Evergreen

John hadn’t felt happy truly in many years. Well he hadn’t truly felt happy after what he had lost 2 years ago. He stirred at 5 am and he couldn’t get back to sleep, his dreams had been plagued with nightmares from horrors of his past. He had once had a wife and daughter but it was all ripped from him one day, a day that no matter how hard he tried he just couldn’t forget. It was the same day as his daughter’s third birthday and the two year anniversary of the 7/15 incident, Lily had been in bed with Molly reading her a story when Sentinel Services burst through the door ordering Moll to give them Lily. She refused, John had sensed it when they shot her, 16 bullets were shot into her body as she had tried to hide her daughter but it was to no avail. By the time John arrived back after racing down town, Sentinel Services had left and Molly was dead. John looked at a photo sat next to the clock on his bedside table, it was a picture that had been taken of John, Molly and Lily during the day they were spending together with Lorna, it was that day that had changed John’s life.

He turned back to the clock when the alarm went off at 7:00 am when John finally rolled out of bed and got dressed, dreading the day. Every moment at the minute he seemed to be butting heads with Marcos over Lorna who’d been arrested nearly a week ago. John let out a breath before leaving his room and heading down the stair where he was met by Sonya,
“Johnny? Are you alright?” Her hand fell gently on the back of his shoulder before he could stop it,
“Yeah, just tired.” He lied, there was always stuff on his mind, stuff that he believed the others didn’t need to know. Of course Lorna and Marcos knew, they were his closest friends after all and yet he still struggled to tell them thing.

Everyone was gathering around after they had heard news that Lorna and Reed were being moved, John spoke once everyone was settled,
“We know that Lorna is being held at the Sentinel Services Regional Headquarters. We believe that Reed Strucker is being held there as well.” John saw Caitlin grab Andy and Lauren’s shoulders as he carried on speaking.
“They are being moved to an ultra-secure facility.” Marcos said before John carried on,
“And we don’t know much about it except people who go there disappear.”
“That’s why we gotta act now.” Marcos snapped.
“I’m not going to sugar coat this, we’re talking about attacking Sentinel Services.” There was chatter among everyone before someone spoke up.
“We lost six people when we went up against them last time!” John nodded,
“I know that better than anyone. And besides, this time it will be different.” Sage looked at him,
“You’re right, last time we just hit a relocation centre with a fence and a couple of guard towers. This time it’s a prison. Their systems have improved. Extrapolating from other attacks, we’ve got an 86.5% chance of failure.” Marcos glared at Sage,
“And if we do nothing there is a 100% chance we never see them again.” Sage lent back against her chair. Caitlin took this opportunity to speak,
“I know we’re new here but please.” Marcos carried on from her,
“Lorna’s risked her life for everyone in this room. Harry, your parents would be dead without her. Sage, she pulled you out of a gutter, and she got you clean. I mean, she’s… She needs us.” Marcos looked around the room as Sage lent forward,
“Doesn’t change the math.” Marcos shook his head,
“I don’t care about math, I care about Lorna. Who’s with me….” John had stopped listening and just watched only a handful of people say that they would help. Everyone began to walk off and Sage, Clarice, Marcos and John all headed towards the main office.

Marcos was fuming as they all stood in the office,
“Five people? Unbelievable.” John looked at his friend,
“Marcos don’t be so hard on them, a lot of them lost friends last time.”
“Five of us to break into a prison?”
“Um, six, technically,”
“I’m sorry, Caitlin, but-” Marcos was interrupted by Clarice,
“So how are we gonna do this? If there’s a window then I can portal us in but there’s gonna be guards and cameras.” John looked over to where Harry stood,
“Harry, could you?” The other man smirked,
“I can make the guard’s see this,“ he made his hand invisible, “but not the cameras.”
“Well if we go in like that we are never coming out again.” John muttered,
“Exactly!” Caitlin called, “What if we don’t go in?” They all looked at her and she rolled her eyes.
“Look, I know I can’t shoot lasers from my hands, but I do have an idea. Daniel said the place they’re taking them is far away. To put them on a plane, they’d have to move them. Let’s get them while they’re moving.” Her voice was filled with joy at her idea,
”That’s not a bad idea.” Marcos commented,
”It might work. But we don’t know the route.” John pointed out, “without that-“
”I think I might know how to get it.” Marcos spoke with certainty,
”How? We don’t have anyone with that sort of Intel.” Marcos looked at him,
”The network doesn’t but maybe I might.” This time it was Marcos who rolled his eyes at John, “the cartel? They have people everywhere man.” John shook his head,
”The last time the cartel got their hooks in you, you barely got out. Marcos you sure you want to go back to that?” Marcos finally met John’s eyes.
”No but I’m out of better ideas.” John let out a breath,
”Fine.” Everyone left the room and Marcos headed to sort out ready to go.

