Reading Time: 95 Minutes
Title: A Brother’s Protection
Author: ThirteenRedVampireBites
Fandom: 9-1-1
Genre: Crossover, Dimension Travel, Family, Fusion, Hurt/Comfort, Kid!fic, Pre-Relationship
Relationship(s): Gen, Minor Pairings
Content Rating: R
Warnings: Hate Speech, Discussion – Child Abuse, Discussion – Suicide, Implied Deaths Off Screen, Homophobia, Racism, Discussion – Violence, Health Issues and their consequences, Not Maddie Friendly,
Author Note: Please see notes in master post
Beta: Grammarly was an okay friend.
Alpha: didbuckygetaplum
Word Count: 123,305
Summary: Daniel happens to overhear one conversation he shouldn’t have. His resulting Emergence changes the lives of every member of their family. One brother’s protective instincts set the world on an entirely different course. Some changes are for good, and some just take a left turn.
Artist: didbuckygetaplum
Part 7—A decision
Anders and Miranda entered the courtroom of Judge Alistair Carmichael at the direction of the bailiff, following behind the Council-affiliated JAG Lawyer, Guide Lieutenant Hazel Marks, to the prosecution table on the left, settling down in the chairs on the farthest end of the table. Once they were settled, the doors on the side of the room from the containment area opened, and Margaret and Michael were escorted inside by the Guardian Pair on duty, who led them to the defence table where their lawyer, James Morrison, was waiting for them.
As they sat down, Miranda turned her attention to the jury box where several witnesses were waiting to be called: a Social Worker from the Pennsylvania Department of Child Protective Services named Katherine Juno; the Investigating Pair from the Philadelphia Center, Guide Oliver Green and his Sentinel Viktor Alexandrov; a Philadelphia Police department detective, Howard Browning; Daniel’s head doctor, Dr. Raoul Townsend; and Tyreen. She knew that behind her, Max was sitting with the Primes of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Alphas, Guide Josephine Lopez-Higgins, and her Sentinel, Gerald Higgins, and across the aisle, Madeline’s Social Worker, Yvette Antony was only here to watch. Even if Miss Antony had had anything to say, this wasn’t about Madeline, this was about Daniel and Evander.
Thankfully, since this was a closed session and a sealed case, the only other outside witnesses were Tyler Strand-Barbosa and his Sentinel, Aleixo Barbosa, sitting in the back of the courtroom as far from Margaret and Michael as possible. The only other ones who would know and could possibly leak any of this would be the court staff, but no doubt they’d keep mum if only to keep their jobs no matter how much some of them wished they could make the younger Buckleys’ lives a mess—Miranda could read that desire on at least two of the clerks and a bailiff which led her to believe that Margaret had been her usual self.
Judge Carmichael waited for everyone to settle before bringing the court to order. He cut off Mr. Morrison when the man went to speak, holding up a single finger. “No,” Judge Carmichael said. “We’re here for the facts, so there will be no attempts at claiming anything. We’re going to hear from the witnesses, and then I’ll make the determination.” When Mr. Morrison looked to protest, Judge Carmichael raised an eyebrow at him, “I’d like you to remember, Mr. Morrison, it was your clients who requested this type of trial, and you were well aware since you filed the motion. Now, Officer Juno, if you could come down to the witness stand to start, please.”
Katherine Juno stood up from her seat and moved to the witness stand at his direction. She moved easily, smoothing the fabric of her black skirt down her legs as she stepped out of the jury box to cross the valley to the witness stand. Her strawberry blonde hair was coiled carefully on the top of her head in a perfect French knot kept in place with a thick gray clam clip. Upon sitting, she calmly laid her arms across the counter of the witness stand, folded over her case files, letting the wide sleeves of her gray blouse spill over the wood.
“Please, for the record, explain how we got to this point,” Judge Carmichael questioned.
Officer Juno nodded and began to speak. She laid out everything she had in her case files in front of her. “Daniel Buckley came Online on the sixteenth of October, it’s now the twenty-eighth, and in the twelve days of investigating we’ve already undertaken, we’ve discovered more than enough to bring Margaret and Michael Buckley before a judicial hearing,” she started, flipping open the first of the files in front of her. “I got a call at twenty-two hundred hours from Beta Prime Mikael Romanov, alerting me as the Council Liaison that the Prime Pair of Pennsylvania had taken emergency custody of a pair of children—one an Active Guide and the other a Latent—after Prime Guide RavenDancer had to coax them out of the locked room in the Philadelphia Children’s hospital that the Online Guide had barricaded them inside. He explained that their parents were in Council custody, pending investigation due to the circumstances.”
She flipped a page, tapping the tip of a gray-painted fingernail on the middle of the page. “I signed the order immediately and finished my conversation with Beta Romanov before going to file everything. I went to search for relatives, just in case, only to find that there was another child who wasn’t listed in the custody order. I found Madeline Buckley at a friend’s house after questioning a neighbour who usually watched the girl for her parents. The friend’s parents are registered foster parents, so I assigned them temporary custody until we could get everything figured out.
“In the morning, once the office was open for daily work, I transferred Madeline’s case file into the hands of Officer Antony, then I turned my focus to going through the information forwarded from the Center. It was only the basics but it gave me a foothold into starting the investigation into the Buckley Household considering the information had implicated Margaret and Michael Buckley as being involved. I started with interviewing the staff of the Philadelphia Children’s Hospital that worked the Paediatric Oncology Ward and had interactions with Daniel, Evander, and their parents. Several nurses had commented that there had been previous complaints filed with CPS regarding the attitudes of the Buckley parents, but especially Margaret towards the youngest Buckley child. Those interviews took much of the day, and when I returned to the office, I started looking for those complaints.”
She smirked a bit, drumming her fingers on the table. “I’m happy to report that the misfiling of these complaints will no longer occur since the offender has had their contract terminated. But the complaints themselves were… extensive. Evander Buckley is just over a year older, and there have been several complaints, a week—since Evander was born—about the concerning lack of attention that his parents gave him—less than most socialite families are staples of doing. There were complaints filed by not only the nurses but several nannies, three neighbours, several parents of Madeline’s friends, and two of Michael’s co-workers. These reports cited lack of attention, unsafe handling, and occasional temporary abandonment of the child.”
“For that alone,” Judge Carmichael warned, “You will not be getting custody of the minor, Evander Buckley, back. For that many complaints to be filed, and by so many different people, speaks volumes to the low opinion of the child by the ones who brought him into the world. I award custody of Evander Xavien Buckley to his paternal grandparents, Sentinel Captain Anders Buckley, USN, and Guide Major Miranda Buckley, USAF, and with considerations to their positions and return to duty, an additional guardian in the form of the paternal aunt Guide Maxine Buckley is to be noted.” He turned a warning glance on Mr. Morrison and the younger Buckleys. “Your clients are denied access to the child other than through supervised visits by the aforementioned guardians, a CPS Agent, or a Pair from the Council. Any, and I repeat, any violations of this, and they will be coming back before me for charges of child endangerment and domestic violence.” When Margaret looked to complain, he fixed her with a firm and cold look, “Do not test me, madam, or I will have you charged right now with contempt of court, and you will spend the next thirty days in the county jail.” Margaret promptly shut up.
Officer Juno was motioned to continue with her findings. “I interviewed Daniel’s doctors more thoroughly in the days following. Daniel was admitted to the Philadelphia Children’s Hospital in early October of the previous year, and his primary care mentioned that there had been two treatment plans laid out for his parents to decide from: one was a gentler treatment that would take longer but be easier on Daniel’s body with a higher success rate in clinical usage, and the other was harsher; it would take more out of Daniel, but it should heal him faster, and though it had a high success rate in testing, it was relatively new and untried outside of the strictly controlled test groups.
