Double agent

Yukon, Canada.

On a cold winter's day in a small town a two storey house no different from the ones around it was covered in snow after a storm went by the day before.

Inside Diane was in the kitchen not looking much older despite 10 years having gone by since she had Jack as she put on a pair of oven mittens with a blank look on her face.

Pulling the cake out she placed it aside to let it cool as she turned to look at the decorations in the living room.

With balloons and colourful papers all around a perfect party set up as far as a normal 10 year old is concerned.

'If only he was normal' Diane had a fond smile on her face remembering the little gremlin she was raising.

The soft click of the front door brought her out of thoughts, As Her hand instinctively went for the gun strapped to the underside of the table.

"Hey Diane, I'm coming in," the familiar voice of Adam sounded, making her relax a bit as she saw him step into the living room with his hands up, multiple bags hanging from one of them and a gift in the other.

"Hey there–" Adam said with a nervous smile on his face "-- I'm in the clear right?".

"Yeah yeah," Diane waved at him dismissively with one hand as she placed the gun on the table.

"Phew home safe once again" Adam chuckled while lowering his hands, all the while Diane just rolled her eyes at him.

"Hey don't roll your eyes at me last time I went in unannounced you nearly shot me in the head".

"*sigh* that was once 8 years ago Adam."

"Well as far as I'm aware it all takes one bullet to the head to kill someone," Adam said while placing the bags on the dinner table "your trigger happy tendencies aside where is the little guy?"

"Sleeping up stairs," Diane said while sifting through the bags "did you bring the candles?"

"Yeah they are at the bottom of the bag, what's up with him anyways usually he is up bright and early, did he catch a cold?"

Diane paused lifting her head up slightly to look at with a raised brow, non verbally asked if he was stupid.

"Okay I will admit that was a dumb question, but you could have just answered instead of looking at me like that" Adam said, slumping his shoulders a bit.

Diane pulled out the candles and walked to the kitchen as Adam heard her voice.

"He has been up all night reading his favourite book, again"

"Seriously– "pulling one of the chairs he sat down at the dinner table " what kind of 10 year old reads books let alone frankenstein, when I was his age you couldn't get me to sit down let alone read a book."

"Which would explain why you are so dumb." Diane said, walking back into the room with a slight smile on her face.

"Hey!"

"Besides, you know he doesn't like to play with other kids."

Hearing her Adam forgot previous jab at him as he got a solemn look on his face.

"Well yeah I don't really blame him for that hard to enjoy yourself when you constantly have to worry about not breaking the people around you".

'I feel sorry for the kid but honestly I feel much better about it this way at least we won't get another incident like a couple of years back'.

They both knew that he would be stronger than average considering his unique situation but the last thing they expected was him being able to break the femur of an older kid with just his grip.

'We may have called it broken put I saw those X-rays the kids bone was bloody crushed'

The only thing scarier than his strength was the look on the kids face when he got there after Diane called.

That blank look without an ounce of emotion he gave him when he pulled at his pants as he asked not if he was in trouble and not if the other kid was okay.

No, as the bloody screams of the other kid echoed through the hallway as they took him to the ambulance as they had to knock him out again because of the pain. The only thing he asked was if his mother was in trouble because of him.

No remorse, no fear, just concern about the only person important in his life.

'And to think those idiot that call themselves my superiors wanted to take him away from her'

"Ada…Adam… ADAM!!"

"HUH?! Oh yeah what?"

"Why the hell are you spacing out all of a sudden?"

"Jess calm down, I just haven't been getting enough sleep that's all."

Hearing him Diane softened her glare a bit remembering the bullshit work hours they sometimes had to pull when on assignments "they're having you pull double shifts again, aren't they?"

Adam scoffed at her pulling out a cigarette before he replied "I wish according to the bloody cunts, It doesn't count as over time because I'm only just looking after a kid and his mother, they even took my break time, saying I can get plenty when I sleep here."

This time it was Diane's turn to scoff.

"you wish I'm way out of your league"

"Yeah yeah no need to bring up my dark past." Adam shook his head remembering when he and Diane first met.

"Sure, let's pretend that you still don't use cheesy one-liners as pick up lines."

