: Rescue and Return
As I open my eyes, the first thing I see is Ty holding my little girl in his arms, staring fondly at her.
“Ty?” I croak out, and he looks up to give me a small smile.
“Hey, how are you feeling?” He asks, moving closer to me slowly as to not disturb the precious bundle in his arms. I push myself up into a sitting position and groan as pain shoots through my stomach. “Hey, careful,” he says, shifting my little girl into his left arm in order to grab onto my shoulder to steady me.
“I’m ok,” I breathe out. I slowly shift myself until my back is propped up against the stone wall. “Let me hold her,” I say, weakly reaching out my arms towards my baby. He smiles again as he carefully deposits her into my arms. “Hey, baby girl,” I whisper. My eyes begin to burn with tears of joy and relief at seeing her beautiful sleeping face, and I can’t help but smile. “Where’s Jared?” I ask, just noticing that Jared isn’t in sight.
Ty shrugs. “He said that he needed to check some things and explain what’s been going on to the village leader.” I nod, my gaze never leaving the child in my arms. “I would have woken you up sooner, but after all that…” he trails off, and I look up at him.
“Hey, I’m just glad I didn’t pass out while holding her.” I look back down at my little angel. “How is she?”
His smile returns. “Everything looks good to me, and she fell asleep shortly after I had her all cleaned up.”
I shift her into my left arm carefully to wipe the tears from my eyes.
“So….we have a daughter,” he says.
My head shoots upwards; irrational fear entering my chest at the thought of what he might say next. “Yeah…we do.”
His smile dies down as he watches my reaction; a small frown forming on his face. “Hey, I’m not…” He sighs. “While you were in labor, I didn’t let myself think about what all of this truly meant; but, then she was born, and I held her in my arms and saw you hold her and I just…I had time to think while you were asleep…and even though I should be pissed, or shocked or whatever…I’m happy, you know?” He rubs at his jaw line nervously. “I’m not saying that I want full parenting rights or that I want to take her away from you or anything,” He says, and the worry building up in my chest begins to die down. “I just…if you’ll let me, I’d like to get to know you better and visit with her.”
I want to say yes; fuck, if I didn’t have my little girl in my arms I would throw my arms around him in a crushing hug over him being so understanding, but then I remember the situation I’ve put myself in and bite my lip nervously. “Let’s just see how fucked up everything is going to be once I leave this place and take it from there,” I say, not wanting to fixate on what is ahead of me in favor of staying in the present.
“God, I didn’t mean…” he says, looking guilty. “I’m sorry.” He mumbles, and I shrug as I look back down at my - no, our - daughter. “So, does she have a name?”
I smile again. “I really love the name Kayla.” He smiles back. “Kayla Mae Ackles.”
“That’s beautiful.”
“So, you’re ok with it?” I ask hesitantly, and he’ scoffs.
“You carried her for nine months all alone and just went through hell to bring her into this world; you get full reign with the name game.” I nod. “I also think she looks like a Kayla Mae so…” he trails off. We sit there silently for a few moments, both of our eyes drawn to the sleeping infant before I break the peace.
“I know you told me not to bother, but I need to thank you for what you did.” He looks like he wants to protest, but I shake my head gently. “No, you helped me when everything fell apart and you are being like….completely calm about this whole thing,” I say, not exactly knowing how to say ‘doing great with just finding out you have a kid’ thing.
He rolls his eyes. “Oh, I’m freaking out, but what’s going on in my head is nothing compared to what you just went through.”
I reach my right hand out to grasp his large, rough, hand; squeezing it gently. “Thank you for what you did; I don’t want to think about what would have happened if you weren’t here.”
He opens his mouth to speak, but is cut off by someone bursting through the fabric entrance.
“Jeff?” I ask, looking up.
“Oh God, Jensen.” He walks closer towards us, his eyes drawn to Kayla in my arms. “You two are ok, right? Jared told me that you gave birth here but…” he trails off as he crouches down, grabbing onto my shoulder with a gentle hand.
“She’s fine, and I’m in pain but I’ll be fine.”
He breathes a sigh of relief, before smiling down at the bundle in my arms.
“How did you find me?” I ask.
