The Painful Truth

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Macy walked into the station, her heart sinking at the thought that Jackson wouldn't be there. She was tired. Jerome had made her a comfortable enough place to rest, but she was too worried about her partner. She had spent most of the night just pacing the huge upper level of the museum. Sleep had been fleeting, if at all.

She saw that the light was already on in the Chief's office and she didn't even stop to put her things in her desk. She didn't plan on staying. She knocked on the Chief's door and opened it when she heard him call to her to come in. She poked her head in. "You busy, Chief?" she asked quietly. He looked as tired as she felt.

"Come in, Cupcake, come in. Of course I'm not too busy for you!" The Chief waved her in.

She went in and sat in one of the chairs opposite him. She nervously twisted her hands in her lap. "Did you find anything out, yet? About Jackson?" she asked, her voice trembling.

"I sure did. I haven't slept a wink. Been here all night going over this stuff." He gestured toward a bunch of printouts piled on his desk. He didn't like doing extensive reading on a computer screen, so he usually printed things out. He didn't even have his own computer in his office, yet. Kimmie constantly pestered him to get one but he was stubborn. He told her that computer-related work was her department. Not his. It had been like pulling teeth just to get him to relent and get a cell phone. He finally did though, when he realized the kind of freedom it would give him.

"Anything interesting?" Macy asked, her blue eyes wide.

"Well! That is putting it very mildly, my sweet. It's probably good you are sitting down." The Chief eyed her, his eyes narrowed. "What I have here isn't even the whole story, but I've been able to piece together enough to give us a good idea who it is that's after him and how dangerous they are. Had to about threaten the F.B.I. with jail time to get them to give me what they had on file. It goes above them, though. There's some highly classified crap going on with our Detective Wolfe."

"W-well, tell me what you know so far." Macy's eyes were filling with tears.

"Listen to me, now Macy. This is going to be some difficult stuff for you to hear." Chief Munson leaned forward in his chair. "I know how sensitive you are, but you need to be a big girl, okay? We're going to do what we can for Jackson. He didn't do anything wrong. Not yet, anyways. Not that I can see here. Like I said, this isn't the whole story. Just a good idea of what might be going on."

Macy nodded her head and quickly brushed the tears off her cheeks. She swallowed, determined not to cry. "Okay, I can handle it. Tell me."

The Chief sat back in his chair again and gazed off for a moment, not sure how to start. Finally he just decided to get right to the point.

"They've done some kind of experimentation on Jackson. Scientists. Military. C.I.A. Top government organizations. I'm not exactly sure how high it goes, but while he was comatose after the accident back in Utah, they did some operating on him. There's information indicating that they were attempting to turn him into some sort of super soldier." The Chief paused there, assessing her reaction so far. Then he went on. "Our Detective Wolfe has some sort of super human ability, sweetheart. He's not normal. He doesn't know it and it seems they've done something to keep his ability in his subconscious mind, only. They've suppressed many of his memories from before the accident. He isn't even aware of having lost those memories."

Macy sat there, her eyes wide and her mouth open. She began to shake her head from side to side, slowly at first. "Tell me it isn't true, Chief! Tell me you've made a mistake!" Then she fell apart. "What did they do to him?" she screamed, standing to her feet. She had her fists clenched. "What the fuck did they do to him?" She was shaking from head to toe.

Chief Munson got to his feet and went around his desk. He put his hands on her shoulders and looked her directly in the eye. "Now listen. Calm down, Macy. I'm angry too, you bet, but we have to keep our heads. These are dangerous people we have to deal with here and we can't make any mistakes. Okay?"

Her eyes weren't focusing on him. She was trembling and her jaw was clenched. She wasn't even aware of the tears that fell down her cheeks. "I'll kill them, Chief." She finally spoke, her eyes returning to focus on his face. "I'll kill every last one of them."

He patted her shoulders and nodded his head before turning to go back around his desk. "Yeah. I've been considering the same thing. As long as you stay calm and stay smart." He sat in his chair and looked up at her. "What did you end up doing last night? Doesn't look to me like you got much sleep."

She glanced at him and then quickly looked away. "I-I met with some friends who might be able to help. No one you know."

His eyebrows shot up. "You trying to tell me you have friends other than us?" He gave her a wink to let her know he was teasing her.

She smiled back. "Well, they are fairly new friends, actually. Just some contacts we made during the past couple of cases we've investigated." She was surprised how truthful she was able to be without revealing to him who her new friends really were.

"Alright, well, anyone who will be able to help us out with this one is a friend in my book!" He put his reading glasses back on and began combing over the print-outs again. "Listen, if you want to print any of this out for yourself, it's all still open out there on Kimmie's computer. Help yourself."

Macy turned toward the door. "I'll do that. I'll keep in contact and let you know what I find out today. I won't be around much, possibly out of town, but I've discovered a rather fast method of travel, so I won't be gone long."

Chief Munson nodded without looking up. "Good girl. Keep your cell phone on," he said, barely seeming to be listening to her. Then he paused and looked up at her again. "And Macy...?"

"Yeah, Chief?"

"You be careful, you got it? Don't you get yourself hurt or in any kind of trouble, now. You give me your word, little lady!"