Adam glared at her before sharing a good laugh at his expense for a good while more before Diane took a look at the clock.

"Looks like he isn't waking up on his own, can you go wake him up I will add the frosting to the cake real quick since it cooled"

"You're the boss," Adam said, standing up and making his way up the stairs to Jack's room.

"AND GET RID OF THAT CIGARETTE"

Adam barely made it to the steps flinching when he heard her yell.

"Yeah yeah I'm not an idiot…" he muttered as he quickly made his way up the stairs hastily putting out the cigarette in his hand and throwing it at the toilet as he passed the open bathroom door.

Reaching Jack's room he slowly opened the door letting light from the hallway in as he scanned the room by habit.

Not much was in the room that could be considered out of place: a closet, desk, bed.

The only thing strange would be a bookcase with only a couple of books on it, most being science fiction alongside some for dummies books about different topics.

'Kid is such a nerd' Adam chuckled slightly to himself remembering how Jack spent the majority of his time reading ever since he was able to.

With the soft click of the light switch the lights turned on as Adam made his way to Jack's bedside.

"It's time to get up, little guy." Adam said trying to wake Jack up without getting too close 'I'm not making that mistake again',

Only to get a slight shuffle out of Jack before he covered his face with the blanket.

"Come on little guy It's already past dinner time".

"Nooo." A soft whine came from under the blanket.

"Are you sure? If you're late there won't be any cake left".

The blankets shuffled as Jack poked his head out to look at Adam, his shoulder length curly blonde hair a mess as some of it covered his forehead.

"Cake?" Jack looked at him with a confused look for a second before his eyes brightened as he fully woke up making Adam chuckle.

'There we go'

"Yup now get up" Adam said while stepping back as Jack quickly got out of bed with visible excitement as was about to rush out of the room.

"Whoa there little guy slow down–" Jack stopped and turned to look at him slightly annoyed "--you need to wash up first".

"Ohh" Jack realised before nodding his head and speeding past Adam to the bathroom.

'He got faster..' Adam noted while making his way out of the room before slightly glancing at the floorboards 'nothing broken, his control got better too'.

Adam made his way back to Diane seeing her finishing off the cake.

"He up? I didn't hear anything break"

"Yeah nothing broke, he is getting better, did you use the books I sent you?"

"The psychology ones? Yeah I read them"

Seeing her lacklustre response Adam raised his brow "did they not help?"

Diane sighed as she finished of the cake placing the candles at the top before replying

"honestly the only thing they helped with is telling me how much baggage I'm carrying without even realising"

"Yikes good thing I didn't read them then if ms perfect has baggage I don't want to know what I have"

Diane scoffed at him "probably alcoholism"

"Hey I only drink when I'm sad"

"And you are sad every time you get dumped on a date which is a weekly thing at this point"

Adam looked at her with a mock hurt look as he muttered under his breath "it's not that bad"

Suddenly they heard a distant scream of what sounded like cake before a loud crashing sound followed shortly after.

Adam was about to go and see what happened but Diane gestured for him to sit down as she called out.

"Jack.."

A couple of seconds went by before Jack's head popped up from the door as peaked at her "yes?"

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah.."

"Did you break something?"

"...no.."

"So you didn't jump from the top of the stairs?"

"Umm no?"

"Then you don't mind if I come to check?"

"Umm can you wait for after the birthday?"

"*Sigh* just get in here"

Jack nodded as he slowly made his way to her side as she crouched down to look at him, seeing the ends of his pyjama pants slightly torn with wood splinter sticking out of them.

Jack looked down, not looking her in the eyes "sorry.."

Diane smiled lightly as she kissed him on the forehead "Don't worry I won't ground you on your birthday".

Hearing that Jack perked up a bit "Really?"

"Yeah, I just don't want you to get hurt"

"But I won't get hurt," Jack said, pulling away from her slightly as he flexed his arm. "I'm strong like superman".

Diane chuckled at the cute sight despite his condition Jack still looked like a typical 10 year old if slightly on the chubby side.

"Yes, yes you are but it still costs money to fix stuff"

"But I thought it was fine since uncle Adam is the one paying for it" Jack asks tilting his head to the side, as Adam who was happily watching from the side up until now had a strained smile on his face that kept twitching.