“Jim and I have been looking for you since the feds arrested Mark.”
My eyes widen. “What?”
“Apparently, one of the other scientists was a mole for the feds and has been watching Mark closely for a couple years now. What happened with Jared was the last straw; they came and took him about three hours ago.” He looks back up at me. “We would have tried to look for you sooner but we didn’t want Mark’s cronies following us.”
“So…I’m not going to prison?”
He gives me a small smile and shakes his head and I can’t help but beam with relief.
Jeff continues, “What Mark wanted you to do was illegal…and apparently this isn’t the first time he’s tried doing something like this. But now the government has concrete evidence against him and he’ll most likely never walk free again.”
“Oh thank god…” I breathe out, my eyes tearing up in relief. “I get to keep her,” I cry out, holding my little girl closer to me.
“Shh everything’s ok,” Ty sooths, moving his hand to grasp my forearm.
“Wait, who are you?” Jeff asks, just noticing Ty’s presence.
“Ty Olsson, sir.”
I look up to see Jeff’s eyes widen.
“Wait, like…” he trails off, pointing at Kayla. I nod. “Holy shit…”
“Since it’s obviously safe for Jensen to leave here now, we should get him to a hospital,” Ty says, making Jeff shake his head quickly to regain his composure.
“You’re right.” Jeff quickly stands up. “Jim’s waiting for us in the truck.”
“How did you find this place?” I ask as Ty and Jeff work together to get me standing; making me groan in pain at the movement.
“Are you ok?” Ty asks, and I give him a reassuring smile. “Do you need me to carry you?”
I shake my head. “Just…hold her please?” I ask, holding out my arms to deposit Kayla into his awaiting arms. “Thanks,” I say before wrapping my arms around Jeff to keep me steady. “Just go slow, please.”
Jeff nods as we slowly exit Jared’s home into the main village.
“Jenssssen!” Jared calls, quickly slithering away from a snake woman. “Ok?” he asks.
I nod. “Where are the others?” I ask, only seeing Jared and who I assume to be Genevieve out and about.
“Told to sssstay away, not want watch you.”
I smile. “You didn’t need to do that.”
He shakes his head. “Go?” he asks
I nod again. “Me and Kayla need to go to the hospital to get checked out.”
He looks over towards the little girl in Ty’s arms with a big smile. “Name?” he asks.
“Kayla Mae.”
His smile widens. “Beautiful.”
I pull myself out of Jeff’s grasp and take small, hesitant steps over to Jared. I pull him into my arms and he instantly wraps his arms around my aching body. “Thank you so much.” I whisper into his bare shoulder.
“No thank,” he says before pulling back. “Sssee again?” he asks.
This time, I nod with more resolve. “Mark’s out of the picture so you and the village are no longer in danger.”
He nods. “Visssit when well; want ssssee you and Kayla.”
“I promise.” Jeff comes up behind me and wraps his arm around my waist.
“We need to get you two to the hospital. Jared, could you lead us out of here?”Jared nods eagerly as he waves goodbye to the woman.
“Was that Genevieve?” I ask once we’re out of the village and walking down a tunnel.
“Yesss,” he says happily.
I chuckle. “She’s hot, dude.”
Jeff laughs as we come up to a dead end. Jared grabs onto what looks like a steel handle and tugs at it, causing the stone around it to shift outwards. He slowly moves the stone to the left, revealing a tunnel that leads to blue sky and a large blue truck.
“Jensen!” Jim calls, rushing over towards us as we exit the tunnel.
“Jim.” I give him a tired smile as he looks over towards the surprisingly still sleeping baby girl in Ty’s arms.
“She’s beautiful son.” I beam with pride.
“She’s defiantly gonna be a heart breaker that’s for sure,” Jim adds.
They lead me towards the truck and open the back seat. Jeff helps me up into the high seat and waits until I am positioned so my back is against the car door before moving back. As Jeff and Jim talk to Jared, Ty comes into the truck to hand me Kayla. Once she is safely nestled in my arms, Ty moves to exit the truck but I stop him.