“The interview ended there for the time being, but another was set up for several hours later when the team could be brought together to explain their various roles. The doctors explained that Margaret had vehemently advocated for the harsher treatment, cutting them off several times as they tried to point out that Daniel was a child and this treatment was more geared towards older teenagers and adults, but she wouldn’t be swayed. The results they’d been expecting by the end of the first month didn’t happen, and they told Margaret they would give it another month to see if there were any changes, but they suggested getting everyone in their family tested to see if there would be any bone marrow matches since that would be the best alternative. They added several other recommendations for the Buckleys to consider on top of the transplant, which included some newly approved technologies, like the possibility of a designer baby that would be a perfect match if it turned out that Daniel’s family couldn’t provide a match. None of Daniel’s primary care physicians seemed enthused by the idea of the designer baby when it was mentioned, and when I asked about it, Dr. Kenneth Raegan explained that it would technically be against their ethics contract to take a donation like that from a child, and at the rate that Daniel was going, it would be unlikely that he was going to make it to a point where it would be ethical for any designer baby to donate.
“When Michael, Margaret, and Madeline came back as negative matches, the doctors watched them decide to go through with the designer baby. When it was announced that the process was a success, the only one who was actually excited for the new arrival was Daniel rather than either parent or the sister who rarely visited the hospital. Daniel made a minuscule amount of progress in the next few weeks, and Dr. Elizabeth Danwood admitted that they all suspect that the harsh treatment plan had exasperated his Leukaemia rather than help it.”
Judge Carmichael wasn’t impressed. “You mean to tell me that you practically tortured your own child with a treatment plan that wasn’t one, advocated for, two, properly tested on children, and three, not working, only to bring into the world a child whom you didn’t actually want, for the sole purpose of healing a child that you harmed in the first place?” He scoffed, looking over at Anders and Miranda, asking, “How many members of the extended family are there that could have been tested instead of making this decision?”
Anders stood from his chair and laid the numbers out plainly for the court to hear and record. “Michael has three siblings; Benny in Chicago, Melanie in Seattle, and Maxine in Norfolk. Benny is separated from his wife, Jennifer, but they have a son together. Jennifer has two siblings with significant others and three biological nieces and nephews over the age of eleven. Melanie’s husband, Greg, has three sisters and a brother, who all have significant others, and there are four nieces over the age of eleven.
“Margaret has three half-siblings over eleven and two on the cusp of being eleven. Owen’s fiancée, Gwyn, has a sister with a daughter who is Daniel’s age. Tyler’s Sentinel-Husband, Aleixo, has six siblings with fifteen nieces and nephews over eleven.
“There are me and Miranda; there are Margaret’s four parents—her birth mother, her step-fathers, her step-mother. There are cousins, nieces, nephews, and several aunts and uncles who would have volunteered to be tested in the slim chance that they might be a match for Daniel!” Anders faced his son with a thunderous look on his face, “There’s Daniel’s older half-brother! William is sixteen years old; he’s practically an adult! There is very clearly no need for Evander to have even been born for this task since there are dozens of us to volunteer.”
Judge Carmichael pinched the bridge of his nose. He turned to face the Investigative Pair and sighed. “How did this entire mess begin to start with?” he questioned. “What brought the Council into this entire mess?” He waved Officer Juno back to the jury stand for the moment, watching as the Guide of the Pair rose from the jury box to take her place.
Guide Green smoothed down his plain blue tie before sitting, folding himself gracefully into the chair. “It started with the slamming of a door,” Guide Green began. “From what Prime RavenDancer could get from Daniel that first night, something woke him up from his afternoon nap, and he heard his parents talking in the hallway. What he heard from them brought him Online in a minor Feral Drive; he heard the plans to put Evander through the surgery to take the bone marrow sample for the transplant within the next few weeks. It set him off on a Protective Drive; he barricaded himself and Evander inside the hospital room.
“Every time Margaret or Michael Buckley attempted to get inside the room set him off more, and no matter who asked—they got nearly a dozen Guides from within the hospital to make attempts at getting Daniel to open the door—Daniel refused to open or even come to the door. The boys stayed in that room for more than six hours before Prime RavenDancer was called to intervene by a Guide-Nurse in the hospital. Prime RavenDancer was only in the building for fifteen minutes before she was ordering Michael and Margaret remanded into Council custody, at the beginning just to get them out of the way since they were hindering her attempts to get Daniel to open the door, especially since she requested they leave, multiple times. Daniel calmed down once they were gone, and Prime RavenDancer made contact only ten minutes later.”
“How long did it take Prime RavenDancer to convince Minor Guide Buckley to leave the hospital room with his brother?” Judge Carmichael asked, and Guide Lt. Marks answered.
“It took twenty-eight minutes for Prime Guide RavenDancer to get Daniel to unbury himself and Evander from the corner of the room,” Guide Lt. Marks explained. “And another ten to get him to leave the room and follow her to the car so they could go to the Center where it would be safer for a newly Online Guide.” She waited for Judge Carmichael to finish his notes before sitting down again, letting Guide Green finish.
“Over the next few days, Prime RavenDancer and several Guide Healers, including Daniel’s Conservator, Guide Tyreen Oroyo, took Daniel through several healing sessions and evaluations,” Guide Green continued, “Immediately apparent for Prime RavenDancer was the lack of Bonds Daniel was living with. When he first arrived and Prime RavenDancer did her first evaluation, Daniel had one Bond with Evander, and that was it. Most of those newly Online have at least faint Bonds to every member of their family, but Daniel was limited to one Bond with Evander and a second faint Bond that she couldn’t determine.
“After she got Daniel and Evander settled in an isolation suite, Prime RavenDancer began the process of searching through the databases for any living relatives outside of their parents. It’s a requirement for any children involved in Council matters, even if they aren’t Online themselves. There were no records for any of the Buckleys in the state of Pennsylvania.” Guide Green paused there, tapping his index fingers together. “Which is a misdemeanour federal offence considering the liability not declaring your Status can be for your health. Prime RavenDancer has a great ear for accents, and listening to even the two minutes of ranting from the Buckley parents on their way out the door was enough for her to suggest expanding the search to Virginia and New York state. The search in those states brought up several names that could have been possibilities, the most likely being Sentinel and Guides Buckley in Virginia and Latent Sentinel Strand in New York City.
“The Beta Guides of Norfolk and New York City were sent to their residences to speak with them, finding Guide Maxine Buckley asleep in her parents’ home and Latent Sentinel Strand just coming home from a shift at Firehouse two-fifty-two. The circumstances were explained and the two were immediately packing and headed for Pennsylvania. Thirty-eight hours after he came Online, Daniel had three Familial Bonds and a Conservator Bond and he was more settled than he had been in the entire time since he came Online.”
Guide Green’s tapping had gotten more rapid as he spoke, and Judge Carmichael called him out on it. “What else did the Council find in this initial investigation?”
Guide Green stopped, blanking entirely for a moment before he tilted his chin up and laid it all out in the bluntest manner possible. “Margaret Buckley is an emotional wasteland,” he reported. “She lacks the ability to feel more than a surface level of empathy; one of our Guide Healers who has studied psychology and was part of her interviews described her as an ambitious narcissistic obsessive personality with rigid fantasies that do not fit with logic or common sense. If she was any worse, and he was her psychologist, he’d slap her with a sociopath diagnosis and a recommendation she be sanctioned to anyone underage. As it stands, she has been placed on a Center wide watch list and she will not be allowed access to the most vulnerable of our Tribe under any circumstances. The Council has already declared a severance of Margaret and Michael’s parental rights to both Evander and Daniel Buckley. Her very presence is detrimental to the mental, emotional, and psionic health of every unBonded and unShielded Guide she comes into contact with, but especially her sons. Her eldest son has declared her intolerable to the health of himself and his brother, and he’s refusing to have any contact with her.”
