Who: Jedikiah Price and Stephen Jameson What: It’s about time they have a conversation When: Friday after school Where: Cafe attached to the bookstore Warnings: surprisingly none Status: Complete
There were times, a number of them, when Jedikiah was amused by what his life had turned into. It was a watered down version of what it’d been twenty years ago -- because he hadn’t always been the same bastard who’d run Ultra, as he was sure the boys would say. He’d been a college professor once, just a college professor and nothing more -- and then he’d started studying his brother, and that had been the end of that.
Him and his damnable curiosity.
That’d been then. And now? Now he was a high school teacher. It was a bizarre shift, but one he was actually pretty okay with. He could’ve gone for a teaching position at Hanover or Ivy Tech, he knew that, but he’d wanted something… simpler, mellower. Something that let him hide from his past a little better. Jedikiah couldn’t have the entirety of the life he wanted, but he could have part of it. He didn’t have the boys, but he had his job, he was slowly making friends, and he actually kind of liked the town. He’d take it.
He usually hid out at Starbucks if he needed to grade papers and got tired of doing it at home, but this time he’d wanted a change of scenery. And considering that he was still who he was -- some things would never change -- there were some places you’d probably always find him. A coffee shop in a bookstore was an easy try. He’d gotten something to drink and promptly set up at a table, laptop up and papers out in front of him within five minutes. Saying he enjoyed it was going a bit far, but the routine of it was… reassuring, somehow.
It helped when he was grading assignments that showed his students grasped what he’d taught them. That was what he enjoyed.
***
One of the benefits of having telepathic and teleporting abilities was that you could very easily avoid someone if you wanted to, even if they were teaching in the same school you attended. Stephen knew that he would eventually need to talk to his uncle, but he was determined to do so on his own terms and only when he was ready.
Except that he made plans to meet Five at the cafe today and he was distracted enough that he didn’t think to check for his uncle’s presence before he entered the building. He groaned to himself when he realized that he was there and decided that he may as well go ahead and get this over with.
Without a word, he walked over and sat down across from Jedikiah, glancing at the papers spread around him before crossing his arms across his chest.
***
Jedikiah knew full well that his nephew was sitting there. “Even without you saying anything, that’s still a better greeting than I’ve ever gotten from John,” he said, not glancing up right away from the paper he was grading. “How badly is my presence interrupting your afternoon?”
Because by this point, he was being a realist. John and Stephen didn’t like him, both had valid reasons not to like him, and as much as he wanted that to be different? He knew it wasn’t going to happen easily.
Which meant that at the moment? He knew Stephen was probably unhappy just at his simple existence.
***
“It’s not,” Stephen said. He would just text Five and tell her to meet him somewhere else so he didn’t have to subject his friend to his uncle. Plus he would never admit to any sort of weakness where Jedikiah was concerned. He still had a lot of reasons to hold a grudge against his uncle.
He let the silence hang between them for a long moment before speaking again. “I see you’ve managed to stay out of trouble so far.” That was actually kind of surprising given all of the people here who had abilities that had to be a temptation.
***
“It’s easy to stay out of trouble when you don’t want to get into it in the first place,” Jedikiah said mildly, setting his pen down and looking up at Stephen. “Honestly, I’m not interested in doing anything more here than living my own life. You and John aren’t the only two who can reinvent yourselves.”
A wry smile and a slight gesture to everything on the table. “Though in my case, it’s not so much reinvention as it is turning the clock back twenty years. Close enough.”
***
Seeing a smile on Jedikiah’s face was mildly unsettling and Stephen wasn’t sure what to make of it. “What makes you think that John and I have reinvented ourselves?” he asked. Any changes that he’d made were due to the nature of his existence, not any conscious choices.
“We’re all stuck here,” he said. “I’m just trying to get along the best I can.” That meant finishing school, making a little bit of money, and hanging out with the few friends he’d managed to make.
***
“A person has to reinvent themselves any time they end up in a new situation,” Jedikiah said mildly. “If they’re lucky, the new them is close enough to the old them that it almost doesn’t matter. You and John… you’re not so different from who you were before you ended up here. The only difference is that you’re not either running and hiding or trying to help save everybody.”
