As G-889 Turns
Episode #3: The Answer
They all returned at the same time, but Alonzo, Julia, Bess, and Morgan all kept walking -- straight into the med tent -- without offering a word to their compatriots sitting around the campfire. Only Walman remained with them, and he just stood, dumbly staring at the med tent.
"Well?" John prompted. "Morgan seems to have calmed down, but now everyone else looks upset."
Walman sat down at the fire with them. "Stunned would better describe it."
Walman wasn't necessarily a talkative person but they had never seen him at such a loss for words.
"What happened?" True prompted.
"Well, for starters ... Morgan seems to think that his step-father knew about the sabotage and deliberately arranged to assign Morgan and Alonzo to this mission in order to have them both killed."
"Why would Morgan's father want to kill Alonzo?" John asked incredulously.
Walman smiled a little at that. John obviously didn't feel it necessary to ask why anyone would want to kill Morgan. "Well, that's the other thing. That's what triggered this whole revelation in the first place. See ... Morgan's father ... not the step-father who tried to kill him, but Morgan's actual father ... was a pilot, a sleep jumper ... who walked out on Morgan's mother before he was born ... and I guess Morgan never knew much about his real father except ... his name was Al ... and ... Morgan was named after his paternal grandmother."
There were numerous sharp intakes of breath all around, but no one said a word for the longest time. Finally John spoke, "This is a joke, right?"
Walman shook his head. "Julia's running a DNA scan now."
Just then, Bess and Morgan exited the med tent. Morgan looked furious and Bess looked faint. All eyes were upon them but they headed off to their own tent without comment.
A moment later Alonzo stepped out of the med tent to find himself the focus of their attention. He froze self-consciously under their collective gaze.
"Well?" Baines asked when it became obvious that Alonzo wasn't going to volunteer anything. "Is it true??"
Alonzo shook his head reflexively. "Julia told us to leave while she analyses the samples." He then quickly turned away and headed back toward the creek.
The group just sat and quietly stared into the fire for the remainder of the evening. It was over an hour later that Julia emerged from her tent heading toward Alonzo's.
"He's down by the creek," Yale offered quietly. Julia glanced nervously at him and then changed direction toward the creek.
***
"Lonz?"
Alonzo looked up and flashed Julia his best smile. "All a big misunderstanding right?"
Julia shook her head. "Alonzo, I've been staring at those scans for the last hour. You and Morgan are very closely related." She took a deep breath and continued. "And the amount of DNA that you share does correspond to a parent-child relationship. And since Morgan isn't old enough to be your father ... ."
"This isn't happening," Alonzo mumbled.
"Apparently it already has," Julia answered coldly. Morgan's words from earlier that evening were still gnawing at the back of her mind. She watched Alonzo for several moments before asking the question. "Do you remember her?"
"Hm?" Alonzo seemed startled by the question. "What?"
"The mother of your child," Julia replied, unable to keep the edge out of her voice. "Do you remember her?"
Alonzo waggled his head non-committally and shrugged. "Morgan didn't tell me her name. I don't even know when this happened."
"Can't you at least narrow it down a little? You knew her well enough to father her child. You knew her well enough to discuss your favorite baby names with her. You must have some idea which one she was."
"What's with all these question?!" Alonzo snapped. "Are you jealous?!"
"I am not jealous," Julia answered shakily. "I just happen to have a personal interest in whether or not you can remember the women you impregnate! Did you know she was pregnant when you left her?"
"No!"
"Then how did she know to name your child after your mother?!"
Alonzo sighed. "I think ... it might have been Courtney."
"Courtney?"
"A little redhead that I dated for awhile. She used to bug me with mushy questions all the time. "'What's your favorite color?' -- 'What's your favorite song?' -- 'What would you name your kid if you had one?' Oh, God," Alonzo realized. "She was nesting."
"And she never told you she was pregnant? She just let you take off on a sleep run without telling you?"
Alonzo took a deep breath and let it back out slowly.
Julia shuffled her feet in the silence. "Alonzo?"
"I didn't exactly tell her I was leaving. I just kind of left."
Julia gaped at him.
"I didn't know she was pregnant!"
Julia began pacing back and forth along the creek. "You didn't even say good-bye? You didn't even look her up to say 'Hi' when you got back?"
"It was just a fling. We had fun for a few months. She got on my nerves after awhile. I left."
Julia stopped pacing and stared. "She got on your nerves so you left? Gee, Alonzo, I was kind of hoping that when I get on your nerves you might at least leave a note taped to your pillow."
"Julia ... you can't compare this. I love you."
"Did you love Courtney?" Julia asked, resuming her pacing.
"No."
"Did you ever tell Courtney that you loved her?"
"Nnnno."
"Don't sound positive about that, do you, flyboy?"
"Julia ... ."
"Did Courtney love you?"
Alonzo shrugged and tried to flash Julia another grin, but it came out weak and twisted.
"Courtney loved you." Julia nodded to herself. "Courtney loved you, and she believed that you loved her but then one day she woke up and you were gone."
"Julia ... you don't understand ... you have no idea how ... annoying Courtney was."
Julia stopped pacing and gaped at him again.
"She was a royal pain in the neck," Alonzo continued. "She was clingy and needy and demanding and whiney and ... ," he groaned and pointed sharply in the direction of camp, "with a high squeaky voice!"