“And Michael Buckley?” The look on Judge Carmichael’s face was nothing short of bland distaste as he eyed the man in question.
Guide Green shared a look with his Sentinel and Guide Oroyo before bluntly putting the Council’s decision on the record. “Michael Buckley is a weak willed, easily manipulated, self-conscious man led around by anyone with more personality than him. From the psionic evaluation, this isn’t a new fault, and it won’t get better. Michael Buckley is deeply focused on the wants and needs of his wife, to the peril of his relationships with his children, his family, and anyone else outside of her scope of influence. Daniel is apathetic at best, and disdainful at worst regarding his father and the role he has played in his life over the last three years; the young Guide is equally unimpressed at the lack of attachment his brother shows to either of their parents which indicates the lack of regard or care that Michael and Margaret have shown the child.”
“And Madeline Buckley?” Judge Carmichael asked.
Guide Green winced. “Unfortunately,” he started, stopping a moment to tap his fingers on the edge of the witness stand. He sighed and started again, “Unfortunately, Madeline is deeply entangled in her parents, more so than either of her brothers. It’s a stress response, though we can’t determine the exact cause—the isolation from their extended family, the anxiety of Daniel’s diagnosis, the stress of having a new baby brother, parental expectations—but after Daniel’s admittance to the hospital, her psionic landscape changed. Guide Healer Justina Musgrove likened it to a mix of Margaret and Michael.” He curled his fist and rested his chin on his hand. “The Council recommends therapy for all three of them, though I doubt they’ll go through with it.”
Judge Carmichael studied Michael and Margaret in silence. No one knew what he was thinking, but they knew the thoughts were heavy as his eyes flickered between the younger Buckleys and the older Buckleys. “Detective Browning,” he turned his attention to the man. “Is there anything you would like to add?”
“Yes, sir,” Detective Browning nodded, standing up and smoothing down his black blazer. He undid the button as he stepped out of the jury box, holding the gate open for Guide Green to return to his Sentinel’s side. He let it swing closed and stepped down toward the witness stand. He settled in calmly, dropping his hands on the tabletop.
“Begin wherever you wish,” Judge Carmichael advised. “We have plenty of time.”
“Officer Juno asked for my help interviewing the neighbours and acquaintances of the Buckleys,” Detective Browning started. “I met with most of the Buckleys’ neighbours; many of them were unaware that the Buckleys even had sons. The next door neighbours, the Connellys, eagerly told me all about the two and a half years the Buckleys had lived in that house. There were no signs that there were any more children than Madeline when they moved into the house. Margaret and Michael were away from the house more than they were in it, and when Margaret got pregnant with Evander, she disappeared for ten months with no real explanation. There were no obviously baby things brought into the house during that time. As far as the whole neighbourhood was aware, it was only Madeline.”
Judge Carmichael gave the younger Buckleys a deadpan stare. “And what did they say when you told them that the Buckleys did indeed have two sons?”
“Many were extremely surprised,” Detective Browning reported. “Some were unsurprised, however. Something about their interactions with Margaret and Michael put them off, and one of their neighbours told me that it didn’t surprise them that there were skeletons hiding in their closets considering how, in his words, ‘stepford wives’ the whole image that Margaret and Michael put on was to the outside world.”
“I assume you interviewed Madeline’s teachers?” Judge Carmichael questioned.
“I did,” Detective Browning nodded. “None of the faculty at Madeline’s school had any idea that she had brothers either. The main point of contact for Madeline in the case of any emergency was Michael’s secretary not either one of the older Buckleys. When I asked the administration staff at the school about Madeline’s recent performance and they didn’t see anything amiss; she had been a steady performer since joining the school two years ago.”
“What does that tell you?” Judge Carmichael asked.
“It tells me that the Council’s decision and the opinions of the neighbours aren’t wrong—there is something fundamentally broken in that household; appearances are the most important thing in that house.” Detective Browning frowned and picked at a loose thread in his jacket sleeve. “If Daniel and Evander return to that house, I don’t see how there can be a place for them. That house is set up for perfection, and neither boy is anywhere close.
“Daniel is a Guide; he’ll fall to any emotional outburst close by on days where his shields are thin. Evander is, from what has come out of the Center, an exuberant and easily excited child who really only stays calm for his brother. Neither of them will ever live up to Margaret’s expectations, and it would be against their best interests to place them back there to suffer under those expectations.” Having said his piece, Detective Browning folded his arms over his chest and stared at the Buckleys at the defence table.
“And that’s your final determination?” Judge Carmichael asked, tapping the end of his pen on the top of his desk.
“My final determination is that Margaret and Michael Buckley are a hazard to their children—all three of them—but as this is a case of the Protectorate Council against the Buckleys, we’re only here to discuss Minor Guide Buckley and Latent Buckley.” Detective Browning huffed. “If it was an option, I would have all three children removed from their care, but they’ve only been proven to be direct harm to the boys, which means that Madeline Buckley will remain with her parents.”
Judge Carmichael dipped his head slightly in acknowledgement, turning his focus to Dr. Townsend. “Dr. Townsend, is there anything you wish to add that hasn’t already been covered?”
Dr. Townsend stood and shook his head. “No, your Honour, other than to say that I agree with everything discovered already. I have already added the medical opinions of myself and my team to the case files for the Police Department, CFS, and the Council. Our recommendation is that Minor Guide Buckley and his brother remain in the custody of an Active Carrier of the Sentinel-Guide gene if only because they will better understand what those boys are going through.”
Judge Carmichael waited for the transcriber to nod that they’d added the Doctor’s words to the record before he turned his attention to Tyreen. “Guide Oroyo, was there anything you’d like to add?”
Tyreen stood, brushing a couple of braids back over his shoulder as he hooked his thumbs into his slacks pockets. “Yes, you Honour, there is. It concerns the Bonds and impressions that Daniel and Evander have.”
“Of course,” Judge Carmichael waved Detective Browning back to the jury box and welcomed Tyreen down to the witness stand.
Tyreen settled into the seat calmly, folding one leg over the other as he sat back in the chair. He could see the distaste on Margaret’s face, but he didn’t care enough to try reading her to figure out what exactly was setting her off, whether it was his skin tone, his hair, his Online status, his Bond with her son, his age—it honestly could be anything, and he didn’t care enough to find out. She was insignificant as far as he was concerned.
“I’d like to start by putting it on the record that I am Minor Guide Daniel Buckley’s Bonded Conservator,” Tyreen started, resting his arms on the arms of the chair.
“What exactly does that mean?” Judge Carmichael asked, “Your position as Conservator has been brought up multiple times but what does that mean for Daniel and for the family?”
“Being a Conservator is a bit like being a nanny,” Tyreen admitted with a small smirk. “I’m in charge of making sure that Daniel is growing as a Guide as best as he possibly can. I’m Bonded with him and that Bond will allow Daniel to learn to copy my shields, and on bad days, I can hide Daniel behind my own shields if necessary. Part of my purpose is to help Daniel regulate the emotions he gets from the outside world: if other people are exceptionally angry, I’m there to make sure that Daniel doesn’t take that on; if the neighbour is sad for any reason, I’m there to keep Daniel from crying himself to sleep; if Evander gets hurt, I’m there to keep Daniel from either having a meltdown or taking that pain on himself considering how attached Daniel is to Evander. I’m there to teach Daniel everything I can about being a Guide, especially the things he can’t or won’t ask his Aunt or Grandmother about being a Guide and Bonding with a Sentinel in the future.”