“Wait.” He hesitates as I reach forward to fist his sweatshirt. I weakly pull him forward and capture his lips in mine. At first, his lips stay still, but once he registers what is happening, he deepens the kiss. He pulls away after a few moments with a sheepish grin on his face. “Does that answer your question about me letting you get to know us?” I ask.
He chuckles, pulling out his cellphone. “Put your number in here and I’ll call you tomorrow to check on you two.”
I enter my name and phone number with one hand and hand it back to him to save me in his contacts.
He leans forward to kiss me one last time before climbing out of the truck. “I’ll be seeing you soon then,” he says with a smile before closing the door with a gentle thud.
As we drive away from the area, I wave towards Jared and Ty with my free hand; all of the worry and dread I had felt thirty minutes ago is completely gone. Jared is safe, I get to be with my little girl and me and the little miss get to know Ty…life couldn’t be better.
Epilogue-3 months later
I open the security class envelope in my hands, briefly looking over towards the three month old sleeping in her swinging chair. As I read the words ‘New Assignment’ in bold, my heart skips a beat. What could this mean? I fall back onto the couch as I read the document, and a giant smile makes its way onto my face as I reach for my phone.
“Hey Darlin,” Ty’s voice greets over the phone. “What’s up?”
“I just got a new assignment from corporate.” I answer, placing the papers onto my coffee table.
“I’m guessing it’s good news then?” he asks.
“Jared’s village agreed to let one of the scientists be introduced into their group so we can study their culture, and guess who they requested personally?”
“You?!?” His voice exclaims over the phone, and I laugh happily.
“Yep; I start next week.”
“I’m guessing you’ll need someplace closer to there to stay so you don’t have to be far from Kayla?”
Over the last three months, Ty and I have grown closer. Ty has made a place in my and Kayla’s lives…and I just can’t imagine life without him in it now.
“Are you asking me if I want to move in with you?”
He chuckles. “That way I can watch out little girl while you’re off being all scientific, and you can be close to the village.”
I roll my eyes. “Yes,” I answer.
As we continue to talk about our future plans, my eyes land on my little daughter clutching a stuffed dog in a tiny fist and I smile. Things in my life are looking up…and I can’t wait to see where this path takes me.
+The End+
As I open my eyes, the first thing I see is Ty holding my little girl in his arms, staring fondly at her.
“Ty?” I croak out, and he looks up to give me a small smile.
“Hey, how are you feeling?” He asks, moving closer to me slowly as to not disturb the precious bundle in his arms. I push myself up into a sitting position and groan as pain shoots through my stomach. “Hey, careful,” he says, shifting my little girl into his left arm in order to grab onto my shoulder to steady me.
“I’m ok,” I breathe out. I slowly shift myself until my back is propped up against the stone wall. “Let me hold her,” I say, weakly reaching out my arms towards my baby. He smiles again as he carefully deposits her into my arms. “Hey, baby girl,” I whisper. My eyes begin to burn with tears of joy and relief at seeing her beautiful sleeping face, and I can’t help but smile. “Where’s Jared?” I ask, just noticing that Jared isn’t in sight.
Ty shrugs. “He said that he needed to check some things and explain what’s been going on to the village leader.” I nod, my gaze never leaving the child in my arms. “I would have woken you up sooner, but after all that…” he trails off, and I look up at him.
“Hey, I’m just glad I didn’t pass out while holding her.” I look back down at my little angel. “How is she?”
His smile returns. “Everything looks good to me, and she fell asleep shortly after I had her all cleaned up.”
I shift her into my left arm carefully to wipe the tears from my eyes.
“So….we have a daughter,” he says.
My head shoots upwards; irrational fear entering my chest at the thought of what he might say next. “Yeah…we do.”
His smile dies down as he watches my reaction; a small frown forming on his face. “Hey, I’m not…” He sighs. “While you were in labor, I didn’t let myself think about what all of this truly meant; but, then she was born, and I held her in my arms and saw you hold her and I just…I had time to think while you were asleep…and even though I should be pissed, or shocked or whatever…I’m happy, you know?” He rubs at his jaw line nervously. “I’m not saying that I want full parenting rights or that I want to take her away from you or anything,” He says, and the worry building up in my chest begins to die down. “I just…if you’ll let me, I’d like to get to know you better and visit with her.”
