Father's Enemy My Lover {sequel to Father's Enemy}

Chapter One

Johann reached over and shook Catalina slightly.

"Five more minutes," she whined.

"Catalina, we are here," he said chuckling.

"What?" She had been curled up on the passenger seat of his car and she had grown quite stiff. "Geez!"

"What?"

"Geez? It's just an expression," she said stretching as best as she could.

Johann got out and opened Caty's door for her. He offered her his hand. She smiled and took it.

"Geez!" She said stretching her stuff legs. Johann raised an eyebrow at her use of the "expression" again.

Catalina looked up. They were in front of a very old looking house. "This is a safe house?"

"Not exactly. We are off the radar here and no one would suspect us to come here," Johann explained while grabbing the bags out of the back of his car.

"Makes sense but where exactly is here?"

"This is all that is left of the village I grew up in."

Caty took on a new fascination of the place. She wondered what it was like back when he was a child. Which was one hundred years ago? She actually had no idea how old he was.

"Watch your step, Catalina," Johann said holding her arm. Caty smiled he knew very well she could handle herself yet he still treated her like a lady.

Johann produced a key and unlocked the door. It swung open with a loud creak. He allowed Caty to enter first and then he followed. He looked around. This house brought back so many memories. Good memories, bad memories, they were all like ghosts calling to him. He began to shut them out but then decided against it. He had shut out his pain for too long. Maybe if he let it all go he could be a good man. Maybe even a man worthy of Catalina.

"Were houses usually made like this?"

"Depending on where and when, no," Johann answered. He opened a drawer and pulled put some matches. "We are going to have to hid and give up the luxuries of electric lights."

"I thought they had invented that by 1940."

"They had but that doesn't mean we were well off enough to afford it," he said. He took a house lantern and brushed away the cobwebs. "We should probably not try to go to the second floor. It isn't very stable. There are only bedrooms up there so it's nothing of importance."

"How long are we going to be here?"

"You are full of questions, my Dear," he said handing her the now lighted lantern. "There is a bedroom to the right of you. You can sleep in there."

"Thank-you," she said taking her bag from him. She got her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. Then she walked into the bedroom.

Johann touched the spot where he had kissed him. It may sound a little cliche but he wasn't expecting that. It gave him a warm fuzzy feeling. He soon realized that the fuzzy feeling was actually a tickling on his shoulder. He pulled down his shirt revealing his red skin. The skin on his shoulder was slowly turning to a normal color.

"This doesn't make sense," he said under his breath. How could how cells be mutating. They had a self defense mechanism. But then again the serum he had used on himself was flawed. Also his skin only changed when he allowed the good feelings past. He needed to look into this.

Johann walked into the kitchen and opened one of the cobweb covered cabinets. He pulled out an old microscope.

I can't believe I used to actually use this old technology. He thought to himself. He took out a knife and took a skin sample of the red and nude colored skin. It might take a while to isolate the mutation but he would find it eventually.

********************************

"I took a sample of the blood we found on a piece of the machine," Dr. Banner was saying to Nick.

"And?"

"The blood has a mutation. We aren't sure whose it is but it's changing."

"The man's? Or the women's?"

"The man's. We haven't found any blood, tissue, or even hair samples from the girl."

"Thank you, Dr. Banner, you and Stark keep trying to find a match to the blood sample," Nick ordered.

"We will work on it," Banner replied.