John caught Marcos just before he left,
”Are you sure about this?” Marcos met his eyes,
”If it were you. And it was Lily or Moll in danger, what would you do?” John looked down before back to Marcos,
”Anything to make them safe.” Marcos nodded,
”That’s all I’m doing.” He turned and left before anything more could be said. John let out a breath, he hated it when Marcos brought up his family and Marcos knew but that didn’t stop him.

John was walking away from the door when Sonya came over,
”Hey.” Her voice was soft and John stopped in his tracks before turning,
”Hey, did you ever get a chance to talk to Clarice?” Sonya shook her head, causing John to close his eyes,
”No,” John sighed,
”We should.” His voice certain and yet she stood and tried to fight him.
”I really don’t think it’s necessary” John glared at her,
”Sonya, its wrong. You gave her a memory it isn’t hers without her permission. A memory of me.” His voice was quiet but still held anger.
”It’s not like that. It’s like a dream, okay, or, - or an impression.” Sonya said trying to persuade him,
”Oh.” Sarcasm dripped from John’s voice as Sonya rolled her eyes internally.
”It will fade” Her voice was still soft but more forceful now than before.
”And what if it doesn’t? You should tell her.” John was wearing thin, he was sick of this argument already.
”If you don’t, I will.” He said, hoping to put an end to it but Sonya wasn’t done,
”You don’t know how she’s gonna react. Okay, say you tell her. Maybe she’s cool with it, or maybe she leaves. And if she does, then you can forget about saving anyone. Look, I know that you’re not happy with what I did, but I had no choice, okay? I had to save you. All of you.” Her voice was adamant but John still wasn’t persuaded, it didn’t take Sonya long to realize this,
”And if I’d had the time, then, yes, I would have asked her.” She said hoping to get him to stop asking about it.
”And what if she said no?” John asked her,
”I wasn’t gonna let you die. This is a war, Johnny. In case you forgot.” And with that she walked off leaving John leaning against the counter. He let out a breath before heading to his room in hopes of getting a better night sleep than the night before.

Just as he was about to head in, Lauren found him,
”John!” He turned around to the teenager who was smiling,” Andy and I want to help you rescue our dad and your friend.” John smirked,
”Fine meet me outside tomorrow at 10:00 am. Don’t be late or you won’t be helping.” With that the teen went off quickly to probably find her brother. John couldn’t help it, he shook his head with a smile. Sitting on his bed, he dug a book from his bedside, one Molly had given him one Christmas, ’Listening for Lucca” he shook his head once more as he opened the book to where the bookmark was. Pretty soon, John was absorbed in the book as he had been so many times before. He took a side glance to the clock on his bedside which read 23:46. He swore under his breath as he put the battered book down before pulling the covers over himself and falling into a restless sleep.

John woke at 7:00 with the alarm before grabbing something to eat and heading out ready to train the kids, by this point it was 9:30. He waited outside as the two turned up,
"Ok. So you wanna help?" The two nodded and John narrowed his eyes slightly,
"How?" Lauren and Andy looked at each other before back to John,
"Watch." Caitlin came outside just in time to see Lauren form a shield around a streetlight and Andy direct his power to it making it so he only destroyed the one. John looked shocked,
"Wow." The two teens chuckled nervously,
"You guys think you could do that on a longer range?" Andy spoke up,
"Yeah definitely,"
"And the best part is no one will see where it came from." Lauren spoke with a smirk, a voice came from behind them,
"No. My kids are not attacking a convoy." John rolled his eyes,
"I'm not seeing a good alternative here Caitlin. We're running out of time."
"So what? You're gonna use child soldiers now?"
"We're not kids like that anymore mom!" Andy called,
"I said no!" Caitlin snapped before turning her glare back to John and speaking low,
"It's clear you've never raised a child." John glared a cold steely glare at the woman before whispering in her ear,
"No, I haven't. I never had the chance." Caitlin looked at him but he had walked back over to where Lauren and Andy stood. Lauren walked towards her mom,
"I know you're scared, I'm scared too, but think about what you said last night. About how sometimes you have to take risks." Caitlin looked at her with an open mouth,
"Really Lauren? Using my own words against me? This isn't like going to see your Uncle Daniel. This is about trained men with guns!" Lauren sighed,
"We want to fight for this. You always said that there are things worth fighting for. Was that all just talk? You said it yourself There are risks worth taking" Caitlin looked between her children and John before back to her children,
"If I say okay I can't have them in harm’s way." John side glanced the two kids before picking his answer,
"We just need them to stop the bus. They get out of there as soon as that's done" Lauren looked at her kids and then John,
"Okay." The two teens looked at each other with a look of victory that didn't go amiss by either John or Caitlin. Caitlin headed inside while John stayed training with the two so that they could defiantly do what was needed.

