Disclaimer:
All Tomorrow People characters and premises are property of Thames TV, Tetra Films, and Roger Damon Price. Used without permission. All other characters are mine. (end legalese)
This is a sequel/prequel to "Reunion," and is longer than its predecessor, but I didn't see any rhyme or reason to cut it into parts. There isn't much Tana in here; again, it's more explanation than plot. Someone posed this question to me a while back about why my version of Adam's parents were angry/apathetic about him and not about Tana, so I have written my answer. It's a bit knotty and bounces back and forth in flashbacks, but I figured that was the best way to do it.
As for a time frame, this takes place a few months after the new series pilot. Comments, again, are appreciated......
The film on the mirror seemed to distort the reflection of the man who stood before it. With his sleeve, he rubbed away a large patch to reveal a clearer image. He sighed; his reflection still seemed out of shape and out of place--it always did. A cracked mirror would have done better.
Then again, when had his life ever fallen into place?
Running a hand through his closely cropped black hair, Daniel Newman frowned at the stranger in the glass. He was tall and thin, and the sharp planes of his face were softened somewhat by a short beard and tanned skin. His wide brown eyes were still somewhat glazed over with sleep as he dashed cold water on his face to wake himself.
Still blinking in his early morning haze, Daniel seemed to see his reflection twist and mold into a younger version of himself, with long brown hair and calm, almost accusing brown eyes.
Daniel reared back involuntarily before he caught himself and looked more clearly at the mirror. All he saw was his still-dripping, now alert face. With a groan, he reached for a towel and dried his face and neck off. "Not again." For the past few months after the accident, he'd been seeing images of his son in the strangest places--most frequently in reflections. In this case, it was more disturbing than strange. If Adam was truly coming back to haunt him, he'd picked one hell of a way to do it.
As he laced up his shoes, he could hear his wife rolling around in the sheets, muttering to herself. She was probably talking in her sleep. More likely, she was half-awake and reacting to the fact that he was going to go running at 6:30 in the morning on one of the few days that they both had off from work. Corinne was never much of a morning person.
He moved quietly down the hall towards the back door, to avoid to jolt her completely awake. Daniel knew from experience that unless it was an emergency, his wife needed her sleep.
It was a clear, crisp May morning--perfect running weather. Most of the neighbors were asleep, and those that weren't had headed off to early morning jobs. Almost complete privacy, but not complete enough. Daniel turned left at the second block and headed towards the beach at full speed. He never warmed up or started slow before his runs, just took off like the devil himself was following for about five kilometers. Lately, it had felt that way.
Echoes of the past reverberated in his mind. Adam silent and passive, waiting for him to finish letting off steam. Tana's laughter. Daniel's own father's bellow. Corinne yelling at him. Tana crying.
He began to gasp as a memory came unbidden to his mind.
***
Summer, 1964
The dust motes were dancing lazily in the beam of sunlight streaming through the window as the nine-year-old hurried to finish cleaning up. He swept the dust under the rug, threw the plastic cups in the trash, hid stuff in the closet. Fear spurred him on, and he could feel its bitter taste in his mouth as he hastened to hide his father's mess.
He jumped as the door slammed, and winced at the drunken curse that followed. His father was early. Lord help us all, he was early.
"Danny, you daft fool. Get your ass in here!"
(I won't cry,) he told himself, (I won't cry.) Slowly, he moved into the living room. A crushed beer can lay at his father's feet. Danny stared at it numbly. (I thought I got 'em all. One can...)
"Listen to me when I talk to you." Thomas Newman towered over his son, his voice laced with liquor and menace. One massive hand grabbed the boy by the scruff of the neck, jerking him roughly. "Dammit, can't you do anything right?"
The other hand closed into a fist and drew back. Danny steeled himself for what he knew was coming.
***
Daniel stumbled and almost fell as a tree root caught his shoe. He swore to himself as he dislodged his foot. As usual, he wasn't paying attention. It figured. Dusting himself off, he jogged down the wooden steps and ran down the empty shoreline, kicking up clouds of sand as he did so. He smiled to himself at the exhilaration. Someday he was just going to drag Corinne out of bed and get her moving too. She didn't know what she was missing.
Come to think of it, she'd missed a lot since that night...
***
Fall, 1975 University of Melbourne
The old clock radio on his desk read eleven-fifteen. Daniel decided to give up on the text for the night. It was lengthy and all but incomprehensible, and after one hundred and seventeen pages of it, he was developing a serious headache. He turned and opened his desk drawer, looking for the bottle of aspirin he kept there for just such an occasion. For the nth time, he wondered why he'd gone into law. Of all the majors he'd had to go crazy over in high school and defy his father for, why did he pick this?
As he struggled with the cap, he heard a pounding on the door and paused, checking the clock again. It was eleven-twenty. Too early for Kevin--his roommate was never in before one a.m. unless it was an emergency.
"Danny? Are you in there?" a familiar voice cried shakily. "Please be in there, please, God!"
Daniel jumped up like a shot, ignoring the bottle of pills and his throbbing head, and threw open the door, holding the drenched figure there tightly as she fell gasping into his arms. Daniel stroked her damp brown hair as she began to sob, vainly trying to soothe her. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't know where else to go," she gasped.
In a partial state of shock himself, he wasn't much help. For the past seven months that he and Corinne Wallace had been seeing each other, he had never seen her so broken down. She was a transfer student from the States who he'd met at a party, and her attitude had attracted him to her, and annoyed him as well--she always stuck her nose where it didn't belong. Now he had the nagging suspicion that this was why she was in such a state.
He recovered his wits enough to steer her into the small dormitory, close the door, and grab a couple towels before settling her down on the bed. "What happened?" he asked as she wrapped a big towel over her shoulders.