Diane glanced at him with an amused gleam in her eyes before looking back at Jack "Well let's talk about that after, okay?".

"Okay"

"Hey Adam, can you light the candles?"

"Yeah sur—" Just when he was reaching for his lighter his phone started ringing.

"Hold up" he grabbed it looking at the screen and couldn't help but frown seeing the number.

"Uncle Adam?"

"Yeah sorry buddy I will be back in a second. I need to take this call, okay?"

Seeing Jack nod he turned to glance at Diana before making his way outside and into his car picking up as soon as he closed the door.

"Sir."

"Good afternoon Adam." A plane tone sounded from the other end of the line sounding quite cold for the such a greeting

"Same sir, may I ask why you called me?"

"I want to check in on how things are going with Diane and Jack Neil"

"Everything is going well"

"Good, make sure that it stays that way there will be an evaluation coming up soon"

Adam's eyes widened briefly as he replied "Isn't that a bit early sir?"

"Some stuff came up so they are pushing it forwards a bit"

"May I know why?"

"Not relevant ."

"Very well sir I will make sure everything is ready"

"Good–" the voice paused a bit before getting slightly warmer as the caller switched his tone "–and Adam?"

"Yes?"

"I won't be the usual this time"

"I understand"

"Good say Happy birthday to the little guy for then, goodbye"

"Will do sir goodbye"

As soon as he ended the call Adam let out a tired sigh and rested his head on the steering wheel.

'Shit.. what the hell made them bring it up so early'

He pulled his head up resting his back on the seat as he pulled out a cigarette.

'They have been getting alot pusher these days. Did the ogre do something again?

No it doesn't matter I need to focus on getting everything cleaned up Bruce said that It won't be the usual so they might try to pull something out of there ass to get the kid.

I need to convince Diane to let me take away all the guns and I need to also fix whatever Jack broke'. Adam could feel the headache coming in already at the amount of free time he would lose for the coming month.

'I really hope I don't need to pull any favours this time' he took a drag from his cigarette before letting it out with a sigh as he looked at the house.

'8 more years Adam just 8 more years and they won't have any legal pull anymore and with the rate the kid is growing I doubt the will have any other options but to play nice unless they want another monster on their ass'

A sudden knock on his window brought him out of his thoughts, making him turn his head only to quickly jumble trying to put away the cigarette when he saw Jack before replying after he put it out of view.

"Hey buddy what's wrong?"

"You were taking too long"

"Yeah sorry about that I just finished, we can go now" Adam opened the door putting the cigarette out in the ashtray with his other hand as he did.

"This one too"

Adam was about to ask him what he was talking about only to see Jack holding a semi wet cigarette between his fingers.

'Shit'

"You really shouldn't throw stuff when have bad aim"

" *sigh* So the Usual deal?"

"I want some marvel comics this time"

"Yeah yeah just don't tell your mother"

Jack smiled as Adam got out of the car.

"Come on then little guy let's get this birthday on the road" Adam said as both of them headed back inside while ruffling Jack's hair much to his annoyance.

"I'm not little"

"Sure sure whatever you say hehehehe"

Adam didn't get to laugh for long as Jack quickly rushed inside screaming "Mom!"

" oh shit JACK WAIT…"

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

Surprise!

I'm not dead not yet atleast.

First of all a surprisingly big chunk of you guys stuck around for the rework, which I wasn't expecting but I'm thankful for you guys are awesome.

Now I'm sure you have noticed my nonexistent upload schedule, which I will have to inform you that it is unlikely to change for the time being, as I'm not holding myself to one and just writing when ever I can partly because of my exams coming up but more so because I just want to have fun with what I'm doing instead of making it into a job, this is my hobby after all.

so sorry for that I guess, but since I don't have a discord server for you guys to reach me on I just wanted you guys to know that you can just comment on the most recent chapter to reach me I'm often reading on the app and check my notifications frequently.

or you can just say hi when ever you see in another comment section name Is saisho eternal for those who don't need author's names.

interacting with you guys does motivate me to write more.

well that's all for now see you guys soon and have a beautiful day.