Not From This Time |The 4400|

3

BEING BACK with my sister was a little awkward because I couldn't help but think on the ten year old she was every time I looked at her.

Mac drove us all the way to their home, here in Seattle.

A few years after my disappearance, my family couldn't take more living in the same place I was abducted as everywhere they went, there was my memory and the people in California saying sorry and reminding them of what they lost every day was too much for them so they moved away.

They found a home in Seattle where my dad found a job.

I don't know why Mac's family moved states too, as far as I knew his family and mine weren't close and he was a bully. An 11 year old Bully. I can't still fathom why my sister was so infuriated with him and he gave her the time of the day because he couldn't even bother when I was still around. What changed?

While I still didn't approve, I refrained to say anything, noticing the way Mac held her. The care in their eyes when they looked at each other. Something happened when I was gone that made them closer and while I wanted at first to separate them, now I couldn't.

Mac was Taylor's rock, her anchor. And I don't know how much she depended on him. I couldn't take that away from her.

I couldn't make her unhappy, no matter how excited she was for having me back home with her. No matter how upset I was hearing they both had married when I had told her once I wouldn't allow it.

"I'm glad she had you Mac" I told him that night after we had dinner. Allowing that come out from my mouth was difficult. I still saw him as the bully kid, "I don't know what would had happened to my sister if it wasn't for you. Thank you"

Mac smiled looking away, scratching his neck. "You're welcome"

I kept a polite smile in my face, standing up "Uh, should I sleep in the coach?"

Taylor stood, "No. Homeland informed us about you the moment you and all those people showed up. It gave us enough time to settle a room for you"

A small smile played on my lips, "You did?"

A wicked smile played on her lips, "Everything for my little sister"

I gasped, mocking offense "Excuse me!"

Taylor smiled, her eyes tearing up again "You still look like a teenager, Jack. I'm an adult, people will think of you as the young sister, not me. And that's because people won't know you're one of them to keep you safe"

I frowned.

"Homeland made that very clear to us, Jacqueline" Mac told me softly. "People, our neighbors can't know you're one of those 4400 returnees. That won't be safe"

"What else did they say to you?" I asked, looking between them.

Taylor sighed. The air shifted making me frown and felt tingle in the back of my head whispering at me. Worry. "You have to check regularly with them"

"How regularly?" I asked.

Mac sighed. "They said the first month, you have to go there every week. Then it will be every month"

This time, there was another tingle in the back of my head. It felt more painful. I touched the back of my head, grimacing slightly. "It wasn't enough for them to keep us locked up like criminals for over six weeks, now they want us to go in there all that time?"

Taylor took a step closer, "Jacquie. They're worried about you like we are" the pain in my head intensified, it was no longer the back. My whole head throbbed. A whimper fell from my lips as I held my head, tucking it on my chest "Jack?"