“That is something to consider,” Judge Carmichael hummed, sitting back in his chair. “How likely is it that Daniel will meet a Sentinel he clicks with?”
“Daniel is going to be a High-Level Guide,” Tyreen reported calmly. “There’s no likely about it; Daniel will meet a Sentinel at some point in his future that he will Bond with. It’s not a matter of if; it’s a matter of when. And that’s part of the issue with returning the boys to Margaret and Michael; not only would they have to accommodate me moving into the house, but they would have to accommodate a Sentinel who would take exactly zero threats to either of them—it’s the nature of Sentinels to protect any Guide in their path, and between Evander’s Latency and Daniel’s Bond to the tot, that Sentinel would likely be set off in about ten seconds of being in Michael and Margaret’s presence. Not to mention the fit that Margaret had when Tyler Strand-Barbosa brought home his male Sentinel as a young adult.
“Statistically speaking, Daniel will have a male Sentinel. More Sentinels are male worldwide than female, so in all likelihood, Daniel’s Sentinel will be another male—” Tyreen had barely finished speaking before Margaret shouted, “Absolutely not! My son will not be a—” She was cut off by Michael physically covering her mouth as he, wide-eyed, looked at the angry Judge Carmichael.
Judge Carmichael cleared his throat harshly, writing a bit on some piece of paper in the case file before abruptly snapping the folder closed. He folded his arms over the tabletop and set his chin on the top of his folded hands as he intently focused on the younger Buckleys.
“If there were an option for it,” Judge Carmichael started gravely, “and there was proof that we could stick you with, I would have you both charged with criminal negligence and the custody of your daughter and any possible future children would be stripped from you. Since I don’t have that option, I find you both in direct violation of the Child Protection Act and strip you of your rights to the minor children, Guide Daniel Buckley and his brother, Latent Evander Buckley. I award full custody to their paternal grandparents, Sentinel Captain Anders Buckley and Guide Major Miranda Buckley, with the additional official guardian of Guide Maxine Buckley. Anything belonging to, slated for, or entitled to those boys is to be signed over, delivered, or listed to these guardians. Failure to do so will result in charges of Custodial Interference as a felony of the third degree, meaning at least three and a half years in jail and an exorbitant fine.
“The remaining child, Madeline Buckley, will remain with the parents, but continual checks by the CPS agent assigned to her case file will occur. She is expected to continue interacting with her brothers until such a time that one of them requests otherwise. All visits will be supervised by a CPS agent, a member of the local Center, or another member of the family, and these meetings will always happen in a public place. Any further infractions on the parts of Michael or Margaret Buckley will have her custody stripped, and she will be put into the foster care system and found a new home.
“Additionally, Margaret and Michael Buckley are fined ten thousand dollars, each, which is to be placed in a medical trust for Daniel. They are also fined an additional fifteen thousand dollars for each son, which is to be placed in a trust for their futures. These trusts will all be placed under the control of a Trustee of Sentinel and Guide Buckley’s choosing.”
Solemnly he finished speaking, “This is the final determination of this court; appeals can attempt to be made, but in all likelihood, you won’t find a judge more sympathetic towards two adults who should know better that practically tortured their child for the sake of appearances.” He reached over and tucked the case file into the outbox on his desk before turning his attention back to Margaret and Michael, “The two of you are disgraceful excuses of humanity; your reckless disregard for not only Daniel’s health, but the bodily autonomy of your youngest son is disgusting, and don’t think I won’t be directing an investigation into both the fertility clinic in New York, and the doctor you contacted who was slated to help you break the ethical codes and contracts he signed to get his license. If either is still functioning after is through, I will be surprised.” A sarcastic smirk crossed his face, “Congratulations, you’ve now ruined more than your own lives.” With that final statement, he reached for his gavel and hit the plate, “This court is dismissed.”
Part 8—A visit home
Anders glanced up into the rear-view mirror to look at Daniel and Evander in the backseat with Max. He wasn’t sure it was the best idea to take Daniel out of the cloister of the Philadelphia Center just yet, but both the boy and his doctors had been insistent that he needed to get used to being at the house in Virginia. Daniel had been firm on wanting Evander to have his own space and a yard to play in rather than taking up space in the meditative area of the Center’s courtyard, so even if it went against every instinct of Anders’ to keep the boys secure at the Center where very little could hurt them, and Daniel was close to his usual medical team if something went wrong, Anders had agreed with Daniel’s assessment and packed them up for the journey back to Virginia.
The flight hadn’t been bad; the Council had offered up the use of one of their planes again, so the family had a plane to themselves and their escorts, which meant they didn’t disturb anyone else when Evander started crying at the change in pressure. The pressure pain was easily solved by giving him a handful of the arrowroot cookies both he and Daniel preferred and sitting him in Miranda’s lap so she could buffer his pain receptors a little bit to make it easier on him. Daniel had taken on the task of reading one of Evander’s favourite books to keep him otherwise occupied for the 90-minute plane ride from the Philadelphia International Airport to the runway in Navel Station Norfolk they’d been permitted to land on.
Guide Admiral Burns had a pair of military vehicles waiting for them when they landed, and though the man himself hadn’t been present and waiting, his grandson had been waiting to drive the second vehicle for Guide Oroyo and the Guardian Pair that had been assigned to protect the young High-Level Guide while they were in such flux between places. Once Daniel was permanently in one place or another, the Guardian Pair would be reassigned, and technically Tyreen (as a black belt in several martial arts and an active MMA fighter) didn’t need the protection, but Prime RavenDancer was firm on him needing at least the backup in case of an emergency, especially considering Daniel’s health and his focus on Evander.
Latent Hospitalman Killian Burns was a bubbly young man of 21 with short sandy blond hair and brown eyes, and he looked exceedingly like the Admiral had at that age, colouring aside. As Anders’ godson, it was no surprise that his grandfather had sent him to help his godfather’s family settle back at home. It was better for Daniel, who had met the man before since Killian wasn’t a stranger who could possibly be an abrasive mental presence for Daniel to fight with. It was better for Evander to meet the man who would likely be one of the more common babysitters when Killian was around and free to look after them. It would be good for Tyreen to get to know one of the many visitors who would come in and out of the house.
With Tyreen and his protective detail staying in the guesthouse, Anders just clapped Killian on the shoulder before starting toward the truck with his and Miranda’s duffle bags slung over his shoulder. He set them in the back, taking Max’s bag from her and setting it inside as well before she took Evander to get him settled in the car seat someone had put in the backseat. Daniel followed as Miranda handed over the boys’ bag, which was added to the duffle bags in the back before Anders closed the back hatch. He shared a look with Miranda at Killian’s interest in Tyreen, but after a shared amused smile, they rounded the vehicle and got in, buckling up and waiting for everyone to be ready.
The drive from the base to their home was quiet, Evander and Daniel both having fallen asleep as soon as they hit the highway and Max silently reading with headphones on from the Walkman in her lap. Anders could hear the Aerosmith she was listening to if he focused on it, but he was more invested in the sound of his Guide’s voice as Miranda talked her way through the plan for the next week and a half before they had to return to the ship and head back out on the last of their assignment.