I want to say yes; fuck, if I didn’t have my little girl in my arms I would throw my arms around him in a crushing hug over him being so understanding, but then I remember the situation I’ve put myself in and bite my lip nervously. “Let’s just see how fucked up everything is going to be once I leave this place and take it from there,” I say, not wanting to fixate on what is ahead of me in favor of staying in the present.
“God, I didn’t mean…” he says, looking guilty. “I’m sorry.” He mumbles, and I shrug as I look back down at my - no, our - daughter. “So, does she have a name?”
I smile again. “I really love the name Kayla.” He smiles back. “Kayla Mae Ackles.”
“That’s beautiful.”
“So, you’re ok with it?” I ask hesitantly, and he’ scoffs.
“You carried her for nine months all alone and just went through hell to bring her into this world; you get full reign with the name game.” I nod. “I also think she looks like a Kayla Mae so…” he trails off. We sit there silently for a few moments, both of our eyes drawn to the sleeping infant before I break the peace.
“I know you told me not to bother, but I need to thank you for what you did.” He looks like he wants to protest, but I shake my head gently. “No, you helped me when everything fell apart and you are being like….completely calm about this whole thing,” I say, not exactly knowing how to say ‘doing great with just finding out you have a kid’ thing.
He rolls his eyes. “Oh, I’m freaking out, but what’s going on in my head is nothing compared to what you just went through.”
I reach my right hand out to grasp his large, rough, hand; squeezing it gently. “Thank you for what you did; I don’t want to think about what would have happened if you weren’t here.”
He opens his mouth to speak, but is cut off by someone bursting through the fabric entrance.
“Jeff?” I ask, looking up.
“Oh God, Jensen.” He walks closer towards us, his eyes drawn to Kayla in my arms. “You two are ok, right? Jared told me that you gave birth here but…” he trails off as he crouches down, grabbing onto my shoulder with a gentle hand.
“She’s fine, and I’m in pain but I’ll be fine.”
He breathes a sigh of relief, before smiling down at the bundle in my arms.
“How did you find me?” I ask.
“Jim and I have been looking for you since the feds arrested Mark.”
My eyes widen. “What?”
“Apparently, one of the other scientists was a mole for the feds and has been watching Mark closely for a couple years now. What happened with Jared was the last straw; they came and took him about three hours ago.” He looks back up at me. “We would have tried to look for you sooner but we didn’t want Mark’s cronies following us.”
“So…I’m not going to prison?”
He gives me a small smile and shakes his head and I can’t help but beam with relief.
Jeff continues, “What Mark wanted you to do was illegal…and apparently this isn’t the first time he’s tried doing something like this. But now the government has concrete evidence against him and he’ll most likely never walk free again.”
“Oh thank god…” I breathe out, my eyes tearing up in relief. “I get to keep her,” I cry out, holding my little girl closer to me.
“Shh everything’s ok,” Ty sooths, moving his hand to grasp my forearm.
“Wait, who are you?” Jeff asks, just noticing Ty’s presence.
“Ty Olsson, sir.”
I look up to see Jeff’s eyes widen.
“Wait, like…” he trails off, pointing at Kayla. I nod. “Holy shit…”
“Since it’s obviously safe for Jensen to leave here now, we should get him to a hospital,” Ty says, making Jeff shake his head quickly to regain his composure.
“You’re right.” Jeff quickly stands up. “Jim’s waiting for us in the truck.”
“How did you find this place?” I ask as Ty and Jeff work together to get me standing; making me groan in pain at the movement.
“Are you ok?” Ty asks, and I give him a reassuring smile. “Do you need me to carry you?”
I shake my head. “Just…hold her please?” I ask, holding out my arms to deposit Kayla into his awaiting arms. “Thanks,” I say before wrapping my arms around Jeff to keep me steady. “Just go slow, please.”
Jeff nods as we slowly exit Jared’s home into the main village.
“Jenssssen!” Jared calls, quickly slithering away from a snake woman. “Ok?” he asks.
I nod. “Where are the others?” I ask, only seeing Jared and who I assume to be Genevieve out and about.
“Told to sssstay away, not want watch you.”