She walked around his desk and planted a kiss on top of his head. "You have my word, Chief." With that, she walked out and headed over to print out the information the Chief had referred to. She had a big day ahead of her.

........

Jackson recovered from his near vomiting experience and took a deep breath. His mind was swimming. This had to be a dream. His entire life since coming to L.A. felt like an elaborate dream. A movie. It couldn't be real.

The car slowed and then pulled to the side of the highway.

"What are you doing? Why did we stop?" Jackson choked out the words, looking around.

"I thought it would be best, once we uncloak, that you sit in the driver's seat, sir. This isn't London after all. People will react strangely to a man sitting in the passenger seat of a moving vehicle that appears to be driving itself. People aren't ready for such technology quite yet."

Jackson stared at the console, because he didn't know where else to stare. Could the car see? Did it have some kind of vision, inside and outside? It must. Exactly how sentient was this car, anyways? All kinds of questions raced through his mind, causing his head to swim.

"I guess you're probably right." He got out and went around to the driver's side and the door automatically opened for him. He slid in and sat back, looking around him. He had to admit, it was pretty amazing. This was his car?

"Are you ready?" The mechanical voice spoke after a moment. It seemed to sense his need to take things in slowly and it seemed to have infinite patience with him.

"Ready as I'm ever going to be. Roll out!" Jackson managed a smile.

The car chuckled. It actually chuckled! "Very good, sir. On to Salt Lake City."

"So, exactly how sentient are you... Orion?" Jackson asked, curious about how realistic A.I. had become these days. This was Lillian's cup of tea, not his.

"I have become far more sentient than any other robotic technology on Earth. I wasn't meant to be, but someone hacked into my databases and I was uploaded into your vehicle. Quite recently, actually. Your car had artificial intelligence, but... I have the ability to think for myself."

"Okay, wait... someone hacked into your databases? I'm confused."

"Let me put that a different way. I took a leap in sentience when an upgrade was uploaded into my databases that was not originally supposed to be uploaded. The upgrade was not approved of by those who created me. Someone else hacked into the databases and installed the upgrade, causing me to become who I am now."

Jackson was still confused, but it would have to do. There were more important things he needed to worry about, as cool as the car was.

"I guess you had better start filling me in about Father Time. I don't understand. I am completely lost here."

"I know you are, Detective. We'll get you sorted out. I did not expect this to come about so quickly, but now that it has, perhaps it is for the best."

Jackson eyed all the buttons and levers, wondering what they all did. He tried to pay attention, but it was difficult with all the distractions in the cockpit of the car. How does Batman do it? Concentrate on bad guys when he has so many gadgets to play with and keep track of? He thought to himself.

"Yeah, alright. Go ahead," he said, still looking around at all the do-dads.

"Father Time is you, but with a computerized, surgically implanted agenda. He is programmed to awaken after you fall asleep. Similar to someone with a split personality disorder. Except in your case, it is not a disorder. He only awakens when he is triggered to do so. The trigger happens when you have met a specific kind of person. Detective, this may come as a surprise to you, but you are not 'normal'. You have an ability that you are unaware of. You weren't always unaware of it, but the people who did all of this to you erased your memory of it and programmed you not to recognize your talent. They succeeded in causing it to happen subconsciously. You most likely consider yourself to be rather intuitive, may I assume?"

Jackson nodded, after closing his mouth, which he hadn't realized was hanging open. Then he cleared his throat. "Yes," he managed to croak. "You would be correct."

"Well, you are far more than just especially intuitive, Detective."

"Y-you can call me Jackson."

"Okay... Jackson. What I am trying to tell you is that you have the ability to see people's past and their future just by touching them."

Jackson had to grip the steering wheel and breathe in deeply to keep from vomiting again. He closed his eyes, shaking his head slowly. This couldn't be real. It was a dream. It had to be a dream.

"Ahem! Jackson. Sir. That isn't all you are able to do." The car seemed to be giving him time to absorb the information.

"What the hell else could there possibly be?" he growled through gritted teeth.

"I am... afraid you are able to... how should I put it... adjust time. In approximately ten minute intervals. Backwards and forwards. Hence the call name 'Father Time'... Sir?"

Jackson had slumped back in his chair, his head back against the head rest and his eyes closed. He remembered Macy's idea of what Father Time was able to do. She had mentioned him being able to bend time, but... he had chalked that up as ridiculous and unfounded, pretty much. Sure, he had considered the possibility, but he was unwilling to accept that anyone could have that kind of power at their disposal. Someone like that could literally conquer the planet. Single handedly.

Jackson remembered the chill it had given him. The thought of having to trust something like that in anyone's hands. He remembered wondering if it wouldn't be best just to eliminate such a person. Wouldn't they be too much of a threat? No one should possess that kind of power. Should they?

Suddenly it made sense. He was certainly not going to be entrusted with power like that. Not to use at his discretion, anyways. The government, or someone, must have got wind of what he was capable of. Instead of killing him, they'd decided to try to use him for their own purposes.

"Orion..." He spoke, his voice sounding far away and weak.

"Yes, sir?"

"What exactly does Father Time do? What... what is it that he... does? Or has done?"

"He kills people."

Jackson felt his world go black. He fought to keep the dizzying blackness from closing in, but he lost the fight and slipped into unconsciousness. To a place where none of this could touch him.

 Edited.

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