Ken's heart had been pounding hard from the realization he had been right when he came back from Africa, Jun was pregnant, but he arrived home too late to see the truth.
By why did she feel she couldn't tell him? This question stuck at the core of his soul. The reason had to be more than the lame one she gave him.
In his mind he tried to image Jun pregnant and what she would have looked like full term, but the image just didn't seem to fit her slender figure.
The sounds of his Cessna's engine normal soothed, but not today, Ken had something important that he had to do, since Jun's confession of him becoming a father before the war started again he could think of nothing else but that baby boy with bright blue eyes who wrapped his tiny fingers around his gloved hand.
"Jun... how could you do this?" Ken asked the question her again mentally. Something felt so wrong about Jun keeping a secret like that from him. Of all of them on the team she's the one who encouraged open communication.
Turning the small plane so he could line it up for a smooth landing Ken at last felt small bump between his wheels and the tarmac. The flight to Dion City felt like a life time, finally he turned off the engines, but instead of jumping out of the plane like he normally did he sat there with nervous knots forming in the pit of his stomach.
This is new territory for me, Ken thought.
And for once in his life he really didn't know how he would approach this. Should he just walk into the hospital, find them and introduce himself as Dyami's father? Tell them that it was a mistake and he wants his child back because Jun left him out of the picture by not telling him he existed.
Forcing his body to move Ken opened the canapé and jumped out. Casually he walked over to the small building and spoke to the attended to the airfield. He collected the keys for the hire motorbike and left to go his destination. Dion City's main hospital.
Pulling up at the parking lot he calmed his nerves and collected his thoughts. He decided to walk in through the emergency entrance and find them from there. The hospital had a feeling of mayhem about as Doctors and nurses rushed patients through the door from ambulances. He could hear some people crying, and others looking worried as the waited for Doctors to get back them about injured loved ones.
Patiently Ken observed the scene. And Jun's voice echoed in his mind. "We caused this...we should have been more careful..."
"Are you looking for someone?" A young administration worker approached him interrupting his line of thought.
"Yes," Ken replied. "A close friend came in a while ago...His name is Matt, and his wife is Natasha, they have baby boy with them."
She looked at her chart. "Do you have a surname?"
This question stumped Ken, but she saved him from fumbling for it when she smiled." Oh, yes here they are. Matt Butler...his wife is Natasha."
Ken smiled gratefully. "Could you tell me where I can find them?"
"I'll check for you." She offered, walking to the desk she began typing and after a few minutes she came back to him.
"He's just been taken to ward 26 on level 12. He's not long out of surgery." She told him.
"Thanks." Ken said before walking down the hall to the elevator. Ken pressed the button for level 12 and waited for the lift to eventually get there after several stops to pick up passengers and patients being transferred from one level to the next.
Trying to look like he belonged there Ken walked down the hallway toward ward 26. The nurse's station was empty so he ducked in and looked for a room number for Matt Butler, after finding what he wanted he walked further down the corridor. A familiar voice met his ears, Natasha's he saw her sitting in a chair outside of her husband's room. Dyami sleeping in her arms. Ken sank into the shadows to listen to the conversation.
"I could have lost him dad..." Natasha said to the elderly man sitting next to her. "I thought those days were long gone..."
"Sweetheart we can't predict what's around the corner...lucky the Science Ninja Team showed up when they did...or it could have been worse for the city."
"I know, they look so young up close," A small smile came to her face. "Much like me and Matt in the early days...remember what we were like?"
"Yes I do." He smiled at the memory. "Darling you had your mother worried sick...and your old dad telling ya-"
"Dad lets not go down that path." She pleaded.
"Humph..."He grunted at something that lay between father and daughter.
"Well at least in years to come you'll have quite a story to tell your son how he got to ride with Condor in his race car. Not many kids get to have that kind of excitement at 9 months old." The old man chuckled.
"And his dad rescued by the Eagle and the Swan. Matt finally got a ride in the God Phoenix, it's a pity Matt won't remember it since he was unconscious. Did I tell you he made a model of the old God Phoenix for Dyami's bedroom? He's been working on doing the finishing touches on it for his first birthday present." She said a brief content smile ran across her lips. "He'll be kicking himself about this for months, being unconscious during his one and only opportunity to get a look at the war ship he's been fascinated with for years..."
"Well for me I'm happy my daughter chose a different career path for when you chose when you were 18 years old..." Her father looked at his sleeping grandchild and didn't say any more about what she did at eighteen for a career choice. "Dyami changed him back to how he used to be. I saw that old spark in him the moment you both walk through the door to introduce me to my grandson."
"If only mum was here to see him." Natasha sighed sadly.
"I know Tash, but she'd be proud of you." He said his tone reflecting his daughter, putting his arm around he drew her close.
"You're right though, becoming a father at last has done him a world of good, and he even comes home early from work to spend time with him. Air planes and wing designs have taken a back seat for the first time since we met." She looked lovingly at her sleeping son cradles in her arms.
"Matt will pull through this Tash. He's been through much worse and he's got a strong fighting spirit... all those years as a UN fighter pilot proved that." Her father tried to comfort her with those comments.
Her father's weathered face became lost in thought. "Sweetheart I've been thinking...I should move closer to you... there's nothing really left for me here in Dion City, and your mother would have wanted me to there for our Grandson...and I want to be part of life for as long as I have left of this life"
"Dad are serious you said you'd never leave mum's resting place." Natasha stared at her father hardly believing her ears."
"Very serious, as soon as I can arrange it I'll sell up here and buy a house outside of Utoland..."
Matt was a UN fighter pilot. Ken's jaw dropped as he the conversation continued. And they live close to Utoland. For Ken this was good news. Jun did well in picking parents for their child. Ken thought. Moving away he felt some of the wind taken out of his determination to get Dyami back. He had to think more about it, for starters Jun had been right in saying he couldn't raise him. Ken had known for as long as he was Gatchaman, he couldn't have a family of his own.
His one deep desire is to be a father and a husband. He had always felt to much stood in the way of it, and his feelings about his father abandoning him so young conflicted with those desires. He hadn't really shared that with Jun for fear of the emotions it conjured up inside of him. So denial became the better option.
Walking away doubt shadowed his earlier conviction and he needed to think about his course of action more.