He hesitated for a second, a realness to him that nobody had seen to him since… well, since the last time he’d been with Morgan. She’d said he was a man of contradictions, and she hadn’t been wrong.
“I’m glad to see that you’ve managed to make something out of your time in this place,” he said after a second. “And it looks like John’s trying to. He doesn’t talk to me much, and I don’t push it.”
***
Stephen was surprised to see a momentary flash of something almost soft on his uncle’s face. After everything that happened with Ultra, he was conditioned to think of Jedikiah as the enemy and it was difficult to remember that they’d been close at one time. It would be difficult to rebuild the trust between them, but it might not be impossible.
Letting his shields down a little, Stephen used his telepathy to pick up his uncle’s thoughts and wasn’t surprised to discover they were about Morgan. He was, however, surprised by one specific thought that he picked up and was unable to keep the shock off of his face.
“Morgan’s pregnant?” he blurted.
***
Jedikiah froze for a split second, surprised simply because he hadn’t expected Stephen to be looking at his thoughts in the first place. “She is,” he said, relaxing as he said it. “I’m honestly not sure how far along; I didn’t get to see her after I found out, so there wasn’t really a chance to find out.”
Definite shame flashing in his eyes. “Even when I had the chance to talk to her and find out, I didn’t. Because I could’ve talked to her when I was down there, could’ve found at least a second.” There’d been at least that much.
Of course, she hadn’t reached out to him either. Not that he blamed her -- no, pretty much the opposite. Her pregnancy had been terrifying enough to know about when he’d still been the enemy; when he’d become a tentative ally, it’d probably seemed even scarier.
***
“You mean she didn’t trust you enough to tell you herself?” Stephen said, unable to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. “Gosh, I can’t imagine why.”
The thought of his uncle having a child, especially a child who was going to be one of the Tomorrow People, was terrifying and he was glad that Morgan wasn’t here and his uncle was. With any luck, Jedikiah would never get an opportunity to put his child in danger the way he’d done to Stephen and John and countless others.
***
Jedikiah just looked down for a moment, looked away, before looking back to his nephew. “I regret a lot of things, Stephen, but I think not being the kind of man Morgan deserves is the thing I regret the most.”
That encompassed a whole lot of things. Because the rest of it? Not a conversation for completely in public, so very not.
Because there were a lot of things he regretted that wouldn’t go over well if he said them wrong.
***
The sincerity of his tone caught Stephen off guard and he was tempted to go poking around in his uncle’s head again for a brief moment before deciding that was a bad idea. He already learned more than he ever wanted to know.
“Words don’t mean much if you don’t change your actions,” he said, deliberately keeping his own tone mild. He’d wanted to trust his uncle, wanted to believe that he wasn’t the bad guy and was proven wrong time and time again.
***
“That’s what I’m trying to do,” Jedikiah said. “That’s why I’m keeping my life as simple as I can here. I know that both you and John don’t think I deserve much of another chance, if I deserve one at all. So… Keep it simple, keep to myself, be grateful when I manage to make a friend or two.”
He shrugged. “It’s not exactly what I want, but it’s better that than nothing at all.”
***
Stephen wasn’t going to dispute that. After all the harm his uncle had done, he wasn’t very high on the list of people who Stephen would have chosen to come here and have a fresh start, but he wasn’t in charge and no one asked for his opinion.
“As long as you don’t try to hurt any of the people here,” he said. “I’ll stay out of your way.”
***
That was the best Jedikiah could hope for at this point, and he knew it; it was better than he’d really figured he would get. “Hurting anybody has never been in my plans here, Stephen, and it’s never going to be.”
Because Stephen was right. Words didn’t mean much if he didn’t change his actions.
“I promise, I’m not going to do anything.”
***
“All right, well, I need to get going. I’m meeting a friend.” Stephen wanted to make sure he intercepted Five before she came inside and he was forced to make an awkward introduction. “I guess I’ll talk to you whenever.”
He was hardly going to go out of his way to do so, but he was certainly going to keep an eye on his uncle.
***
“I’ll let you get going, then.” Jedikiah could tell when a conversation was over, and right then? It was over. “I hope you and your friend both have a good afternoon.”