"But are you really sure that Courtney was Morgan's mother? You seemed pretty vague just a little while ago. I'd hate to go through this all over again if Morgan tells us his mother was actually Missy or Cindy or Jennifer or ... ."
Alonzo turned and stalked briskly back into camp. Julia had to run to catch up. Again, the folks at the campfire watched them intently, and again, they were disappointed as Alonzo breezed past them without a word, with Julia right behind. He stormed into the Martins' tent but was brought up short by the sight of Morgan.
Morgan was huddled into a ball, rocking himself. He'd been crying again and Bess hovered over him looking quite ill herself in sympathy.
Alonzo asked hesitantly, "Courtney, right?"
Morgan stopped rocking and glared malevolently at Alonzo. At his side, Bess looked up and nodded. She was rubbing her forhead, obviously still in shock.
"How long?" Morgan asked. "How long was that first run after you left us?"
"Uh ... I'm not sure ... I think that one was a 26 month run."
"So you could have come back for me when I wasn't even two yet?"
"I didn't know," Alonzo whispered.
"Would it really have made any difference if you had?"
Alonzo didn't know what to say.
"You hate me, don't you?" Morgan said flatly. It was not really a question.
"I don't hate you, Morgan."
"So how would you describe it, if not hate? Hm? Abhor? Intensely dislike? What?"
Alonzo looked helplessly to the women in the tent for assistance, but Bess was teary eyed and Julia still looked as if she wanted to slug him. "He always told me that you'd hate me," Morgan said. "I never wanted to believe him but deep down I knew he was right. He was always right. Well, guess what, Alonzo. I hate you too."
Morgan suddenly got up and rushed past Alonzo and Julia to the tent's exit. Shakily, Bess followed him.
Finally, the audience at the campfire was not disappointed. Morgan headed straight for them, plunked himself down at his previous seat, and began avidly poking the fire with a nearby stick. This time they didn't wait to see if he intended to volunteer anything. "Is it true?" John asked.
"It's true," Bess whispered, clinging to her husband.
John whistled.
"Don't worry," Morgan added. "There'll be no group hug. The family re-union is officially over and we've worked all the warm fuzzies out of our systems."
Alonzo stood for a moment by the Martins' tent and then turned and headed back toward his own.
"You're just going to walk away?!!" Julia yelled after him.
"What else is new?" Morgan mumbled.
"You heard Morgan! No warm fuzzies! I'm going to bed!"
"How can you be so callous?!" Julia demanded.
"Speaking of bed," John said to his two charges. "It's long past time you were both in bed yourselves."
"Now?" True and Uly asked.
"What the hell do you expect me to do?!!" Alonzo yelled.
"No, not 'now'. More like an hour ago. Now let's move, we have an early start tomorrow."
"How about anything?!!" Julia screamed. "Just once I'd like to see you do something besides run away when life gets too hot for you!"
"Dad, how are we suppose to sleep with that?"
"I am not running away! I am going to bed. I have a lot to think about."
"I think this is something you should have thought about several decades ago!"
"Can you two go kill each other outside camp?" John asked. "People would like to get a little shut eye here. You're even keeping Walman up."
"Oh, right," Alonzo snapped. "Everybody was just running for their beds until we forced them to sit up and gawk at us."
Yale had the decency to look embarrassed. Most of the others didn't bother. Indeed, with the exception of Morgan and Bess everyone had turned their backs on the fire to blatantly watch the screaming match.
"Yeah, well, a little gossip and scandal is always appreciated," John smirked. "But now you're just giving me a headache. Crank it down a few decibels would you?"
"Tell her that!"
"If Bess and Morgan had a baby would Alonzo be a grandfather?" Uly asked.
"Yes," Yale answered.
"What would that make Julia?" Uly asked.
"Frazzled!" Julia answered. "No more babies! I can't deal with anything else!"
"Hey, Julia," John soothed. "Calm down a little. Everything's fine. Go get some sleep and you can rough Lonz up in the morning when you're refreshed. We'll get Walman to hold him down for you."
"I'm inclined to take you up on that offer," Julia grumbled.
"Julia!!!!!" Morgan screamed.
Julia snapped her attention toward Morgan at the fire when he screamed again. "JUUULLLIIIIIAAAA!!!!!!!!!!"
She waffled for a moment as her reflexes tore her in opposite directions. One impulse told her to run for the med tent to grab her diaglove and first aid kit. The other impulse told her to run straight toward Bess's limp body and see what she could do unaided first. The second impulse won and she was checking Bess's pulse without any memory of running to her side. She turned to run for the med tent but Alonzo slipped her diaglove to her before she'd moved a meter. She desperately ran the sensitive equipment over Bess.
"Do something!!!" Morgan screamed.
Bess looked up with vacant half-lidded eyes. Julia had seen that look before. Julia's heart raced as she fought what she knew was a losing battle. They all knew it. They had all seen that look before. In the months since Devon's collapse they had all wondered: Who will be next? Now they had the answer.
CONTINUED IN THE NEXT INSTALLMENT
Author's Chapter Notes:
This is a continuing soap opera. If you haven't read the prior installments of the As G-889 Turns saga yet, this will make no sense whatsoever.