It would be a lot of shopping first off; they had to fill the boys’ rooms with furniture and general things like clothes and books. There would be several trips back onto Base for Daniel to get used to the Norfolk Center and attend a few group Guide Healing sessions that would require more than Tyreen; it would also be useful for Daniel to join in on some of the theoretical Guide Lessons since he wasn’t—and wouldn’t be any time soon—cleared for using his Gifts for anything but healing himself at the moment. It would also be a fair bit of getting both boys used to their new lives as Military Brats; it would be introducing them to several of the higher-ranking members of the Base and taking them around to show them all the places they could go.
It wasn’t great that they only had 11 days with the boys before shipping back out to ship, but it was enough time to help them get settled in and ready for Max to take over their care for the next five months until they were finished out their time and back Stateside permanently. It especially wasn’t great that the first scheduled meeting between the boys and Madeline would happen two days after they left, but at least they were going to be around for the boys meeting the older brother none of them knew they had.
William Shapiro and his family were flying into Richmond International Airport in five days and meeting them at the Norfolk Center for introductions and to go over the lab findings of whether William was a match for Daniel or not. Daniel didn’t care either way whether William was a match; he just wanted to meet the older brother he’d never known about, and he wanted to be there when Evander met him. The adults hoped the news was good, but even if William wasn’t a match, at least Daniel would get the opportunity to meet him.
Now, pulling up to the house, Anders watched as Max gently shook the boys awake, letting Daniel get a glimpse of the house for the first time in almost a half-decade and Evander for the first time ever. “Welcome home,” he heard Max murmur, smiling at the excitement the boys showed as they rounded the last corner, and the house came into view through the trees.
“Maxine,” Anders said chidingly when he saw the way she’d parked her car in the driveway. It hadn’t moved since she got home from her last assignment the night before she was called to the Center, so it was still parked cockeyed in the driveway in front of her garage door.
“Sorry, Dad,” she said sheepishly, pushing her hair back from her face. “It was almost midnight when I got in, and I was tired.”
“That’s no excuse for leaving it this way when you left the next morning,” Anders muttered playfully, parking the SUV in the driveway in front of the house. “Please put it back in the garage at some point today, just in case it decides to snow.” The news had been getting them ready for snow for almost two weeks already, and many people in Pennsylvania already preparing in case of something like the blizzard that shut down the eastern seaboard for several days in the middle of March.
Max wrinkled her nose but nodded, “I can do that right now.” She started digging through her purse for her car keys, moving things around until she could pull out the braided cord lanyard she’d picked up when she was in Peru at the beginning of the year. Her keys jingled as she danced them in front of Evander, entertaining the tot for a moment as he tried to reach out for them. It got a laugh from both Daniel and Max as he tried, giggles escaping Evander too.
Anders pulled the keys from the ignition and pushed the door open, stepping out onto the gravel driveway and stretching after the long time spent travelling without a proper break. A yawn escaped him as he rounded the vehicle to help Daniel out onto the driveway; he had a feeling that it would be a household of naps coming up to combat the change in routine from the last few days. He made sure that Daniel had his feet under him before moving around to the back hatch to get the bags out.
“Are you staying for dinner, Killian?” he heard Miranda ask, listening as his Guide joined him at the back of the vehicle. Absently, he listened as Max got Evander out of the car seat and took the two boys up to the porch, setting the tot and pre-teen to sit on the porch swing while they got everything out of the vehicles, and she moved her car into the garage.
“If it isn’t a hardship…” Killian agreed sheepishly, and Anders could imagine how his godson was rubbing the back of his neck and shifting his weight on his feet from the soft noises he could hear. “Grandpa got me time, so I don’t have to be back on base until tomorrow morning just in case you need me.” His voice pitched towards Anders as he came close, “And he is expecting that you come to see him tomorrow as well for a brief meeting, Uncle Anders.”
“Which is why you were the only one waiting,” Anders acknowledged, pulling Daniel and Evander’s bag out and setting it on the ground, wheels down. “Well, your room should be as you left it, and it isn’t a hardship to have you stay the night. There should be one of your extra uniforms, unless you took it out at some point while we were gone?”
“If you are going into Norfolk tomorrow,” Tyreen commented as he joined them, his bag slung over his shoulder. “Perhaps it would be best if Daniel and I joined you to take a quick trip to the Center to get used to the new space, even if we don’t do any active healing.”
“If that would make it easier,” Anders agreed. He knew the Norfolk Center would be different from what Daniel was used to from the Central Philadelphia Center since the Norfolk Center was geared towards military personnel and their dependents. It was a fair bit more structured than Daniel would be used to seeing.
“It would make Daniel more comfortable, and it would be helpful to get him used to the psionic field that surrounds the Norfolk Center and the surrounding area.” Tyreen shrugged. “His shields are weak still, and his mindscape is full of potholes that make his healing slower than either of us would like. And if the psionic field of the base is to harsh for him to handle right now, we may have to see about taking him to the Richmond Center for healing instead.”
Anders nodded along; he knew from a theoretical standpoint—since he wasn’t a Guide who could truly feel it—that the psionic fields of various Centers varied. A Center on a military installation would be different from one in an urban centre which would be different from a rural Center, which again would be different from a Center focused on healing or one focused on specialized training. As a Sentinel, he felt only the surface level of the psionic fields around them, only enough to keep a hold of his senses without needing to be in constant contact with his Guide and to be able to read a room instinctively.
“We’ll see if he feels up to it,” Anders agreed, shouldering his and Miranda’s bags. “Killian can show you and your escort to the guesthouse and help you find everything. The main guest house has three bedrooms, so you can stay there, and have a room specifically for any healing you might need to do here at home rather than the Center.”
Tyreen nodded, “That sounds perfect; thank you, Alpha Buckley.”
“Thank you, Tyreen,” Anders murmured, “Thank you for helping our grandson in a way that Max couldn’t and for helping us get to a place where everything is alright. I know that your Bond with Daniel will eventually fade, but you’re an important part of his life now, and you deserve all the thanks we can give you for taking care of him.”
“My pleasure,” Tyreen murmured with a flush. He pushed some of his braids over his shoulder before stepping back, turning his focus on Killian.
Killian flushed slightly at the scrutiny in a way that wasn’t common for the younger man. He coughed to clear his throat before motioning the Guide and his escort Pair to the side of the house. “The main guest house is only a hundred feet from the rear of the house; there’s a single line of trees separating them as well as a hedgerow.” His voice faded as he led the way around the house, soon disappearing from sight and hearing.
Anders turned his focus to the rest of his family, watching as Max pulled her car into the garage and parked it in its usual spot. The engine shut off, then the lights as Max stepped out, closing the door behind her and shaking her hair out of her face as she stepped around the car to dig something out of the passenger side. She made a small noise of triumph before stepping back, closing that door as well and clicking the button for the lock. Her Jeep beeped twice before falling quiet, lights and sounds done as she pressed the button to close the garage door and headed inside through the dividing door between the garage and the kitchen.
Miranda dug her keys out of the thigh pocket of her cargo pants, ushering the boys up off the porch swing as she headed to the front door to let them inside. Evander raced inside as soon as she got the door open, Daniel following at a more sedate pace with Miranda right behind him, keeping an eye on him but staying out of his way.
Anders smiled to himself before following everyone else into the house, going through the human-sized garage door since it was closest and less of a hassle to drag all of the bags inside up three steps instead of the six it would be to take the front door. He exited into the kitchen, setting all the bags in his arms down on the floor near the hallway arch so they could be taken up to the bedrooms when they were done having a snack. The back door opened as he set the last one down to admit Killian and Tyreen with the Guardian Pair just behind them. Anders raised an eyebrow as he walked to the fridge to dig for food, “Would anyone like something to eat? And does anyone have any preferences or allergies I should know about?”
