The flight to Arizona seemed so long to Jonathan. He was quiet at the moment while he looked out the small window beside him. The ground was coming closer as they were making their final approach to the airport and the runway. His stomach lurched as the plane bounced for the thousandth time.
Gripping the arms of the chair, he abruptly wheezed, tossing his head back against the seat behind him. His right hand groped for the man next to him, needing some desperate comfort from him. But he was just before falling out of his seat fast asleep.
Now, he wished he had sat with Bruce or Greg. Tony was no help to him at the moment. Not at all. But little did he know that Tony hated flying worse than he did and Greg had slipped him a sedative.
The plane shook, jumping again. Jonathan scrambled forward, unlatching his seatbelt. Standing, his arms went around Bruce who was just ahead of him.
"Sir, you must have a seat. The captain is landing the plane." a woman had rushed to him to settled him quickly.
"Bruce..." Jonathan called desperately, hugged him tight from behind. He frenziedly tried to climb over the seat to him.
The man turned looking into his frightened face. "Jon?" he would never have known he was afraid to fly, that is until now.
And, Greg looked at him seeing he should have sedated them both. He came up out of his seat reaching over his head to the compartment there.
"Sir, you must sit down." the woman was becoming irritated now.
"It's okay, I'm a doctor. I'll give him a quick sedative and we'll all settle down." he assured her.
"Well, be quick about it, please." she was obviously relieved, placing a hand on his arm. Then turned to leave them to their drama of the moment.
Faster than Jonathan could say his name he felt the tiny prick of the needle as if a mosquito had bitten him. Bruce kept his attention from what Greg was doing until the youth's eyes began to close.
He then unbuckled his seatbelt turning around. With a knee in the seat cushion, he helped Jonathan ease back into the chair. Greg quickly buckled him in, then sat fastening his. Bruce also turned doing the same.
*****
When next he woke he was looking up at the ceiling. Groggily he stared there for a moment, his world blurred and uncertain. Trying to recall the last thing he remembered was like trying to pull the proverbial rabbit from the hat.
Then off in the distance he heard the soft rumble of the voice of Peter. He was to meet them at the airport, having to fly in from Russia. They were all going to room together as one big happy family, or so Jonathan had been thinking about it that way.
And he had been so excited to hear he would be joining them for the reading of his Uncle's will, which was the next morning. For some odd reason the lawyer had said he must attend, as did himself, Tony and Maurice.
But of course, Maurice wouldn't be making it, except in spirit maybe. He smiled at that thought almost giggling to himself about it. He stifled the urge as best he could putting a hand over his mouth to help his efforts.
"And what are you snickering about?" Peter's face came into view as he sat on the edge of the bed near him grinning down at him.
Jonathan's eyes went right to the scar that ran vertically along the center of his throat. It started just at the top going down along his trachea almost to the dip at the bottom. And there, was the tiny scar of the hole Tony had made that saved his life. Sadly, he reached to it touching it lightly with a finger.
"You must end this sadness on my part, child." Peter scolded seeing the drastic changes on his face and in his eyes.
"Why, Peter? Why did he do that to you?" Jonathan's eyes filled with tears as well as with the questions that still seemed so unanswered for him.
"He thought he had too, child. It was the only moment that he would ever be able to strike at me, for betraying him so." the man spoke slowly for the youth to understand as usual.
"But you never hurt him." Jonathan reasoned.
"And neither did you..." he returned with frankness in his now raspy voice. "...Settle this, in your heart, child. It will only prove to destroy you more in the end. I am not angry with Mr. Bowman for this. I actually am proud of the fact it is there. I live, Jonathan. I helped to defeat him. And he cannot harm me, or anyone else again." he leaned down almost whispering to him as if it were a secret between them.
Jonathan smiled then. "You're right, Peter. I'm being silly." he felt the warmth of Peter's hand as it gently grasped his that was being slowly retrieved from the scar. He halted the retrieval wanting to feel his gentle touch once again.
"It is not silly, Jonathan. I know what troubles you, so. You long for things to have been different with him. Now that he is gone, you wish he were alive. You desire the intimacy you might have had, if he were sane.
"Knowing him as the uncle you wish he had been is only a creation in your mind, now, child. A dream is all it will be. You cannot change any of the things he has done to you, or any of us. And you should not even think to attempt to. The only thing you should do now, is to allow him to die in your heart. Let him go, Jonathan. He will do you no good alive..." he leaned closer saying secretly to him again. "...let him rot in the ground until judgment day."
Jonathan moved his head to one side scrutinizing Peter oddly now. He would have never thought this man would say such a thing to him, especially about a lost family member.
"He was not, Jonathan." it seemed the man knew his thoughts. When in fact, he was reading them from the expressions that were flashing across his face.
"He never was your uncle. Not as an uncle should be. Nothing of a family member, he was. He was a rogue. Some vagabond that happened to have your last name, child. A lunatic with desperately lasting effects on us with his sadistic and homicidal tendencies. He was the devil himself, child. And no family should endure what he put you through.
"You must grieve, child, yes. But you must also, in doing so, become angry at some point. It will give you the balance needed to fight the longing of your heart. Let it go, and you will find peace again."
"Everything could have been so different, Peter." Jonathan muttered softly.
"Yes, but that is all buried with his body in the ground." the man reasoned still.
