catching up (Thia)

I tried not to think of Mora in the days that followed. I tried to keep my mind focussed on what we had to do and not think about much else. Dad said we were getting a new upgrade. Since the true-beeins were upping their game, we decided to up ours too. Cat was working on it night and day and sometimes I would come in and see if I could help. She could just tell me what to do and I'd do it, exactly as she said. Jay said that was part of my Autism. If it was, it was a part that I liked. Not that I know what any of it meant off course. I had no clue what it did when I connected those two wires or clicked on that link. Sometimes I got tempted to ask but would decide not to. I thought better of asking question these days.

It was going well. We were moving fast. The guys did their bit on the battle field and we'd do our bit in the lab. Noaba and the boys would get a bit anxious at times though. Jay wanted to go out and fight with them. Noaba would get bored and Sam timid if I was away for too long, so I tried not to spend too much time in the lab and always made it back to the apartment before dinner. We would play Mario Kart or Lego on the Wii in the living room, and since Jay heard that song, we also decided to start watching 'The Hobbit.'

"Isn't that a little old for you?" asked James one day, after he found out.

Jay shrugged. "I've seen all sorts of things most children probably shouldn't see.

And we're at war, so we're probably going to see an awful lot more."

It wasn't too bad really. The reason Jay liked it was because of the dragon.

Jay had always been fascinated by dragons. For most of it, he was right, we had seen worse but other bits were—not so mild. Even so, within a week, we were addicted. The worst thing about it was that it was so long, almost three hours, impossible to watch all at once. We would only watch it a bit at a time, whenever we could find time. When we all watched The Hobbit together, sometimes we could forget we were at war.

I think that was really what a lot of us wanted to do. Just forget our troubles. And when we finally got towards the end; when the dwarves were facing off against the orcs and Bilbo was trying to be brave; we all started chanting as only children could.

"Come on Bilbo!"

"Come on Billy, be brave."

"Yes Bilbo!"

But after that was done another minor point came up.

I was turning nine soon and one day out of the blue Jay just came out and asked me what it was I really wanted for my birthday (when I think, in reality, he already knew the answer).

"It's not really something I want. Its somewhere I want to go." (somewhere I'd always wanted to go) "But…I really don't think we should."

He just smiled. "Humour me."

"Well…you know I used to love that Harry Potter series...and I heard there was this theme park, in Orlando…"

He didn't even wait for me to finish. "Done."

I blinked at him, a little annoyed that he'd cut me off, then I started to chuckle. "It's never ganna happen."

"It's ganna happen."

"But we can't."

"Yeah, we can."

"It's impossible."

"Totally possible. All we have to do is get some tickets, book a flight, maybe ask some of the others to come with us…"

"Jay, we are at war"

"Thia, its only one day. It's your day. Enjoy yourself for a change."

I had to admit, it was a little tempting, but I also thought it was too much of a risk. I told him I'd think about it, that he could look it up if he wanted, then I headed to the lounge. I didn't spend a lot of time there these days. I spent most of it in our apartment but I felt if Jay was on to me about a birthday trip

I figured the others might be too. I thought I should just let it simmer for a while.

It was getting late so it was almost empty. I just sat down and checked my emails on my phone just to give me something to do. Sometimes people were sent different kinds of books or shows that were recommended. This time it was games. Most looked rather dull but there was one that was mildly interesting. Some sort of strategy PvP card game. After everyone left, I still didn't feel like going to bed, so I stayed up and checked it out, sitting up-side-down on the sofa just cause I felt like it and there was no one around to say it looked weird. I wasn't very good. Didn't quite have the hang of putting what cards where and most of the cards I had just weren't as strong as many others. When I finally managed to win a match, I fist pumped and hissed lightly under my breath.

"Are you winning?"

I looked up and swiftly turned the right way up.

"Dad!" I said grinning.

Stood there just beyond the doorway it was almost hard to tell he was there. We hadn't had a lot of chances to spend time together recently. He looked more like a dog than I did, big and dark and beetle black eyes and a scar on the right side of his head, he was a shadow hidden among the shadows.

"What are you playing?" he asked, coming into the room, hands behind his back.

"Just a battle strategy game."

He nodded "Any good?"

"Getting there." I said with a chuckle.

He came in and placed something on the counter that I couldn't see.

"I have something for you, since…I might not be able to go with you for your little, birthday trip."

I stared at him. "You think I should go."

He put a hand on my shoulder. "I think you should have some fun. You might not get a lot of chances for that much more. Take the ones you can get, and make them last."

I looked away, unsure. I could feel my ears dropping a little "I…I don't know."

He touched my check. "what ever you decide...your welcome to stay here as often as you like…you're free to leave whenever you want. Don't feel like you're being forced into anything."

He left me to think about it and I turned my attention to his gift.

Trying not to laugh I looked at the entire set of the old DS9 series. Every episode of every season. Perhaps he knows me better than I think.