“Sandwiches are fine, Uncle Anders,” Killian told him, adding, “I’m sure you all are tired; Daniel and the youngest—”
“Evander, Killian,” Miranda told him as she entered the room with the tot on her hip and Daniel following behind her, both of the kids free of their cold-weather gear. “Evander, meet your cousin, Killian.”
“‘llo,” Evander mumbled from her shoulder, peeking out at the young man from his hiding place. He stuck his thumb in his mouth, resting his head on Miranda’s shoulder as he watched the adults move around the room. His free hand tangled in the collar of Miranda’s t-shirt, tugging at the fabric lightly as he settled against her chest.
“Hello, Evander,” Killian greeted, smiling at the toddler as he pulled out one of the bar stools for Daniel, watching but not touching as the pre-teen climbed up onto the chair, practically folding himself over the top of the island. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Now, if everyone could tell me what kind of sandwiches they want, those who should probably take a nap will be able to go to sleep as soon as they’re finished eating,” Anders announced, pulling meats, sauces, and cheese out of the fridge. He set it down on the counter, then went to the pantry for bread, pulling down a half loaf of white and a half loaf of Russian Rye.
Sandwiches were quickly made to everyone’s requests, and the room devolved into silence as everyone chewed. Daniel nearly fell asleep into the last few bites of his sandwich, barely managing to finish eating before he started slumping over the countertop. He folded his arms on the marble and rested his cheek against the fold point. Anders left him be as he finished eating, watching as Daniel slipped into a doze. Once he was finished, Anders rounded the island from where he’d been leaning and carefully picked Daniel up, letting the sleepy child rest against him as he started for the door. Evander made a wordless whine behind him, and Anders turned briefly to look, smiling when Miranda plucked the boy off the breakfast nook chair he’d been set down on, swinging him up into her arms and crossing the room quickly to follow Anders out.
“Put them down together?” she murmured questioningly, shifting Evander around in her arms until he was comfortable against her shoulder.
“Probably would be best,” Anders admitted. “They can nap with Max watching them while we go out to the store to get things for them, proper things and not the bits that Margaret and Michael sent for them.”
“Hopefully the rest of their things get here soon, but I agree, they need to get at least the basics to live in this house. The few outfits and the couple toys of Daniel’s are not going to be enough for them to survive on until Michael pulls his head out of his arse and does what is required of him,” Miranda muttered, gently brushing her hand down across the top of Evander’s head. “I don’t know where we went wrong with that child, but between him and Benny, I’m surprised your hair didn’t go gray years ago,” she teased, peeking up at Anders through her eyelashes.
Anders snorted a shocked laugh, jolting in place and gently jostling Daniel, which got him a quiet grumble from the boy before he settled again, curling against Anders’ chest. “Thanks for that, Guide,” Anders drawled, gently hip-checking the door open to one of the guest rooms on the first floor, humming quietly as he noticed how clean it was in there even though no one from the family had been home for weeks before this point—the cleaning service had done their best work as usual. He crossed the room quietly before gently setting Daniel down on the bed, watching as Daniel wiggled his way up the bed to the pillow, getting it under his head comfortably before settling down.
When Miranda set Evander down on the bed next to Daniel, the toddler was barely set down before Daniel was dragging him into his arms and curling around his brother protectively. Whether this was a new position or not, both the elder Buckleys felt a flicker of rage at their son and his wife that this was the response from a 13-year-old boy in the face of the knowledge that they were prepared—and practically revelled in the idea of using Evander to cure Daniel. Daniel was protective of his baby brother, and even in sleep, he took that role seriously.
Shaking her head with a deep sigh, Miranda dragged the extra quilt off the end of the bed, pulling it up over the boys with a quick motion. She leaned down briefly to kiss each child on the head, smoothing down wayward curls before stepping back and waiting for Anders to do the same, the Sentinel taking a quick breath of their scents, imprinting them further into his senses. Both of them would be able to find their boys no matter where they went.
“Sleep well,” Anders murmured before pulling away, trailing his fingers across the blanket on his way out of the room.
Miranda pulled the door closed behind them, reaching out for Anders’ wrist and curling her fingers around the soft skin, pressing her thumb against his pulse. “They’ll be okay,” she murmured, squeezing gently. “Daniel will heal; we’ll find someone in the family to donate or someone in the Tribe will be a random match—Prime RavenDancer and Prime MacCloud sent out a request to Head Prime Gibson, and he’s already reaching out to various Prides to see if anyone would be willing or able to do it. We have so many options now that Margaret and Michael would have had available if they’d only asked. We will give those boys everything they need to get to the best place in their lives.”
Anders took a deep breath and nodded. He let out the breath before whispering, “No parent should ever hate their children, but I hate the choices that Michael has made, and I feel no shame in punishing him for those choices.” Not to mention that beyond the idea of actions having consequences—which the courts had already started with the dictates of the case—as a Sentinel, the ingrained need to protect Guides by any means necessary, meant that Anders would do everything possible to avenge the harm done to those boys.
“We’ll talk with the lawyers and your siblings before we go back out on the ship,” Miranda assured, gently patting his chest. “Now let’s get our guests settled and we can head for the store.” She led the way back down the hallway to the kitchen, dragging Anders along by the wrist.
–
Just over an hour and a half later, and one extensive but brief shopping trip later, Anders wandered down to the guest room to check on the boys, pushing the door open to peek inside. The room was dimmer than it had been earlier, the sun dipping behind the treetops that surround the house enough to cast the room in a diffused glow. He pushed the door open wide enough to step inside, his leading foot landing on a creaky floorboard.
At the sound, a pair of furry heads appeared over the top of Daniel’s side, matching blue eyes fixing on Anders’ form at the threshold, and Anders lost his breath, blinking at the semi-corporeal beings staring back at him.
The first was a face he was very familiar with from his own Spirit Guide, Erys. But this was no normal wolf, as even lying down and half-hidden behind Daniel’s body, this wolf—this wolf pup—was larger than expected, nearly the size Erys had been nearly at the point of being an adolescent. From just sight, it was obvious that this wolf was at least fifteen or twenty pounds and almost two feet long from nose to tail tip. Their fur was nearly all white, but thanks to his enhanced eyesight, Anders could see the light gray that spread from their eyebrows and back down their spine, disappearing out of sight. Darker gray covered the tips of their ears and put shadows around their eyes to help with their vision. The blue eyes that stared out of that slim face were pale blue, like a shard of sea ice, staring at him as he stood in the doorway.
The second face was less familiar and much smaller. It was canine, but not one he was used to; it was fox-like but larger than Miranda’s gray fox Guide, Azel. It looked like a fox kit but a bit larger. There was a lot more black in their fur than the gray standard to fox kits, though along their spine was gray fur, giving them a bit of a dappled look. Blue eyes like the sea stared out of that little face, studying him for a long moment before abruptly, the kit disappeared, leaving the wolf pup as the remaining protector of the boys.
“Thank you for watching over them,” Anders whispered, smiling when Erys, his dark gray Timber Wolf Guide, appeared between his position and the bed, shaking out her fur before moving to the bed. She and the pup stared at each other for a moment before she huffed and jumped up onto the bed, joining the boys and the pup on the bed. The wolf pup watched her warily for a moment before consenting to her care, blinking at Anders before settling down again, eyes slipping closed as Erys bathed them gently. Anders watched for a moment before smiling to himself and stepping back out, just barely seeing Azel pop onto this plane before he closed the door, leaving the boys to sleep under the protection of the Spirit Guides.
Anders walked back down to the kitchen, finding Miranda exactly where he left her and Max, sorting through their purchases and dividing the items between things for Daniel and things for Evander and things for the planned healing room in the guest house. Max looked up at his entrance, a bright pink dragon plush held in her hands.
