Date: Thu, 18 May 2017 14:41:16 -0500
From: D B <donbon@gmail.com>
Subject: Forces of Nature Chapter 5

Forces of Nature, Chapter 5 by DGB

This story is a product of my imagination and under my copyright, so no
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*****************************************

Alex was on his back, eyes locked onto the man above him.  Jakes eyes
seemed to sparkle, closing slowly as his head moved lower.  Their lips met
in a tender kiss.  Alex wrapped his legs around the other man, arching his
back in a need for additional contact.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Alex groaned in frustration as he reached out to silence the alarm.  He
flopped back onto his bed and fondled his morning wood, replaying the dream
in his mind.  The dream had felt so real, full of emotion.  A feeling
similar to guilt slowly started to creep in as he realized the reality of
the situation, like he had just violated his friend's privacy. Come to
think of it he wasn't even sure he could call Jake his friend.  Sure they
knew a lot about each other and now shared more in common than most of the
world would ever know, but that was the extent of the relationship so far.
Hopefully Jake would still talk to him even after the shock of being a mage
wore off.

Across town Jake was already sipping a cup of coffee and getting dressed
for the day.  He woke up just before his alarm, full of energy and ready to
seize the day.  The day held nothing but excitement for him; he had more
questions for Ralph, eager to learn more on controlling his powers, but
most importantly he would get to see Alex again.

Both men felt their connection snap back into place when Alex was about
three blocks away, a soothing comforting emotion.  Jake picked up the two
travel mugs full of coffee and headed downstairs.  "Being able to feel your
arrival is a lot quicker than waiting on a text," Jake remarked as he got
in the car.

Alex happily took the offer of coffee, "Yeah no kidding, I was a little
surprised though.  I don't ever remember feeling like that with grandpa; I
guess I'm just so used to him always being there I don't notice it anymore.
We'll probably have to go back to texting the more time we spend with each
other."

The drive to the observatory was fairly quick, and soon the boys were
walking in to Ralph's apartment.  The older man pointed at the phone beside
his laptop as he continued to talk business.  When he finished speaking he
pushed the mute button while others chatted, "Good morning.  I've got a
meeting with one of the research institutes for another hour or so.  Why
don't you take Jake on a grand tour? Just tell folks he's here for an
interview if anyone asks."

Leaving their coats and things in the apartment the two set off.  "So what
do you want to see first? We can start with the labs and official stuff or
we can go for the manipulator only areas."

Jake thought for just a minute before answering, "Let's start with the
telescope.  I've always been fascinated by space, but I have a feeling it
will be a bit underwhelming after seeing magic at work."

With the tour order set Alex lead the way through a long corridor towards
the front of the building and out to main reception.  They weren't likely
to get stopped by anyone since everyone knew of Alex's relationship to
Ralph, but for appearances sake it would be best to have Jake registered as
an official visitor.  Reception issued him a badge and the tour got under
way.

Alex was having fun getting to show off for his friend.  Normally tour
groups were either just a bunch of kids from the local school system that
could only comprehend the sophisticated equipment in very basic terms, or
they were research academics that already knew what everything did.  Jake
had the wonder of a kid but the mind of a researcher.  The standard thirty
to forty minute tour quickly turned into three hours.

Jake wasn't just asking questions to be nice, he really was fascinated by
all the instruments.  The observatory staff all bought into the interview
cover story, and greeted him like a colleague. If only he really was here
on an interview Jake thought.  It was going to be torture to return to his
old job when the office opened back up.

"The telescope isn't much use during the day," Alex apologized. "If you
want to come back after dark one night I can show you everything in
operation.  During the day we mainly just process data and program the next
set of observations."

It was getting close to lunchtime so they headed for Ralph's office instead
of touring the secure areas.  "Well hello you two, I was beginning to think
you had gotten lost," Ralph greeted them.

"This place is amazing.  Now I wish I had gone into astrophysics or
something instead of civil engineering," Jake confessed.

Alex continued, "And we didn't even make it to the best parts yet.  I
thought I could show him the manipulator observatory after lunch."

Ralph smiled warmly at his grandson.  The boy was so full of life since he
had met Jake.  "You boys should go ahead and grab some lunch without me.
I'm expecting a few calls so I really shouldn't leave."

"Do you want us to bring you back anything?" Alex asked.  "Maybe a slice of
pie from the diner?"

He certainly knew the old man's weakness for sweets.  "Well, if it's no
bother," he grinned. "Just surprise me," he added with a wink.

Neither of the guys noticed the sad look in Ralph's eyes as he watched them
leave.  There was no harm in letting the boy have another hour or two of
happiness.

