Jack's Mom puts the kettle on for tea and takes two mugs out of the cupboard. Upstairs Daniel is busy doing his homework, and Jack feels relieved because he's worried he won't be able to get to tell his mom everything if there is someone else in the room. He's also worried about telling his mom that she skipped school today. 'Maybe I don't have to tell her that part.'
She sets the full mugs of milky tea down on the table and sits down. This isn't a conversation she thought she would have to have for a good few years. She sees the smile, the love-struck look, on her son's face and she breaks a bittersweet smile as she remembers the day she knew her husband was her Link. Her Link who's now missing. Who's voice she keeps searching her mind for, but they're still too far to hear each other's thoughts. She can feel that he's closer here, but she still can't hear him. The breaking feeling she's carried with her since the feeling of him being there faded away makes her plead in her mind that her son is wrong, and it's nothing more than a crush on some or other girl.
"So does she know that you're her Link?" She takes a sip of sweetened tea.
"No, I don't think she does. I only met her yesterday, but today I heard her thoughts and I could feel everything she felt." He's suddenly brought back down to earth as he remembers what he's just agreed to. While he watched his mom make them tea he let himself enjoy the feeling of knowing for sure that they are meant to be together. A feeling that he's still holding onto. The answer to the feeling that struck him yesterday when he saw her for the first time. The fire that sparked within him when she opened her curtains to talk to him.
"Mom," He starts his voice now quiet.
She looks over at him. His face has fallen and there's a pain in his eyes that hurts her.
"Jack, what's the matter? You just found your Link you should be happy." She questions his sudden mood change, but she's filled with a fragment of hope that he really is wrong and he hasn't met his Link if only to spare him the pain of being separated from her when they ultimately have to leave this coastal town.
"I've just made a promise to not talk to her again and to stay away from her," he stares down into his mug like it holds the answers to all the world's problems.
"Now why would you go and do a thing like that?" she calmly continues to sip her tea as he tells her what he did.
It takes a while to explain everything, but like everything, he finds that he has to start at the beginning. So he starts by telling her the first time he saw her, he hit her straight to the ground. She laughs saying they were love-struck, and he laughs too because looking back it couldn't be a more accurate way to describe how they met. He tells her that he has seen Iona in the office. He told her that they have some of their classes together now. He conveniently leaves out the part that he got detention again yesterday just to see her. 'I have to tell her about skipping school today, but there's no need to make her worry about the rest of it if I can help it.'
He tells his mom about they talked for ages. About the feeling he had that pushed him to need to get to know her, to be close to her. He tells her about everything that happened today. Well, almost everything. For obvious reasons he doesn't tell her about jumping into her room to turn her alarm off, or about the way it felt to carry her in his arms, how soft her skin felt, or how badly he had wanted to kiss her over and over again. No, these things are special and private in a way that makes him want to hide them in his heart where only Iona can find them. So that's what he does, burying them deep within himself. His face however doesn't follow suit, and his eyes give him away.
His mom bites back a smile noting how similar he is to his dad. She doesn't press him to tell her more, instead, she gets up to hug her son. Her first baby looked grown-up and far too young all at the same time. She sits down next to him now so he can finish his story.
By the end of it all, he's grounded for skipping school and convincing Iona to skip school with him. His stomach feels like it's fallen away and been replaced with a pit of dread and regret as he tells his mom about the promise he made. The longer he tries to think of ways to change what he's done the more he feels like he's losing himself. If only he told her dad that he can't stay away from her. If only he had fought to see her.
"Mom?" Seeing him fighting with himself she gives him another hug. "What do I do now?"
"Well if you promised her dad to stay away from her then you're just going to have to stay away from her. Just give it some time for all this to settle down. I can't change what you said. You have to live with the choice you made." She tells him as he takes their now empty mugs to the sink. "If she's your Link then she'll know it. It doesn't matter if her parents made the choice to not tell her that she's an Esper. She won't know what it's called, or how to explain it, but we all know when we've met our Link. These things have a way of working themselves out. You're just going to have to wait."
"I know Mom, but that's what makes it so much worse. I'm not going to go back on what I said though. I'm going to show him that I'm what's best for her." He says with new determination. His mother's words about Iona knowing, some part of her knowing, that he's her Link gives him hope again.
"That's my boy. So tell me what's her name?"
"Iona, Iona Blake." He says, liking the way the words just feel right coming out of his mouth, and he can't hold back the smile that reaches his eyes whenever the thought of her takes shape in his mind.
His mom's face on the other hand goes blank at this. She turns slightly away from him.
"I see..." She focuses on smiling convincingly. Jack's too distanced by the euphoria pulsing through his veins to notice the change in her. "Well best not to think about it too much more tonight. You can't do much now to convince him to change his mind."
"I know," and he does know, but he doesn't really care about that right now. The only he cares about is that he's found her.
"We still need to get some dinner. It's late already, what do you think of ordering pizza?" she asks and David jumps out from behind the wall where he was listening in.
"Yes yes yes!" he says jumping up and down.
"And what do we have here? A little eavesdropper," their mom laughs. "How much did you hear?"
"Everything," he says simply, smiling at Jack. "Nicely done by the way."
They settle on ordering pizza to be delivered, and all move to the lounge to watch a movie. After fifteen minutes of arguing about what movie to watch the food arrives. They spend the rest of the evening under blankets on the couch eating, laughing, and only half watching the movie they eventually agreed on.
Across the way, in the other house, the Blake family has just returned from dinner. They all say good night. Throughout the evening no one spoke about anything that had happened today. They had discussed it in the kitchen and now it's over. There's no point dwelling on things that have been dealt with. They spent the night enjoying each other's company and talking about how much they are all liking the new house and how much they're enjoying the new school.
Iona as much as she wanted to enjoy it with them couldn't shake the uneasy feeling that came with pretending that she didn't overhear the conversation between Jack and her dad. Dinner had been a welcome distraction from the questions that kept bubbling up inside of her. Questions that now she's alone in her room she can't escape. So she lets them swim around her mind while she watches the window.
'What's an Esper? What did he mean when he said that he's my Link? What is a Link? Why do I even care about this? He's just some random guy I met yesterday that happens to live next door...who happens to live next door and I keep running into, but that can't be anything more than coincidence, but you don't believe in coincidences do you? No. But still...if dad wants him to stay away then there has to be a reason why I should stay away from him too...right?'