I smile. “You didn’t need to do that.”
He shakes his head. “Go?” he asks
I nod again. “Me and Kayla need to go to the hospital to get checked out.”
He looks over towards the little girl in Ty’s arms with a big smile. “Name?” he asks.
“Kayla Mae.”
His smile widens. “Beautiful.”
I pull myself out of Jeff’s grasp and take small, hesitant steps over to Jared. I pull him into my arms and he instantly wraps his arms around my aching body. “Thank you so much.” I whisper into his bare shoulder.
“No thank,” he says before pulling back. “Sssee again?” he asks.
This time, I nod with more resolve. “Mark’s out of the picture so you and the village are no longer in danger.”
He nods. “Visssit when well; want ssssee you and Kayla.”
“I promise.” Jeff comes up behind me and wraps his arm around my waist.
“We need to get you two to the hospital. Jared, could you lead us out of here?”Jared nods eagerly as he waves goodbye to the woman.
“Was that Genevieve?” I ask once we’re out of the village and walking down a tunnel.
“Yesss,” he says happily.
I chuckle. “She’s hot, dude.”
Jeff laughs as we come up to a dead end. Jared grabs onto what looks like a steel handle and tugs at it, causing the stone around it to shift outwards. He slowly moves the stone to the left, revealing a tunnel that leads to blue sky and a large blue truck.
“Jensen!” Jim calls, rushing over towards us as we exit the tunnel.
“Jim.” I give him a tired smile as he looks over towards the surprisingly still sleeping baby girl in Ty’s arms.
“She’s beautiful son.” I beam with pride.
“She’s defiantly gonna be a heart breaker that’s for sure,” Jim adds.
They lead me towards the truck and open the back seat. Jeff helps me up into the high seat and waits until I am positioned so my back is against the car door before moving back. As Jeff and Jim talk to Jared, Ty comes into the truck to hand me Kayla. Once she is safely nestled in my arms, Ty moves to exit the truck but I stop him.
“Wait.” He hesitates as I reach forward to fist his sweatshirt. I weakly pull him forward and capture his lips in mine. At first, his lips stay still, but once he registers what is happening, he deepens the kiss. He pulls away after a few moments with a sheepish grin on his face. “Does that answer your question about me letting you get to know us?” I ask.
He chuckles, pulling out his cellphone. “Put your number in here and I’ll call you tomorrow to check on you two.”
I enter my name and phone number with one hand and hand it back to him to save me in his contacts.
He leans forward to kiss me one last time before climbing out of the truck. “I’ll be seeing you soon then,” he says with a smile before closing the door with a gentle thud.
As we drive away from the area, I wave towards Jared and Ty with my free hand; all of the worry and dread I had felt thirty minutes ago is completely gone. Jared is safe, I get to be with my little girl and me and the little miss get to know Ty…life couldn’t be better.
Epilogue-3 months later
I open the security class envelope in my hands, briefly looking over towards the three month old sleeping in her swinging chair. As I read the words ‘New Assignment’ in bold, my heart skips a beat. What could this mean? I fall back onto the couch as I read the document, and a giant smile makes its way onto my face as I reach for my phone.
“Hey Darlin,” Ty’s voice greets over the phone. “What’s up?”
“I just got a new assignment from corporate.” I answer, placing the papers onto my coffee table.
“I’m guessing it’s good news then?” he asks.
“Jared’s village agreed to let one of the scientists be introduced into their group so we can study their culture, and guess who they requested personally?”
“You?!?” His voice exclaims over the phone, and I laugh happily.
“Yep; I start next week.”
“I’m guessing you’ll need someplace closer to there to stay so you don’t have to be far from Kayla?”
Over the last three months, Ty and I have grown closer. Ty has made a place in my and Kayla’s lives…and I just can’t imagine life without him in it now.
“Are you asking me if I want to move in with you?”
He chuckles. “That way I can watch out little girl while you’re off being all scientific, and you can be close to the village.”
I roll my eyes. “Yes,” I answer.
As we continue to talk about our future plans, my eyes land on my little daughter clutching a stuffed dog in a tiny fist and I smile. Things in my life are looking up…and I can’t wait to see where this path takes me.
+The End+