A Ghost from the past

Chapter 16: I'm always careful

AN: sorry this is late but life sucks!! 🤷‍♀️

I hope you like it though!!

November 15th Meg and T-j's apartment

The baby was born, Todd Johnathan Gallagher, that's what the real birth certificate would say. No one was ever going to see the real birth certificate, once it gets delivered Meg planned on deleting the records of it ever being filed, but the official seal isn't the easiest thing be forged, so in case she ever needs it, the real birth certificate would be authentic even if there would be no records of it. She filed for a few more, different birthdays, different names for her and the baby, some with a father's name under IDs she's been building for the past 9 months and some without a father's name. She even had a few without either of the parents' names, state baby, adopted by one of her aliases.

James and Deirdre harvested and froze stem cells from the umbilical cord, you never know what you might need and science was in constant evolution. James even started working on the DNA tests, but even with the technology they had, it would take at least a week. None of it mattered right now, she just wanted to sleep.

"He's awake again," James whispered from the doorframe.

"Bring him here," Meg sat up in her bed, "I'm moving the crib here."

"Jason and I will move the crib here," James handed her T-j, "you need rest."

"Hey baby," she greeted her son, "you'll sleep with me okay?"

"Dad called again," James said carefully.

"If he's willing to stay for an hour max, he's welcome to come in the evening," Meg's attention was focused on the baby, she couldn't care less about what her dad wanted.

"Okay, I'll let him know," James closed the door behind him and walked to the living room.

They both missed their father, but what kind of dad ships off his kids and only visit them once a year for 3 days tops? Sure they were held hostage by the IRA, but John Gallagher didn't know that, his parents made sure he didn't. They both knew, but to them, Meg more than James, he was just the oblivious sperm donor just like their mother was the surrogate. They didn't have parents, they were orphans of the world easily discarded but kept alive for their use. So James didn't fight her when she said she didn't want their father near her for longer than an hour. Her opinion of her dad changed a lot over the years, some days she loved him some she hated him, right now, she couldn't care less about him.

John Gallagher wasn't evil like his wife, but he was oblivious and blind, it took Meg showing him evidence of her and James being legally dead so that he finally opened his eyes and has been trying to make up for it. But can nearly 20 years of neglect and absence be forgotten? He surely thinks so. Meg doesn't exactly care, she's backed more traumas through her life than being beaten, whipped and nearly drowned by her own mother, but it doesn't mean a child should've lived through any of her and James' experiences.

"So..." Jason asked as he unpacked the kitchen supplies.

"He gets to stay for an hour," James sighed and called his dad.

"That's fair," Slade nodded as he finished assembling a bookcase.

Jason wasn't getting used to the idea of Slade being so comfortable around. He didn't understand James' relationship with Slade because it seemed like they knew each other fairly well, which shouldn't be possible if James thinks Meg works for the government, but Jason promised he wasn't going to dig into her life. He didn't ask, because he knew they'd all lie to him. He had noticed however, that Deirdre and William Wintergreen, Slade's 'business' partner, had some sort of 'thing' going on that Slade tried to avoid at all costs. The buzzing of his phone took him out of his reverie.