Los Angeles, 17/04/2013.
Diane Lyndon was sitting on a rocking chair in the garden of their new home in Santa Monica, looking at her grandson's antics with a little smile. To be honest she had mixed feelings about the west coast and she found it was way too hot but there was one thing that motivate to stay here and it was her grandson. It wasn't even the fact that he was smart and talking with him was always a good experience even if they had different views on many subjects. No, it was his ability to always come up with ridiculous projects that had no way to ever work but that he always seemed to achieve.
He's newest project was trying to train Andy to make him combat ready and based on what she could see, it seems to be a lost cause. It was looking like Nathaniel had started to train Andy in sniffing explosives and how to handle some of them. The moment that almost had her doubled over in laughter was when Nathaniel threw a fake hand grenade and Andy took it in his mouth and ran over with it, not wanting to give it back.
Seeing him walk in her direction with his clothes dirty and a crossbreed with his tongue dangling to his side, Diane strengthened in her chair.
"Had fun grandma?" Nathaniel asked with a smile.
"Yes, it was very funny indeed." She laughed, not surprised that he saw her. It seemed there was not much who could go past his attention.
"At least it was fun for two out of the three of us." Nathaniel laughed, looking at Andy who was lipping water out of his bowl.
Darting his eyes to the side, Nathaniel easily spotted Jaydon who was asleep in her cat tree. At first, she had come with Andy and got bored with it quickly and just took a nap, opening her eyes from time to time when they were shouting or to make sure everything was okay.
"There is one thing I don't understand though." Diane mused.
"Oh? Ask away grandma." Nathaniel answered, lifting an eyebrow in the air.
"You were trying to make Andy recognize the smell of explosives and how to handle them, right?"
"Indeed." Nathaniel nodded.
"Then why are you using props?"
"Props? No, they are real explosives." Nathaniel said.
Opening her mouth in a silent 'o', Diane started looking in alarm in the direction of her garden where there were still a lot of different types of mine, grenade, C4 on the ground. Thinking back to the moment Andy took the hand grenade in his mouth, the blood left her face and she blanched abruptly.
"What the hell were you thinking bringing explosives here!? We talked about weapons already! I don't want them in my house Nathaniel!'" She shouted.
"Calm down grandma." He said, lifting his hands in surrender. "Camilla made sure to disable everything here and reduce their explosive countenance. Nothing can explode here unless modified by an explosive expert. Andy could have kept chewing this hand grenade for a week and it would never have blown up. I'm going to train Andy with detonating devices later but it will not be in our backyard. I'm not crazy."
Relieved, she still chose to angrily shoot at him.
"Why didn't you say anything before!?"
"I thought it was obvious, I'm sorry grandma."
Hearing his phone ring, Nathaniel excused himself by raising his hand and answered.
"Hey Lina." Nathaniel called.
"Hi Nathaniel." She said in a little voice.
"What? No title today? What's going on?"
"No not today, I have information but I'm not sure if I should have it and how you are going to react to it." She added in an uncertain voice.
"Alright, tell me what's going on Lina." Nathaniel demanded.
"It was from the time we were leading the hostages with the boat. I stumbled on a conversation between the two daughters of the senator and I recorded it. I know it was wrong but I heard your name being mentioned and I thought it was important."
"And why are you telling me this now more than a week after recording it?" Nathaniel asked.
"The quality was horrible because of the other people talking nearby, the engine of the boat and wave crashing. I had to use a number of software to make it better, it took me some time as it's not really my specialty."
"Alright, you can play it Lina." Nathaniel sighed.
"Coming right up." She called.
There was a silence for a few moments on the line before he heard some static and then he was dropped in the middle of a conversation.
"... going to get back with James. He always did right with me and he deserved better from me than to be ditch before going on spring break." Nathaniel recognized Elisabeth's voice.
"I believe you are right." Nathaniel hears Madison's voice respond.
"What about you?"
"Me? What are you talking about, I'm single."
"I'm talking about Nathaniel and you know it sis!"
"We were not serious and he was boring so I hooked up with someone when he wasn't here, no big deal. He took it badly and blocked me everywhere, there is nothing much to it."
"Don't you dare try that shit with me sis! I'm not your instagram friends or sorority girls, I'm you elder sister! I know you better than anyone and I was also with you when you were crying your heart out."
"What do you want from me!?"
"After everything that we went through? I want the truth! That boy respected you and you cheated on him with some random hunk, I want to know why." Elisabeth shouts with authority.
There was another silence there that lasted a few seconds before he heard Madison speak again.
"You know I just wanted to have fun in my college and spare me the drama of having a boyfriend and then I met him. We got together on the pretext of having fun and the weeks started passing and I was becoming more and more attached to him. It's only after he accompanied me for our brother's birthday party that I realized I was falling in love with him."
"Yeah I know that, you wouldn't have cried your eyes out for weeks if you hadn't. I want to know why."
"I tried to end it but I just couldn't do it, it was just too hard. You must understand sis, he was really good with me. He wasn't after my body or how I looked, he liked me for me, the real me. I was trapped between two parts of me, one wanted to end things and the other couldn't get enough of him. It was driving me crazy."
There was another silence there with the sound of her sniffing.
"But I knew that he wasn't in love with me like I was. As time passed, I was wondering why he should be in love with me? After all, he was far smarter, far more talented and generally better than me in almost every way. It was when he left for Washington that I lost it, I drank myself to oblivion and I ended up in a random dude bed. I wasn't thinking straight at that point and I almost feel relieved after that. This was why I hooked up with the guy at that party again because I knew that he will be here and saw us."
"My god. You cheat on him because you didn't have the strength to be apart from him."
"Yes, that was my reasoning at that moment but you should have been there when he looked at me that night. I could see that I had hurt him badly but it was his eyes that broke me. He looked at me like I was dead to him and he didn't even talk to me. He spoke near me like he was musing out loud and then he left. I cried and begged for him to let me explain but it was as if he wasn't hearing me anymore. I had ceased to exist in his world."
It was the last thing he heard as the recording ended and he got back to Lina that he was hearing, breathing on the other side, not knowing what to say. On his side, Nathaniel did not know how to feel. He had no idea that things were that hard for her. This wasn't excusing anything about what she did but at least now, he knew why she did it.
"Was she telling the truth?" Lina asked.
"About her not being good enough to be with me? No, it was coming from her own insecurities. I never cared about that at all to be honest." Nathaniel answered.
"No, I mean about not being in love with her." She added.
"Oh. At that time, I wasn't. Could I have fallen in love with her? Maybe, but it's in the past now and it's a future that will never happen. What she said about her not existing in my life was right, she chose her path and I chose mine."
"So, you are not mad at me, right?" She asked anxiously, making him laugh.
"No, I should thank you in fact, it explains something I couldn't explain before today. I'm coming back to New York in a few days. Don't tell the others about this but you are my favorite girl Lina." He adds with humor before hanging up.