Photo After Photo

[Jensen James]

"He's beautiful,"


Jensen stared at the image. The soft sheen of fur, the bright eyes, it's sheer size. If it was a dog, it was the most incredible one he had ever seen. It almost looked life a wolf.

His soft gaze shifted to the girl and he laid a hand on her shoulder.

But before he could say any more, his iwallet rang with an incoming message.

He excused himself and took several steps away.

The voice on the other end shocked him pale.

"Jessika??" What's wrong?

"I can't. You know that. . ....

"You are all safer without me around. You shouldn't even be calling. ....

"I'm staying in Moscow. I am sorry."


He put the device away and returned to the table, pale and sweating.

A pained look swept over him as he collapsed in his seat and laid his face in his hands, sobbing.

"My wife asked me to come home. And I said no."

[Sierra]

Sierra blinked at the admission. She wasn't exactly sure what to say to that. Why was he refusing to come home. She'd heard his half of the conversation he smelled vexed about the situation, but he still refused.

Sierra smiled. "But you just said you missed them. Why would you not be with them if you could. Danger is all around us. There are men and women who can use these great gifts for good or ill. Even if you are one of these men, you certainly are not a danger to your family any longer. The CCD has declared them real. The rest of the world will follow in it's footsteps and these so called killers of men will have a much harder time dealing with the unknown when the world knows about them."


Sierra thought about her brother. The means of his death, the man with the tattoo. The russian man with a tattoo.... It was why she was here, maybe this was all connected, but what was she going to do about it. She was nothing but a photographer. Sierra smiled. "Maybe back home you can even do something about it. Protect your own family. I would not want to run the risk that something might happen to me or to my family with all this danger in the world. You should go home. Be with your wife and beautiful boys."

[Giovanni]

Jensen received a call and one that upset him - a call from his wife. Giovanni never knew that his friend and benefactor was married - or had children for that matter. Of course Giovanni had neither. He had no family - not anymore.

Giovanni stood and moved next to Jensen, putting a hand on his shoulder. It was clear because of his reaction, that Jensen wanted to go home. "You want to go home, and as she said, you're better equipped to protect them there than here."


He paused, giving him an encouraging smile. "Follow your heart, fratello. You know what you want to do and what you need to do."

[Jensen James]

It wasn't as simple as all that. He wanted to go home. He did. But that meant he had to own up to what happened. He had to face people he let belive him dead for years. He would have to face his sons. Wouldn't returning to their lives be worse than letting them maintain the closure they desperately earned?

What did he want? Was there anything keeping him in Moscow? Anyone? He looked between the two people only wanting to help. "I'll think about it,"
he said softly. Those killers could come after him, then. Those Atharim people, the ones the Ascendancy described. What if they came after his family? Jensen couldn't live with himself if they were hurt because of his selfishness. "Giovanni, what is keeping you here in Moscow? Why don't you go home too?"


He couldn't speak for the Italian, but Jensen felt a pull to Moscow. Maybe it was because of the Ascendancy. He didn't know why or how, but leaving felt wrong.

Even though he had literally no reason to stay and every reason to leave.

[Giovanni]

Jensen's question rang in his ears. Of course there was a legitimate answer to it, but did Giovanni want to tell the truth. He knew Jensen well enough that if he answered truthfully, the man might stay instead of doing what he should - what he really wanted.

But Jensen had been good to Giovanni. He deserved the truth - at least some semblance of it. Giovanni just shrugged. It really didn't bother him anymore.

"I have no home,"
he said.

The past three years he had spent as a nomad - and even though now he lived in Moscow and had stayed relatively in the same place. Moscow wasn't his home. There was no place for him to call home.

[Jensen James]

Jensen reached across the table to pat Giovanni on the hand. Home was defined in so many different ways. For Jensen, it was the thought of his roots that defined home. Wichita Falls where he was raised for one. For another, the actual house he lived in with Jessika and the boys in Dallas. The place where they celebrated holidays and watched movies together. But home was shadowed. It was where he went to work and lied like a hypocrite to the world. But looking into Giovanni's eyes, he was ashamed to even miss his home. At least he had one.

"I'm sorry. You should make a new home here. You could meet someone, maybe get married? Have some kids?"


Jensen smiled. He knew that was easier said than done, but the thought of Giovanni, grim and strict, with a baby was too amusing.

He glanced back at Sierra. She seemed too young for babies herself.

An alert came through on his Wallet then. Expecting it to be from Jessika again, his brow furrowed thoughtfully when he saw it was from the airlines. Jessika purchased a plane ticket for him that left tonight.

He gestured at the screen, and sighed. "I'm sorry you two, but I need to go take care of this."


Glancing at Sierra, remembering the insistence in her suggestion, he wasn't sure how he was going to take care of it. Maybe it was easier to just go to the airport and leave.

For now, all he did was simply depart the cafe, but not before giving a fond goodbye to Giovanni. He almost promised to pray for him, but it had been so long since he'd gone to prayer, it would have been a lie. And Jensen was trying to avoid hypocrisy these days.

[Sierra]

Sierra nodded as the man left. She hoped he would go home, but men like that who left their family rarely did. Look at her father, he's still holed up in the bunker in the middle of Spain and has no clue what is going on in the world. He doesn't know that there are men and women who can use some unseen gift, that there are more men and women like herself. No he didn't even know about her and her brother he'd ignored the problem from the get go.

Sierra went back to her photos. Rather she stared at the business card that had introduced them all in the first place. She would get back at these men for killing Snow - but how?