Jake insisted on paying for lunch as a way of showing thanks for the
amazing tour and everything else Alex had done for him.  He also ordered a
slice of chocolate pecan pie for Ralph for everything he had done.

When they got back to the observatory Ralph was waiting in his apartment.
He waited until Alex had headed off to work done before dropping his jovial
act.  He crossed the room and wrapped Jake in tight hug, "I'm so sorry for
what I have to tell you, but you deserve to know everything I have found
out."

The act of kindness had caught Jake off guard but he instinctively returned
the hug.  He searched the older man's face for some clue as to what he had
to tell him.  "We should head downstairs to the testing chamber to talk,"
Ralph said. "It's the most private place I can think of."

Ralph led the way downstairs once again, heading straight for the bench
they had shared the day before.  At a loss for where to start, the old man
put his arm around Jake and pulled him close again.  "I've been able to
find out information about your mother and her family, and some of it will
be hard for you to hear.  To be honest a lot of it is just rumor and
innuendo, and you'll likely never know the full truth.  I'm telling you all
of this not to upset you but because I believe it is your right to know."

He paused before continuing, "You also must know that since I've walked
your memories I know and understand you in a way that no one else probably
ever will.  I know you are a good person, kind, and a friend to my
grandson. Alex and I will still be here for you tomorrow."

"Just tell me and get it over with," Jake sighed.  He had secretly been
thinking this was all too good to be true, and now he knew it was.

"I was able to find your Mother's maiden name from the court records
online, and from there I found where she was born.  I contacted an old
friend that used to live in the area to see if he knew of her or her
family.  I trust this man immensely, but even he admitted most of this is
hearsay."  Seeing no reaction from Jake he continued, "Your mother was an
only child, and grew up in a rather strict household.  Her father died from
cancer when she was eleven, and after that she argued constantly with your
grandmother. She... She was known to have quite a temper.  Apparently she
once caused a torrential downpour at a classmate's birthday party when she
wasn't invited.  In high school your mother was kicked off the cheerleading
squad, and a week later several of the other girls were injured when a
freak lightning storm hit the field during practice.  A connection to your
mom was never proven, but there was enough circumstantial evidence that the
elders in the area considered taking action."

Jake had stiffened in his seat, staring intently at a spot on the floor.
He looked up when the older man paused, and nodded to urge him on.

"From what I'm told your grandmother swore her daughter was guilty, and
they had a rather nasty public fight during a meeting of the elders.  Your
mother accused her of quite a few nasty things, claiming she was abused.
In the heat of argument you grandmother stormed out and told your mother
never to come home again.  Graduation was only a few weeks away so she
stayed with friends, and then quickly left town saying she would never be
back.  I don't have much information about the time between that and your
birth, almost a five year gap."

Jake didn't look up when he asked in a quiet voice "Is my grandmother still
alive?"

"I don't know. She was never apparently the most social person, and she
withdrew almost entirely after the fight.  My friend did say that she was
devastated by the news of your mother's death; they never had a chance to
reconcile. He also said that she was still alive when he moved, but that
was almost a decade ago.  I can check into it further with your
permission."

The younger man just nodded his head, not wanting to show the tears running
down his face.

"I'm sorry, I really am, but there is more I must tell you," Ralph
continued.  "You already know she died giving birth, but I don't think
you're aware of the circumstances.  I pieced some things together from the
court records I found and from my friend.  Did you know there was an
equipment failure during your birth? All the monitoring equipment that was
attached to your mother shorted out due to an electrical surge.  One of the
nurses got a nasty shock and was hospitalized for several days as well.
The cause of the power surge was never determined."

Jake's tears were flowing freely, "So my dad was right? I did kill her?"

Ralph reached for the younger man but he pulled away.  "It was my fault
wasn't it?"

"There is no way of knowing that for sure, but yes the charge likely came
from either you or your mother.  It's happened many times before that a
manipulator loses control during birth due.  And now with modern drugs to
dull the pain and interfere with the nervous system, combined with the
stress of child birth, it's understandable that a manipulator's control can
slip and activate the energy around them.  Within the community expectant
mothers work hard to train themselves for birth, and we always have skilled
midwives present at birth to siphon off and control any excess energy.
Your mother had neither the training nor assistance from what I can tell."

"An elder visited you once news of her death spread, but no special
abilities could be determined.  It was assumed that you took after your
father as a normal human.  I suspect now that the surge overwhelmed your
system and shorted you out much like the equipment at the hospital.  Your
abilities stayed more or less dormant until the storm a few weeks ago."

