The Watcher Chronicles: Oblivion Part 17

Mason zips up his pants. "Why would you need to contact him?"

"I need to ask him to do something for me."

Mason looks curious now. I feel like banging my head against something. I should have just called Isaiah and gotten Malcolm's number.

"Can I ask what this something is?" Mason says.

"No, you may not," I say matter-of-factly. "It's a surprise. If I told you, then it wouldn't be a surprise anymore."

"What on Earth could Malcolm help you with?"

"You keep asking the same question just in a different way," I tell him, becoming exasperated. "Are you going to give me his number or not?"

"I'll text it to you."

It's almost like I can see the gears of Mason's mind going into overdrive trying to figure out what I'm up to. I feel confident he won't guess, but the less I say the better.

"I'll be right back," Mason says, phasing somewhere and phasing back a few seconds later. He's holding a box of kitchen matches in his hands.

I laugh. "Good memory. I completely forget."

Mason grins. "I'm not sure they will believe it took thirty minutes to get a box of matches but it would definitely look suspicious if we didn't return with them at all."

"I'm pretty sure Chandler and JoJo know what we've been doing. It's Leah's impressionable mind I'm more concerned with."

Mason brings me into his arms. "She'll see how much we love each other. That's the important thing. It's the best example we could set for her. To wait until you find someone you love to share yourself with."

Mason phases us back to the kitchen in my house. When I walk into the living room, there's already a fire blazing in the hearth. Chandler is playing a happy tune on his pipe and JoJo is teaching Leah how to dance, something I feel sure is a foreign concept to her. Laughter fills my home and I feel truly blessed to have the people in it be my friends.

When Chandler sees us, he grins.

"You know we have our own little fire starter," he reminds me, tilting his head towards Leah.

"Oh, yeah, forgot about that," I say, clearing my throat.

Leah giggles. I'm pretty positive she didn't buy the matches story either.

"Ok, then," I say, ignoring JoJo's questioning eyes. "Let's see if we can find the fifth vessel together."

We sit in a circle in front of the fire. I instruct Leah on what to do and we all close our eyes and try to connect with our next archangel.

It's almost instantaneous. The picture of the fifth vessel appears in my mind like I'm watching a movie in my head. It's even clearer than when we saw Leah. I feel like I can touch him if I just stretch my hand out.

He looks to be in his mid-forties and of Middle Eastern origin with his dark olive skin and short black hair. He's dressed in a white lab coat with a white T-s.h.i.+rt underneath emblazoned with a symbol of a running man marked out in red horizontal lines. Underneath the symbol are the words 'Doctors Without Borders'. He's bent over a small examining table ministering to a black child who looks severely malnourished. I hear the sound of gun shots being fired. The man looks up and stands straight holding his hands in the air. The vision ends.

We all open our eyes and stare at one another.

"c.r.a.p," I say standing up and running to the kitchen.

I tell Mason what we saw and he immediately gets on the phone with Nick.

"Nick says he'll call us back after he speaks with his contacts."

I instantly feel guilty. If Mason and I hadn't wasted 30 minutes having s.e.x, maybe I could have gotten to the fifth vessel before those gun shots were fired.

"Don't," Mason says to me.

I look up at him and can see in his eyes that he knows exactly what I'm thinking.

"It's true," I say. "If we hadn't....

"There's no guarantee we would have located him in time," Mason says. "What if you had seen him 30 minutes ago? You wouldn't have seen he and the other people he's with are in danger. Do you think he would have appreciated us taking him away before the trouble started or do you think he would rather have been there so we know to send help?"

I didn't think about it like that. Someone who was with such an organization was someone who wanted to help as many people as he could. Mason was right. If we hadn't delayed our vision by 30 minutes, we wouldn't have known the clinic the fifth vessel worked at was in trouble. There were probably a lot of sick people and other doctors who needed help too.

For almost two hours we wait for word on what's happening. Faison comes to get Leah even though she says she wants to wait. I tell her it's useless and that she should go out and have some fun like a normal teenager. Faison tempts her by saying she'll take her to the latest number one movie about a vampire love affair. Having never seen a movie, Leah jumps at the chance.

In the middle of the third hour, Mason finally gets a call back from Nick.

"And you're sure he's all right?" I hear Mason say. He looks at me and nods.

I breathe a sigh of relief. Our fifth vessel is still alive.

"Really?" Mason grins at me. "So they were able to save everyone there? Good to know, Nick. I'll pa.s.s the information along." Mason pauses as he listens to Nick. "Ok, sounds good. I'll let them know."

Mason ends the call and looks at the three of us as we anxiously wait to hear what happened.

"The local militia was able to take out the gang that tried to steal the medicine at the clinic. Your vision gave them a heads up on what was going on and saved a lot of lives from what Nick told me."

Mason winks at me as a little 'I told you so'. Honestly, I'm just relieved our fifth vessel is alive.

"When will we be able to meet him?" Chandler asks.

"Nick said Isaiah was there speaking with him now. He'll let me know when Rafe is ready to come meet you."

