Disclaimer: Jonny Quest belongs to Hanna Barbera and Turner Productions. I am not affliated with the mentioned companies in any way. The JQ characters here are used without permission of the owners. No cash is made from this.

A Question of Identity: Chapter 8

by Ina-chan

It was late. The residents of the house have already settled down, except for one. He tossed in his blankets again, to his companion�s annoyance. He stared at the ceiling, letting his thoughts wander about until sleep claimed him. But his thoughts always return to a recent memory, that happened to scare sleep away.

With a sigh of frustration, Jonathan Quest threw his blankets and padded barefoot out of the room. He figured he can just go downstairs and wait for his brain to shut off in front of the t.v.. Apparently, he wasn�t the only one with the same idea.

�Can�t sleep?� Dr. Quest asked the obvious as his son walked in

Jonny nodded, �What are you doing here? I�d assume that you have another more �intellectually stimulating activity� to help you go to sleep.�

Dr. Quest grinned, �Hey! �Can�t your old man vegetate once in a while?�

Jonny grinned back and settled himself comfortable beside his father, �Anything good on?�

�We have an infomercial on how to coax the thin person out of you, a pod people movie, Barbra Streisand, and look, a 24-hour news channel.�

Jonny made a face, �News is fine.�

Father and son watched the news in silence. Jonny tried to concentrate on the announcer�s words but his mind wouldn�t cooperate in helping him maintain his concentration.

He made an inward sigh and turned to his father, �Dad...�

Dr. Quest turned his attention to him.

�Have you decided if you�re going to continue Dr. Harrison�s project?�

It has been three days since that fateful encounter. Before the exchange, Dr.Harrison apparently asked his friend to continue his work. Jonny has sensed his father�s discomfort with the notion, that is considering the history of how the project came to be.

�Dr. Harrison�s project will continue,� Dr. Quest finally replied, �But I decided that I would not be the best candidate to continue his legacy. Since I am familiar with his work, I would be willing to an advisor to whoever decides to take the task. How do you feel about all this?�

Jonny shrugged, �Well if this thing ever gets perfected, it will help a lot of people.�

�I wasn�t talking about the proposal,� Dr. Quest said quietly

Jonny looked down at his hands and started playing with the edge of his shirt, �It is kinda weird, huh?�

Dr. Quest smiled sympathetically.

�Hadj and Jessie has been bothering me into talking about it too, you know.�

�They�re just worried about you. We all are.�

�I�m glad you were able to stop that power-down.�

The �irreversible� power-down turned out to be no match to Dr. Quest, Jessie and Hadji working together.

�You�re going to have to talk about it sometime, you know,� Dr. Quest said, to prevent his son from diverting the direction of the conversation.

�I know,� Jonny sighed in defeat, �It just that it has been such a weird week.�

�Well, it was quite an emotional roller-coaster,� Dr. Quest agreed

� I�ve been... I tried... My logical self keeps telling me that she�s not her. That despite who she really was, she�s not her. But I keep remembering the times that we hung out. I didn�t know her very well then but there was this... this...� Jonny waved his hands around helplessly searching for the right words, �... connection that I felt with her. It�s like hanging out my myself. Weird, huh?�

Jonny took a deep breath before continuing, �Now that she�s gone, it feels as if I lost a part of myself or something.� He looked up straight at his father�s eyes, �It feels as if I lost her all over again.�

Benton Quest cradled his son into his arms as the boy lapsed into a wave of uncontrollable silent sobbing. This was the moment he was afraid of when he was contemplating about the trip. He was hoping to spare his son the grief due to possibility of encountering old ghosts. His thoughts flew back in time, when he held his six-year-old on his lap to explain a fact of life called death. It was ironic that the goal to comfort his son then, ended up with his son comforting him. He doubted that his little boy had fully grasped what he was trying to explain then. Now, it was obvious that his son has lost his childlike innocence and understood exactly the pain of loss.

Jonny composed himself and wiped his tears with the sleeve of his shirt. Once again, father and son lapsed into silence and absently watched the events flashed on the news. Then a news review came out that left Jonny laughing hysterically.

Something about successfully cloning sheep.

Dr. Quest glanced at his son anxiously.

Jonny wiped the tears from his eyes and flashed his father a grin, �I was just thinking. You know, of how it would complicate things with Mary and her little lambs.�

Dr. Quest chuckled, �What do you say we head out to the kitchen, grab ourselves some hot chocolate and get into a round of chess?�

�Sure.�

Dr. Quest raised an eyebrow in surprise, ��SURE?� What happened to �Aww Dad! Chess is for old foggies?�

Jonny stood up and stretched his legs, �Weeellll, I figured it�s something I need right now. Waiting for you to make a move makes me wanna fall asleep.�

Dr. Quest laugh as he lead his son out of the room, �A true master strategist never moves in haste. Then again, you never know. I just MIGHT let you win again...�

�Suuuure, whatever you say Dad...�

�... police has finally identified the remains of acclaimed biologist, Dr. Jonathan Harrison, as the sole pilot and passenger of the mysterious helicopter crash last Tuesday. There is still speculation of what caused the crash and what Dr. Harrison was doing in the helicopter. Dr. Harrison was working on cell replication research that could have brought astounding advances to medical science...�

The End (?)

Author�s notes:

Mwahahahaha! I�ve done it! It�s finally over! And in true Takahashi style, I left over a lot of unanswered stuff, making a possibility of a [gasp] sequel ? Naaaahhh! I don�t do sequels. It�s a personal policy �Never do sequels�. Well, if anybody wants to take over the reins to attempt a sequel or a spin-off, you have my full permission to do so, as long as you let me know first. Unless, that is, if you plan to make an HR or lemon out of this. I mean sure, you�re free to do so, it�s your right. Free speech and all that crap. Just make sure to mention that I had nothing to do with it. ^_^
How do you like the �full circle� style of storytelling I adopted?