Jake was swaying slightly on the bench, "but it's also possible it's my
fault and I killed her."

"Yes."

Still refusing to be comforted Jake stood and headed for the door, "Tell
Alex I got sick. I have to get out of here."

The heavy footsteps echoing in the stairwell told Ralph it was pointless to
pursue the young man.  Hopefully they could talk more once he calmed down.

Jake had shut his emotions off from everyone as soon as he felt Alex coming
back into range.  He couldn't face his friend right now.  His tears fell
harder when he realized he was leaving behind a former friend.  Surely no
one would want to be near him once they knew the truth about what he had
done.  He kept running until he found a bench to rest on and order an uber.

=============================================

Alex didn't realize till the end of the work day that he still couldn't
sense Jake.  He had felt the connection go out at the same time as his
grandfather's and assumed they had headed for the testing chamber again.
Ralph had been back for hours though in his office.  Surely Jake wasn't
still in the test chamber.

"Hey grandpa, where's Jake?"

The old man looked up from his work, "He asked me to tell you he wasn't
feeling well earlier and went home."

Alex missed the look on the old man's face, preoccupied with pulling out
his phone.  "Oh I hope he is feeling better.  I'll text him to see if he
needs anything."

Alex drove past the loft on his way home but couldn't feel anything.
Perhaps Jake was at the doctor or something.  After dinner he was starting
to worry when Jake still hadn't replied to his first text.  "Hey bud do you
feel better? Need anything?"

"I'll survive," the answer had come quickly.

"Should I pick you up tomorrow?"

"No."

Alex just stared at his phone trying to figure out how to respond.  Jake
had never been this terse with him.  "Maybe he just gets grumpy when he's
sick," he thought.  There was no way to misinterpret the message though
Wednesday morning.  He drove past the loft, but instead of connecting to
his friend he felt nothing.  Jake had cut off all connection to him.

It wasn't until lunchtime that Alex was able to make his way to Ralph's
office, closing the door behind him.  "What really happened with Jake?"

Ralph sighed; he had been preparing for this conversation since yesterday
and still didn't have a good plan.  "I was able to find out information
about his mother and her family, and it wasn't exactly happy news.  I felt
he had a right to know, so I took him down to the testing chamber for
privacy and told him everything.  He took it much harder than I expected
and he ran out of here, asking me to tell you he was sick.  He was in such
a rush that he left his bag behind."

The younger man slumped into one of the leather office chairs.  "What did
you tell him? Why won't he talk to me?"

"You know I can't tell you, it's his story." Ralph could see his grandson
disliked hearing the answer as much as he disliked giving it.  "He blames
himself for the way his father treats him, and I think what I told him just
made it worse.  He's gone through a lot the last few days; just give him
some space to work through it."

Alex let the subject drop knowing his grandfather wouldn't tell him
anything useful.  The explanation had only left him with more questions,
and did nothing to explain why Jake wouldn't talk to him.  The afternoon
seemed to drag on forever, an endless sequence of tedious tasks to run out
the clock. He swung by the apartment to grab Jake's bag on his way out.

The rain showers from a cold front blowing into town were just heavy enough
to make traffic messy.  Alex headed straight for the alley behind the loft,
pulled into the open parking spot, and killed the engine.  He sat listening
to the rain trying to decide what to do next, since he hadn't figured out a
plan beyond driving over.  Jake interrupted his thoughts with a quick text
message, "Why are you here?"

Of course Jake still sensed him. "I brought your backpack to you and just
wanted to check on you."

Alex was so intent on watching his phone for the response that it took a
few seconds for him to realize something had changed.  It was his ears that
noticed first, his right ear picking up more noise than the left.  When he
finally looked up he knew why; the rain had simply stopped hitting the
driver's side of the car.  A clean line down the middle of the windshield
had formed, half wet and half dry.  Looking towards the building he was
amazed to see an archway cut through the middle of the rain, as if an
umbrella had appeared from thin air in the space from his car to the back
door.

Any mage could summon an orb of energy from the surrounding environment,
but this was far beyond anything he had witnessed.  Alex grabbed his
friend's bag and headed for the door, noticing the curtain of rain closing
behind him.

Alex had to hold in a gasp when he saw his friend standing in the doorway
at the top of the stairs.  Jake's hair stuck out in several directions and
his eyes were red and puffy from hours of crying.  His dark t-shirt looked
wrinkled, maybe slept in, and stained with dried tears.  "Thank you for
bringing my bag, but why are you really here?"