"That's his name?" I ask.

"Yes, Rafe Anany."

"Where is he?" JoJo asks. "Where was that place that we saw him?"

"His clinic is in Sierra Leone. There are gangs there all the time stealing from the free clinics and selling the medicine on the black market. So your vision not only saved the lives of the people there, it also saved the lives of all the people the medicine they have will eventually help."

JoJo and Chandler ask Mason to take them back to their homes since we have to wait anyway. They do have lives outside of our archangel duties after all. JoJo says she is in the midst of preparing to show her line of clothing during New York Fas.h.i.+on Week which is in a couple of weeks. Chandler is preparing for a few concert dates including his Denver, Colorado Valentine's Day concert.

"You've gotta be there," he tells me. "I can't have all my teenage fans think I would ditch my girlfriend on Valentine's Day."

I look over at Mason because I have no idea if he has anything planned for our first Valentine's Day together.

Mason shrugs. "I'm ok with that as long as I can be there with you."

"I've got no problem with you coming," Chandler says. "As long as you guys don't, ah, you know get caught doing something you shouldn't be doing. You know, no going for 'matches'." Chandler says using his fingers to make quotes in the air.

"Well sometimes you just need 'matches'," I say in our defense.

"Well could you wait until after the concert to get your 'matches'?" Chandler asks. "Otherwise it'll look suspicious."

"Just how much longer does Jess have to play this game with you?" Mason asks, not even attempting to hide his irritation. "Isn't it about time for a guy like you to have some sort of break up by now?"

Chandler shrugs, not taking offense by Mason's words. "It's a good cover with everyone. If someone in my usual entourage wants to know where I am, I just tell them I'm spending time with Jess. Maybe after everything is over we can have a public break up fight."

Mason sighs and I know he isn't pleased.

I take advantage of Mason being away dropping JoJo and Chandler off and call the number he gave me for Malcolm.

"h.e.l.lo?" Malcolm answers his phone. I feel sure he's wondering who's calling him from an unlisted number.

"Malcolm, it's Jess."

"Ahh," Malcolm is silent for a moment. "I heard you met my alter ego in the alternate Earth you traveled to."

"Who told you?"

"Mason and I discussed it yesterday while I was helping him prepare his beach house for your...date. Have fun last night?" Malcolm asks with a teasing smile in his voice Who didn't know Mason and I had s.e.x last night?

"It was fine," I answer, seeing no reason to expound on my private time with Mason. "Listen, aren't you like an architect or something?"

"Yes," Malcolm answers cautiously.

"Then I need your help."

I proceed to tell Malcolm exactly what I need built.

"Do you think you can do that in my backyard?"

"What's the time frame?"

"ASAP."

"Hmm, let me speak with a few of my fellow Watchers. If they have time to help, we can have it built by tomorrow afternoon."

"So it would be ready for tomorrow night?" I ask, becoming excited by the fact all the pieces were falling into place so easily.

"Yes, I can promise you it will be ready by then. Leave the details to me. Do you have people lined up to help you?"

"Yes, I think so. I just have to ask but I know they'll help."

"Then I suggest you find a way to keep Mason away from your home tomorrow. We'll be there bright and early."

"Ok, thank you, Malcolm. I owe you one."

"Really?" Malcolm says, sounding intrigued by the possibility of me owing him a favor. "I will keep that in mind, Jess."

Just as I get off the phone with Malcolm, Mason phases into my living room.

"I just got a call from Jonathan," Mason tells me as he walks towards me, causing my heart to flutter by such a simple action. "He and Angela want to know if we can come over and have dinner with them. It would be lunch for us but it's dinner time in London."

"Sure. Will I get a chance to meet your grandchildren this time?"

Mason smiles and I can tell he takes a lot of pride in them. "They should be there. The little ones at least. I'm not sure about the twins."

"Twins?"

"Yes, Brianna and Bale. They were Angela and Jonathan's first born. They're fourteen. Then there's Kyle who is nine and Emma who just turned five right before I met you."

"You have four grandchildren?" I ask, completely flabbergasted.

"Yes," Mason says. "You did say I was an old man didn't you?"

I wrap my arms around Mason's waist. "Not so old, but I did just realize we'll be the quintessential backwards family when we have our children."

Mason smiles at my mention of having children with him.

"How so?" He asks.

"Our children will be the aunts and uncles of your grandchildren but the ages will be completely reversed from normal."

Mason caresses the side of my face. "How many children do you see us having?"

"Three sounds like a good number," I say. "What do you think?"

"Three sounds perfect," he says with a smile that isn't all the way happy.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

I know what's wrong but can't exactly fix the problem just yet.

"Should we get going?" I ask. "I don't want them to think we're getting 'matches'."

Mason chuckles. "Is that what we're going to be calling it from now on?"

"It'll be our secret code word," I say. "If I'm in desperate need of matches when we're around other people, I'll let you know."

Mason leans down and leaves a linger kiss on my lips. "Please do," he murmurs.

Mason phases us into a cacophony of sound.