Marcus arrived back at the headquarters late, his heart pounding in his chest as he was met by John.
"There you are! I was about to go looking for you." Marcos didn't look at John,
"Prison convoy leaves at 10:00, they sweep the route at 9:30," John looked at Marcos questioningly, it wasn’t like him to not meet John's eye's
"That gives us a half hour window. How did it go? With Carmen." John's voice was questioning but Marcos still didn’t look at his friend.
"Uh, it was fine. She was happy to help." Marcos lied, he hated lying to his friends but right now it was necessary, John seemed to pick up on the lie.
"Look, you can talk to me, man. All right?" Marcos finally looked round.
"I don't want you to get caught back up I did what I had to do. Okay? So, back off." John held his hands up slightly.
"We leave first thing in the morning." John said before turning and leaving Marcos to his thoughts.

John was checking through the map in the office when Caitlin came over to him,
"Uh, John, I... Well I was wondering if I could talk to you about something you said earlier." John closed his eyes before turning around,
"Sure. Go ahead." Caitlin looked flustered before she began to speak,
"Well when I said that it was clear you had never raised a child, you told me you never had a chance. What did you mean?" John looked at her for a moment before speaking.
"Follow me." He left the office closely followed by Caitlin, he led her to his room where he dug out a photo album.
"What I said was that I hadn't raised a kid. She was taken by Sentinel Services 2 years ago on the anniversary of the 7/15 incident, she was one of 600 mutants taken that day, anyone they were suspecting was taken, and she was involved." John passed her a photograph of Lily and Molly, and she looked at it with sad eyes,
"Lily was only 3 years old, they killed Moll because she refused to give Lil over, I was taking Lorna home." Caitlin looked at him,
"I'm so sorry. I - I had no idea," John smirked,
"Yeah, if you don't tell people, they can't ask questions." Suddenly his whole demeanour changed, “We have to be out of here early tomorrow, you should get some rest," She nodded and left the room fighting the urge to cry.

Getting into bed Caitlin couldn't stop thinking about what she would've done had she been in John's shoes, she would've probably lost herself if she had her kids and her husband taken from her all in one moment. At the same time as Caitlin was thinking this, John sat with his back against the wall, holding the picture of just Lily and Molly, they weren't smiling as brightly in this one but Lily had been reaching for the camera so it looked like she was reaching out for him. John whispered,
"I'll find you Baby Girl," He stroked the hair of the little girl in the photo letting a tear slide down his cheek.

Morning arose and the small group prepared to leave and attack the convoy. John and Clarice used a portal to get into a warehouse while the teens and Caitlin headed to a rooftop and Marcos, Sonya and Harry headed to an alleyway. All of them were keeping watch for the convoy. When it rolled into sight. John watched as the bus went past the window,
"Why hasn't the bus stopped?" Clarice asked,
"Dunno! Doesn't matter, all that matters is finding it!" John yelled as they heard the bus stop and he ran through a wall.
"Can you get us inside?" John asked looking at Clarice who was watching the bus,
"Yeah." She tried to make a portal but nothing appeared, "Woah!" John looked at her before figuring out he couldn't use his powers either. That was when he saw Pulse.

Nearly ten minutes passed, everyone had headed back to headquarters, everyone but John and Marcos who was refusing to leave without Lorna no matter how much John tried to make him. They looked round a corner and saw the metal expanding on the bus,
"Looks like she's doing pretty good without ya," John said as the bus door flew open and Lorna stepped out instantly taking control of the bullets and cars. Following her out the bus was Reed Strucker who quickly turned around and helped a little girl from the bus who threw a fog towards the agents while the three ran over to Marcos and John, Lorna ran into Marcos' waiting arms when the two looked at John who dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around the little girl,
"Daddy?" Said a tiny voice,
"Hey Little Angel," John's voice was quieter and calmer than Marcos or Lorna had ever heard him. John pressed his hand lightly against the back of her neck when she whimpered slightly causing John to remove his hand revealing a burn around her neck, John's blood ran cold. They didn't have time to think about it as a squeal of tyres grabbed their attention, Marcos, Lorna and Reed ran towards the car while John lifted Lily into his arms before running to the car.

Once in the car, John protectively wrapped his arm around his daughter resting his hand on her knee and the other on the side of her head, holding her against him while she held his t-shirt in the hand furthest from him and sucked the thumb of her other hand. Lorna smiled and whispered in John's ear,
"I made you a promise. A promise that you would hold her again. And I kept it." John smiled as he watched the girls eyes droop slightly before shooting open,
"It's gonna okay Angel, no one can hurt you now, get some sleep." The little girl curled further into John who just held her close as the car sped down the highway. He let out a breath as he kissed the top of Lily’s head as her eyes drooped and finally closed as she fell into a slumber until they pulled up at the parking lot.