"You were right," she hissed between sobs. "I should have let it alone, I shouldn't have tried to keep him from attacking Beth alone." Corinne gulped in some more air as Daniel seized the chance to interrupt.
"Wait a second." He was beginning to piece all this together. Beth was Corinne's best friend, a shy, quiet little thing who was being stalked and harassed by her ex-boyfriend. Since said boyfriend was one of the richest kids on campus, there wasn't much the cops could do. So Corinne had vowed, as usual, to take matters into her own hands. "You're trying to tell me he attacked you."
She nodded dully, and he could see a massive gash in her left arm. "Beth....I don't know what happened to Beth....I tried to stop him, but I couldn't and there were a bunch of them, and it was dark and I heard Beth screaming.." Corinne dissolved into strangled sobs as Daniel took her good arm and hauled her to her feet.
He was wrapping a poncho around her and two blankets while he hurried her out the door. "What are you doing?" she asked, becoming more and more lucid with each minute.
"Getting you to a doctor." Daniel decided to save the lecture for later. There might be more than just a flesh wound in her arm. "Maybe you should have stayed out of it," he added, "but James can't pay his way out of this one."
Corinne said only one thing more as he packed her into the car and headed down the road. "I'm going to stay out of it from now on. For real this time."
And she did.
***
Daniel jogged up the steep path towards the cliffs along the shoreline. From up here, one could see the shining blue expanse of the ocean and the wide strip of sand below. It didn't make the ocean any smaller, though.
He thought about Corinne, how she'd hung back whenever he would shout at Adam. Maybe that was why. He almost wished she would have gotten into it and started shouting at him. At least then he would have some contention for once. Adam usually just stood there and waited for his father to finish. That just made Daniel angrier.
Adam had always made him angry.
***
Spring, 1991
The little girl burst into tears as her father, already shouting at his son about something or other, turned his fury towards her. Tana was only five years old, and already timid. She ran from the room and up the stairs, tears streaming down her face. Adam turned to follow his little sister, to comfort her.
"I'm not done with you yet!" Daniel shouted. Goddamned kid! Now Tana was in a state. Right now he was too angry to feel guilty. Adam had absolutely no respect at all. First he started coming home late, not eating dinner, and now he didn't even have the gall to answer his own father. "If you just stopped for a damned minute and took a look around, you'd notice that you have a family here. This isn't a free room-and-board hotel. You're never home, you don't respect us, and now you've made your sister cry." Daniel took a deep breath before continuing. "Look, I know the type you're becoming, and if you think--"
"You don't know me, Dad," Adam said suddenly, calmly. Daniel, knocked right off his track, could only stare at his son in shock as Adam continued, his voice almost seeming to have some sort of power. "You never knew me. I was just something unplanned that you and Mom didn't want to have to deal with before you graduated. And you still don't know. I don't even think you know yourself." With that parting shot, he turned and headed up the stairs, ignoring the stream of invective Daniel sent after him.
With a shuddering breath, Daniel collapsed on the couch. He didn't pursue. He was too tired to, and besides, his little girl was up there. Tana had never done anything wrong, and he didn't want to scare her further.
But Adam! The kid drove him crazy. Ever since he was born, Adam had gotten on his nerves. Daniel had to marry Corinne early, instead of just living together for a while as they'd planned to. It was a good thing the firm that he was now a partner in wanted married lawyers. And it hadn't even been a girl. Corinne had wanted a little girl so badly. Like Tana.
Daniel rubbed his temples, trying to relax. At that last moment, with that expression of scorn, Adam had been the image of his grandfather looking down on a scared little boy. He noticed that Corinne was staring at him, her arms folded across her chest. "What was that all about?"
"He's being a brat, as usual." Daniel cringed under her piercing stare. Corinne could probably stare down the toughest little punks in the school she taught at. "And did you see that look? Just like my father. He looks just like Dad."
She shook her head and sighed in exasperation. "No, Danny. He looks like you." Corinne dusted off her jeans. "I have a lot of work to do tonight. Do whatever you want, but keep me out of it." She tossed a dishrag at him and departed much the way her son had.
***
He didn't much feel like running anymore.
The sun was a bit higher in the sky, its reflection more brilliant on the water below. The sea which had taken his son while sailing was not to blame. First the shark bite, then the storm which had finally claimed him. Not for the first time, Daniel wondered if Adam had been suicidal. Somehow, it wouldn't surprise him.
(I've lost him.)
And that, as his partners would say, was the bottom line.
Daniel stood and walked slowly back towards home, turning away from the sea and the sun.
As he shut the door, there was a soft toppling noise and a small squeal of fear. Turning into the living room, he saw Tana sitting on the floor, already dressed, looking down at a spilled mass of playing cards. As she looked up, her blue eyes were wide with fear. "Uh, hi, Daddy. I'm sorry, I'll clean it up."
He felt himself smile as he looked down at her. Tana was small for her age, and the wild mess of straight brown hair made her look smaller. She looked so much like her mother at that moment that his smile grew wider, changing her look of fear to that of confusion. "I'll help you," he suggested, kneeling down to pick up some of the cards.
"Okay," she said carefully, knowing better than to question this unwonted cheer. "Dad, can you show me how to make a tower of cards?"
He paused. "A what?"
She formed her fingers into a triangle outline. "Like this. I was trying to but it kept falling down."
(I'm not losing both of you.) Daniel smiled again as he picked up the last of the cards and carried them over to the table. "Well, if you keep trying to on the carpet," he said as he set them down, "they'll keep doing that. You need a hard surface."
Tana grinned, jumped up, and clambered into a chair to get a better look at what he was doing. As she did so, Daniel caught a glimpse of his reflection in the glass of a nearby cabinet and paused. He didn't see his father there this time. Or Adam, or Corinne.
All Daniel Newman saw was himself.
THE END