Alex saw an opening and stepped around Jake into the loft.  "I had to talk
to you and figured this was the only way you'd let me."

"You shouldn't be here, didn't Ralph warn you?"

"Warn me about what?

"Me.  I'm a dangerous freak; A horrible monster that killed my own mother."
The tears had started again by the time he flopped back onto the couch.
"Just go. Please. I don't want to hurt you or anyone else."

Alex sat down but his friend just scooted way.  "I'm not scared of you, I
know you'd never hurt me.  And even if your powers did lash out my shield
will protect me.  Don't you remember that first day in the coffee shop? I
thought my little heat ball would just harmlessly dissipate when it hit
your shield, and I was shocked you didn't have one."

"Really?"

Of course Alex wasn't going to tell his friend that his shield would be no
match for the level of power that had controlled the rain.  "Really. Now
come here and tell me what's wrong."  Jake finally allowed himself to be
held, "You don't have to go through whatever this is alone."

Once he started talking the story began rushing out.  Jake talked about
Ralph walking through his memories, the feelings and emotions that had been
dredged up, and onto the news of his mother's childhood and her death.

"Grandpa was telling the truth you know.  Women consider it a great honor
to train as midwives and help bring new manipulators into the world.  Three
of them helped my mother during my birth.  Your mom had to have known the
risks, and she knew she was putting your life and the lives of all the
nurses in danger by not taking the proper precautions.  It wasn't your
fault."

Jake was much calmer now, leaning on his friend as they sat together on the
couch.  "But what about the storm a few weeks ago; It looked like a bomb
exploded, and I did that.  If anyone else had been there I could have
killed them."

"The original lightning strike probably would have happened either
way. Grandpa had noticed the energies getting unbalanced at the observatory
and had me stay with him after work that night.  You might have served as a
focus and drew the power to you, and then your body dispersed it into the
environment, but that doesn't make it your fault."

Jake grabbed another Kleenex from the end table and wiped his eyes before
sitting up.  "I haven't told you about my testing yet.  I might not have
been telling you the whole truth when I said I scored a bit above average."

"Yeah I kind of figured that one out on my own. " Alex stuck out his
tongue. "That trick you did with the rain earlier is way beyond what I have
ever seen another mage do.  That took enough power to control hundreds or
thousands of raindrops at once and bend them to your will.  I mean it was
beyond cool, but that was some serious power."

For the first time that evening Jake let himself smile, for just a moment.
"After the water test Ralph decided I needed to use your machine to test my
electrical ability.  I could feel the energy draining from the power
crystals and surging through my hands.  The dial got almost all the way to
the bomb icon before I collapsed."

"No wonder you ate so much at lunch," Ales said in awe.

Jake blushed slightly before getting serious again, "Even Ralph looked
concerned.  And yesterday when we went to the chamber to talk the power
crystals still didn't look normal.  That's why you need to leave, I'm not
safe.  Who knows when I might blow up."

Wrapping his arms around his friend Alex leaned back and pulled them both
back onto the couch. "I told you: I'm not scared of you.  I know you would
never hurt me or anyone else you care about.  I'm not going anywhere."

He was nearly overwhelmed by waves of emotions washing over him as Jake
reopened their empathic connection.  Alex could feel the raw vulnerability
of his friend, and felt his own need to take care of him.  "You haven't
eaten all day have you?  Why don't you hop in the shower and I'll run
downstairs and grab some Chinese.  We can eat and watch TV and just do
normal things this evening."

The boys talked over fried rice and debated what to watch for a bit before
settling on Doctor Who.  Neither was quite sure how it happened, but once
again Alex wound up with his arms around Jake snuggled on the couch.
Gentle snoring alerted Alex that his friend had fallen asleep.

This wasn't exactly the evening he had planned, but Alex wouldn't change it
for anything.  The remote was within reach, so he turned off the TV and
closed his eyes to rest as well.  Sometime after midnight he was gently
nudged awake. The loft was dark aside from the soft glow of a lamp down the
hallway.

Jake took his hand and led him to the bedroom, neither feeling the need for
words.  Jake turned off the lamp and settled onto the bed against his
friend.  Alex pulled Jake close and placed a gentle kiss on his forehead,
and they both quickly fell back asleep.

*************************************************************

Author's note: I've been a bit overwhelmed by the response to the story so
far.  I'm glad so many are enjoying it.  I tried to respond to everyone, so
forgive me if I missed your email – sorting through the spam folder is
hell.  I've got the next chapter sorted out in my head, so hopefully the
writing will be quick.  Thanks for indulging my storytelling – always
happy to get feedback. donbon@gmail.com