“What?” Max asked with furrowed brows at the look on her face.
“Daniel is a Wolf Guide,” Anders noted, plucking his coffee cup up off the counter. “I don’t recognize what kind of wolf,” he admitted, taking a drink from the glass, “his Guide is still a pup, but they’re almost double what Erys was when she first appeared for me.” He smiled behind his mug at the surprised looks on both women’s faces.
No matter what age a person was when they came Online, their Spirit Guide would first appear as a young version of their animal, growing up as the Sentinel or Guide’s Gifts settled or came under their control. It was the way of the Spirit Guide, letting both human and creature settle together before the full breadth of their power came under their control. It would also allow for some Spirit Guides to change form depending on their human’s needs.
Daniel being a Wolf Guide, said a lot about the future he would live through. Daniel would eventually Walk the Path, becoming a Shaman and at least an Alpha Guide wherever he eventually settled. His Calling would be the Protection of the Tribe, not to say that he wouldn’t have instincts for healing and comfort, but he would be primarily focused on the defence of the Tribe. That was the Shaman way; they had such close connections with the Spirit Plane and the most control over psionic energy of all Guides, no matter their Spirit Guide, but they were especially fierce in the protection of those in their Pride. Wolf Guides, only outweighed psionically by Crows or Ravens, were some of the most powerful—Daniel would have abilities that Miranda could only just touch on as a Fox Guide; Wolf Guides had the ability to compel the truth, to walk across the world and sometimes the galaxy through the Spirit Plane, and they had senses nearly on par with a Mid-level Sentinel. And that was just the average Wolf Guide; depending on the type of Wolf, Daniel could be more or less powerful with different Gifts than the usual Wolf Guide. But they wouldn’t know what would happen until Daniel was 1) healed and 2) settled into his Gifts enough for his Spirit Guide to grow into their adult form—though considering Daniel’s age, that could take years rather than the months it would typically take an adult who’d newly come Online.
“And I think I saw a glimpse of Evander’s Spirit Guide,” Anders mentioned, staring into his cup. “They looked like a fox kit but were much too big to be one. So, a fox but not a fox at the same time.”
“The only way to find out for sure is for Evander to grow up and come Online,” Max mused. “His Spirit Guide might grow as he does, since they came to visit with him still being Latent, but likely not. We can only keep watch over Evander, keep him safe and protected, and let his Spirit Guide keep him company whenever they feel like it.”
“They’re both going to be heartbreakers,” Miranda hummed with a grin. “Those two boys are going to be very handsome when they get older, and their power and position will make them very tempting to anyone they come into contact with.”
“Daniel won’t take nonsense from anyone,” Anders pointed out, thinking about how much Daniel already didn’t take. “And I’m sure that between him and us, we can teach Evander to do the same.”
Max crossed her fingers above her head before turning back to her organizing, separating some things for Evander out of the mess piled in the middle of the kitchen floor.
Part 9—A New Center
Anders waited next to the truck, Daniel already going back to sleep in the back seat, for Killian to come around the side of the house with Tyreen. He was dressed in his Service Dress Whites under his Navy pea coat with a warm winter hat on his head. His combination cap was in the passenger seat for when he finally got to Admiral Burns’ office, but the winter air was chilly enough for a winter hat.
Killian came around the corner, leading the way in his regular working uniform with his warmer extra coat from his room over top rather than the thinner jacket he’d been wearing the previous day. He had one of the many green beanies Miranda had made him when he was younger on his head, and Anders could see his garrison cap peaking out of the pocket of his jacket.
Tyreen was likewise dressed for the cold weather but also for comfort in a pair of black jeans, hiking boots, and a warm black plaid fleece jacket. His beanie was black with gray stripes and had a mixed black and gray pompom on the top that bounced as he walked.
“Where is your escort, Tyreen?” Anders questioned with a frown, honestly expecting to see the Bonded Pair come around the corner after them.
“Since we’re going straight to the Center, and Killian has been given leave by his grandfather to follow Daniel and I around, we agreed that Sentinel and Guide Quincy will remain here to discuss some things with Max regarding both Daniel and Evander, and to help with making up the boys’ rooms.” Tyreen admitted with a shrug. “They’re on the waiting list for the Center run surrogacy program, but they haven’t made any decisions about when or what they want to do about kids. I think they’re using Evander a test run to decide whether they want to go through with it.”
Anders laughed, “It was the same for Miranda and I with my sister’s children. We took care of Veronica for three weeks when Lottie had Erik, and almost a year later we had Michael. At the time, I had no idea I had an older son, but Michael was the first child we had together.”
“They’re mostly just nervous, it’s why they keep putting it off even though they’ve come to the top of the list several times in the past year and change,” Tyreen added with a small smirk. “I think playing with Evander will be good for them to figure out what they want; whether it’s really a yes or a not to having kids together to raise. Otherwise, I think they might just offer to donate for some other couple as long as they can be involved in the kid’s life.”
Anders hummed in agreement. “Well, if we’re not waiting for them, let’s get a move on. It’s about an hour to base, and I’m sure you want to touch base with Alpha McKinley when you get there.”
“Probably for the best,” Tyreen sighed, stretching his arms over his head. “It will be best if we get Daniel as settled in the Center as possible before we start any kind of healing. And we might have a short session today, just to give him a bit of a head start for when we deep dive into healing anything else.”
“Of course,” Anders nodded, pulling the keys out of his pocket. “Well, let’s get a move on. Admiral Burns is expecting me, and I don’t want to leave him waiting too long.” He stepped away from the younger men and moved towards the driver’s door of his vehicle. “We’ll go to the Center first, Killian, then I’ll meet your grandfather at his office.”
“Yes, sir,” Killian agreed, leading the way to the other vehicle. He waited outside for Tyreen to get in on the passenger side before he climbed in himself.
Anders tugged his warm hat and jacket off once he was inside the vehicle, picking up his combination cap to set it all down before placing the formal hat down on top. He started the vehicle, pausing to watch Daniel sleep in the backseat, the boy covered in two thick blankets on top of his jacket to keep him warm and a pillow under his head against the window. He smiled as Daniel cuddled the heated stuffed T-Rex they’d gotten him at the store, pulling the toy close to his chest and tucking his face against the toy’s back.
When they looked like they were all ready to go, Anders put the vehicle into drive and pulled out of the driveway, humming quietly to himself before fiddling with the dials to get a radio station he could stand to listen to after spending the previous day’s drive in quiet conversation with Miranda instead of listening to music.
He left the music quiet once he finally reached a rock station, hoping it wouldn’t disturb Daniel too much, nor that it would send him into a Zone—though he doubted it would since he had such a firm hold of his Gifts, even with Miranda staying at home and out of his range, and add on top how much he was focused on Daniel, who even asleep soothed Anders’ Sentinel enough that the likelihood of him Zoning was slim. Still, he’d rather not put Daniel through the experience of having to attempt to talk his grandfather out of a Zone so early in his life as a Guide. No matter how powerful his grandson was going to be once he was fully healed, and in full control of his Gifts, Anders refused to put him through that process as an untrained Baby Guide.
The drive into Norfolk was otherwise quiet; there were few cars on the road since most people were refusing to risk getting snowed in anywhere but their homes. And the few drivers he did see were mostly big rigs and passenger cars with who he suspected were other members of the Armed Forces going back into Norfolk for assignments or because of fears of the upcoming snowstorm possibly putting them out of contact with their duty stations.
