Jack goes back home swearing all the way. Going over every second since he got home. He waited for her by the window. He wanted to apologize for getting her in trouble, or convincing her to leave with him. 'Maybe her dad's right and I should just stay away. She's better off without me in her life. I'm just going to drag her down with me.'
He replays the moment he realized the truth. The moment that it all clicked and made sense. He stands watching the last rays of sun dip beyond the horizon, thinking back to it.
He was waiting for her when he heard something.
'Jack.'
He left his room only to find the house empty, he's about to chalk it up to his mind playing tricks on him when he hears it again.
'As if she would be able to see how I am at a glance.'
'Iona?' He could hear her voice but she wasn't in her room. He couldn't see her but he could hear her, feel her presence as if she was right next to him. He can suddenly read everything that's going on in her head and it scares and excites him. It shouldn't be possible and yet it is.
He rushes out of the house to her. She's calling to him, and it's pulling at him in a way he cannot ignore. I can feel what she's feeling, and it makes him want to burst through her kitchen door, but he knows better than to do that. Instead, he waits outside the kitchen window where he can hear everything.
"Mike, would you mind leaving? I think this is something Iona needs to tell us on her own." He feels vindicated in the fact that Mike is being kicked out by her mom, but he also hates that he's right about him 'cause it's going to end up hurting Iona.
"If you need anything just give me a call." He can hear Mike whisper to her and he can't help but want to yell at him that she's never going to need anything from him again.
He then listened as she told them what they did all while avoiding the fact that it was his idea, to begin with. He can hear her thoughts about why she doesn't say anything bad about him, and even though he's in her head he's never been so confused by what another person is doing. 'Why doesn't she just tell them? Why doesn't she just tell them it was me and she'll be fine?'
He finds himself lost in her head when it hits him. He suddenly remembers something his mom used to talk about when he was smaller. She used to tell him stories about how when people like them find the person they're meant to be with when they find their Link they can sometimes hear each other's thoughts. How the more time they spend with their Link the stronger their bond gets. As he got older it got harder to hold onto the stories, but hearing her thoughts and reading her mind sparked something inside him.
One word clearer than anything else burns in his mind causing him to remember everything his mom and dad told them when they were younger. Everything he blocked out for so long and forced down deeper than ever when Dad went missing. One word. Linked. 'The one person made for me, the only one who's completely right for me. I have to see her; I have to find out if she knows. She's like me, she's one of us, she's an Esper.'
"Go get changed and tell Nick to do the same. We're going out to dinner and after that, we'll discuss this again." He hears Mark's voice and it grounds him again.
'On second thought maybe I should talk to her parents first and explain today to them. Besides she's already up the stairs.' He reasons as he walks around to the front of the house. He takes a deep breath before knocking. He can hear her parents stop laughing, and Mark leaves the kitchen to open the door to their unexpected visitor.
He replays the encounter. How he watched her dad's expression change when he introduced himself, and the way it darkened when he told him that he was an Esper. Jack recalls how he had become dangerously quiet when he told him that Iona is his Link. That was when he denied that she was anything of the sort and that he should just stay away from her.
"I'll do anything to make this right. I really didn't mean to do anything that would harm her. She means a lot to me." I'm going to do this. I'm going to her father about the Link.
"Now listen to me very carefully. My daughter is not an Esper and she will have nothing to do with them. I will have no more talk about Links or anything else to do with it. Iona will have nothing to do with this and she is not to know anything about this." he's angry and I'm regretting coming over. "If you really want the best for Iona then you'll never come over here again, and you'll promise me that you'll stay away from her."
"Sir. please she's my Link. I need her, and she needs me."
"Look I've told you, she's not like you. I will not have my daughter being a part of that. Now, will you do what's best for her and stay away?"
He swears under his breath wondering why on earth he would have agreed to never talk to her again. 'Maybe because I know it's a promise I can't keep.' He tries to convince himself, but there was something about her dad that made him feel like his only choice was to promise to never see her again.
Now would be a good time to tell you that, unlike Jack's family, Iona's family has kept the fact that she's an Esper, that they're a family of Espers, a secret. Why would they do that you ask, well I can't tell you that just yet. All in good time my dear Reader. All you need to know for now is that when Iona and Nick were still too young to really remember much their parents made a decision to not tell them about Espers or that they were Espers. They had their reasons for keeping it from their children, and they still stand by those reasons now...or at least Mark does.
Now I know you want to know what Espers are, and why they happen to be Espers, but once again, all will be explained in due time. I promise you'll get your answers soon enough, but for now, let's get back to Jack.
While trying to find his own sense of reason for allowing himself to be separated from the only person he wants to be with his feet have carried him back to his room where he's looking across to her room. He's tempted to jump back across. To stay there waiting for her to come home again. Instead, he closes his eyes and tries to find her face in his memory. The look in her eyes when he apologized. 'Did she know that I was trying to tell her how sorry I am for just agreeing not to see her?'
The way that his heart started to beat faster when he saw her at the bottom of the stairs was the last piece of proof he needed to know without a doubt that she was his Link. He knew at that moment that he would do anything for her. Do anything to make sure that he can stand by her side, even if that means avoiding her for a while. As long as he ends up with her, he will do anything, and he knows now that that's the only reason why he agreed to her father's demands.
It's an all-consuming feeling that courses through his veins.
Just then he hears the sound of a car pulling up to the house and his heart skips a beat hoping that it's her coming back for him. But it's not. It's his mom. She's just come in through the front door and collapsed into her chair. That's when it hits him.
'I need to talk to my mom about all of this. She'll know what to do, because right now I have no idea how to fix this, and I know that if there was ever a good enough reason to take her mind off the only thing keeping her from thinking about Dad this is it.' His thoughts spill over each other as he runs down the stairs.
"Mom, I found her!" He calls unable to hold back his excitement. "Mom I found my Link."
He sees her sit up in shock at his news.
"Are you sure?" She's up out of her seat and walking towards him.
"Yes, I can hear her thoughts. I can hear everything she hears, and when she's with me I feel like I can take on the world. She's the one." He sighs filled with the thought of her and everything that makes her who she is.
"Well tell me everything then." She says excited but skeptical.