Yesterday's Gone: Season One

the woman’s purse and handed it to her.”
    “And that’s a bad thing? ” Teagan asked.
    “Well, at first, I thought it was kinda of cool. Like he was my dad, the super hero or something. But he started doing this shit all the time. And then it got worse. He would start acting if he thought someone was gonna do something. He’d jump them or scare them off. And when we asked why, he just said he knew the person was gonna do something . He felt it , he’d say, like he’s some kinda psychic or something! It got to the point that we never knew what he was gonna do and we were scared to even go out with him. Even more scared when he was out by himself. Because then he’d be out late, and my mom and I would be worried that he’d done something stupid and gotten hurt, or worse. And then, a few years ago, when he started talking about the agents and stuff, we should have known it had gotten worse, whatever it was. But I don’t think there’s any way we could have known he’d go that far.”
    “What happened to him in Iraq?” Teagan asked, afraid she might be prying, but too curious not to ask.
    “He won’t say. I asked him once, and he said he doesn’t like to talk about that stuff. I don’t know if he’s ever told anyone.”
    Teagan was quiet for several minutes, sorting through all that had happened, when Jade asked her about herself. Teagan gave the condensed version, then when Jade asked her how she had met her dad, Teagan filled her in on everything, including how Ed had saved her.
    “He shot down a helicopter?” Jade said, eyes wide and hurt. “Oh my God.”
    “He thought they were coming for me,” Teagan said, “for my baby.”
    “Why the hell would he think that?”
    Teagan felt her face flush, “We stopped at a hotel after he picked me up, and when I slept, I had a nightmare about people in helicopters coming for my baby.”
    Jade stared at her. She didn’t come out and say, “Oh, you’re crazy , too, just like my dad,” but her eyes managed for her.
    “I feel terrible,” Teagan said, “He killed them for me. I told him it was a nightmare, and it was probably nothing, but he...”
    “He probably would’ve done it, anyway. My dad would’ve found his own reason if you didn’t have one. You just gave a little shape to the nebulous conspiracy theories already spinning in his head.”
    “Does he know that he’s not really an agent?” Teagan asked. “Does he know that you know he’s not one? What if he asks me if you told me anything?”
    Jade thought for a moment. “Oh, he fully believes he is some kind of secret agent. As far as my mom and I are concerned, he thinks we think he’s crazy. Or that he was so deep undercover that we don’t know and now we don’t believe him. As far as you’re concerned, we never had this conversation. I don’t think he’d hurt me or you, but there’s no way to know for sure how far he’s messed up or how deep his paranoia runs.”
    Teagan just stared at Jade, not sure what to say.
    “I shouldn’t have said anything.” Jade said. “I don’t want it to be all weird between you two now.”
    A knock at the door. “Come in,” Jade said.
    It was Ken. “Your dad just went outside to get the SUV.”
    “He did WHAT?!” Jade said, jumping from the bed and running into the living room. “He didn’t even say goodbye?”

    * * * *

LUCA HARDING

    October 17
    Late afternoon
    Belle Springs, Missouri

    Luca stared at his reflection. He’d gone from an eight year old to a teenager in the span of minutes.
    He was him, but not like he remembered.  
    He was now slightly taller than Paola with a full head of hair that fell just past his shoulders. The face staring back at him was at least a good five years older, and looked remarkably like his father’s.
    His clothes were torn, as if he’d grown right through them. Like The Incredible Hulk, except Luca wasn’t green or full of muscles.  
    “It’s gonna be okay,” Will said, throwing a robe around Luca. “Come on; let’s find you some new clothes.”
    He could feel all the frightened feelings sitting inside of the people. Even the leader man, Desmond, looked at Luca like he was scared in the places he didn’t like to talk about. It made Luca’s sad spiders start to crawl.  
    He couldn't explain what had happened to his face, or his body, but he knew it wasn’t his fault, and hated to feel like the room was looking at him like was he part of the terrible scary .  
    Especially