Anders pulled up to the gate and dug his military ID out of his pocket, showing it to the guard and waiting for her to input the data into the computer before giving him back his ID. He signed the paperwork to let Daniel onto the base as a visitor, then pulled out of the guard station and headed towards the Center, driving through the just-as-sleepy base streets towards the centre of the base where the Center was placed. He parked out front, leaving the vehicle idling as they waited for Killian and Tyreen to arrive. Daniel had woken up at the guard station, blue eyes peering out the window in interest as he took in the limited activity happening around them.
Killian parked next to them, turning his vehicle off, and Anders followed suit. Anders watched as he and Tyreen reached into the backseat for their winter gear, pulling it on as Anders did the same. Anders kept the doors closed as he waited for Daniel to pull his hat on and gather his things, only stepping out of the vehicle when the teenager had his T-Rex and the bag he’d packed in hand, reaching over to open the door for Daniel.
“Do you want your blankets?” Anders asked, standing next to the door as Daniel slid out of the vehicle. Daniel turned to look into the backseat, tilting his head thoughtfully before nodding sharply, still tired enough for him not to want to talk too much. “Alright,” Anders agreed, leaning inside to grab the blankets, quickly and efficiently folding them into easily movable blocks that he stuffed under his arm. “Let’s get you inside, Little Wolf, before you get a cold or the flu or something.”
Daniel nodded and dragged his things with him as he followed Anders up to the Center. He squeezed past his grandfather as the man held the door open for him, stepping inside the Center with a quiet sigh at the change between the cold outside and the warmth inside the building. He stepped away from the door, close to the reception desk, to wait for everyone to come inside behind him. He stared at the logo behind the desk, studying the mix between the Navy logo and the SGC logo that signified the Norfolk Naval Center.
“Alright, Little Wolf,” Anders murmured, coming to a stop and bending down to bring them eye to eye. “Tyreen and Killian will be here with you while I’m in my meeting with Admiral Burns. If you need me, Killian knows the phone number for his grandfather’s office by heart, so don’t be afraid to ask him to call. We’ll be here for a few hours, until your grandmother can come get us. We’ll go to the store afterwards to get you and Evander some more things if you want and have the energy to do so.”
“Okay,” Daniel agreed quietly, blinking at the man sleepily. “It’s nice here,” he mused quietly, already distracted by the feelings he was basking in. He didn’t notice Anders’ amused smirk, the relieved look on Tyreen’s face, or the interest on Killian’s face as they joined them. Daniel blinked, focusing back on his grandfather with a smile, “Love you, Grandad.”
“Love you too, pup,” Anders assured, kissing the top of his head gently. “I’ll see you later. Behave for Tyreen and Killian.”
“Always,” Daniel assured him, smiling and leaning into the touch happily. “See you later.”
Anders briefly stopped at the door, watching as Tyreen directed Daniel and Killian up to the desk, speaking quickly with the receptionist before leading them away again to the small waiting room off to the side. He waved at Daniel when the boy sat down in the plush chair along the wall before he stepped out of the Center and headed for his meeting.
Daniel cuddled his heated T-Rex close as they waited, swinging his legs idly as he studied the other artwork around the reception room. There were several seascapes, some with ships—both modern and traditional—and some without. There was a photograph of the base from overhead, several ships docked in bays and a small image of a fighter jet pulling up off a runway. Right next to the small children’s play area was a painting of some kittens playing with a basket of yarn next to a large tree with a little girl in a pink dress with white ribbons sleepy nearby on a picnic blanket, a half-finished knitting project held in her hand.
The sliding doors to the back of the Center slid open, and a woman only a few years older than Tyreen stepped out in a Naval uniform. Her hair was almost white, it was so light a blonde, pulled back into a thick French braid from the top of her head and down her spine, the end swinging in the middle of her back. Her skin had a healthy tan to it still; she’d obviously been somewhere sunny for at least a few months this year, or at least, she’d been outside for a good portion of the summer months, though the tan was fading away as it would. Green eyes flicked from Tyreen to Daniel to Killian and back again, studying the assembled group in interest.
Killian jumped to his feet, snapping a quick salute and staring at the woman calmly. “Guide Lieutenant Fields, ma’am,” he greeted professionally.
“At ease, Hospitalman Burns,” the woman replied, waving him off with one hand, the other coming up to greet Tyreen with a quick Guide greeting of a thumb tap to her palm. “You’re not here in a uniform capacity, and neither am I. Guide Oroyo, I spoke with the Pennsylvania Betas this morning, and they gave me a rundown on Daniel’s health, but I would like to have you take me through your finds before I do a scan of my own.” She smiled at Daniel, watching the teen watch her. “Guide Buckley, I hope that’s alright with you? That way I can see how much has changed since Guide Oroyo first looked at you.”
“That sounds good,” Daniel agreed quietly, pushing himself up from the chair slowly. “I’d like to know if I’m doing any better than I was before too.”
“It probably won’t be a lot,” Tyreen warned, holding out his elbow for Daniel to take as Guide Fields motioned them back towards the inner sanctum of the Center. “You’ve only been Online for a couple of weeks, and most of your Gifts and energy are focused on healing your psionic landscape. The new Bonds have helped, I can feel that just from what you project, but how much they’ve helped is a very different story.”
“Anything is better than nothing,” Daniel said maturely. “I feel better than I have for a lone time, but that isn’t really that amazing considering how awful I generally feel.” He missed the winces from the adults at the truth ringing through those words, continuing, “I feel much better here and at Grandad’s house than I have for months at the hospital in Philadelphia.”
Guide Fields and Guide Oroyo shared a look at that little tidbit of information. That was the first that Tyreen had heard him mention that feeling, but it begged for investigation if what he suspected was true. It would be easy to find if they really looked, and Guide Fields going her scan would allow them to do that, so they would know for sure how long Daniel had been affected by the psionics around him.
“We’ve set aside a Healing Suite for this,” Guide Fields explained as they walked through the hallways. “Daniel will be here for months, and Alpha McKinley thought he might feel better if all of his healing and recovery could happen in the same place. Alpha McKinley has also suggested that Daniel be released here after any further physical treatments, just to prevent any more damage from being stuck in a hospital for extended periods of time.”
“That would be best,” Tyreen agreed. “Any progress we make before his treatments at the hospital happen will be unravelled by him going back into that kind of environment. He won’t be as at risk as he was before, but it wouldn’t hurt to prevent that kind of harm especially since it can make his other healing harder for him.”
Guide Fields led them through several semi-winding hallways, several doors open to let the occupants interact with the rest of the Center. The feel of the whole building was soothing to Daniel’s frayed shields, the calm and serenity of the Center was so much different than even the Philadelphia Center had been as surrounded by the city as it was. The Norfolk Center, with it being in the middle of the base, was isolated since the residential sections were on the edges, and the functional buildings were laid out in such a way that it gave the Center almost four acres of space to build and work with.
“This is the suite we’ve assigned to Daniel,” Guide Fields announced as they came to a light gray door with a chalkboard plaque labelled with Daniel’s name. She turned her attention down to Daniel, “You can decorate the room anyway you wish, with anything you want to bring from home. Prime RavenDancer was very clear in her report for Alpha McKinley that your brother Evander needed a space, so there is a place for him inside as well.” She pushed the door open, letting Daniel head inside first.
Daniel stepped inside the suite, raking his eyes over the layout of the room. It was a nice room, very different than the one he’d stayed in at the Philadelphia Center. The room they came into was a large sitting room with an inset seating area near the large floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the large green space right outside. Cushions in cool grays and pale blue filled the space, puffy and soft looking before he could even step over to touch them. In front of the sitting area was a small dining set in pale ash wood of four chairs around a simple square table. There was a small kitchenette on the left side, a small fridge pressed up against the wall with four feet of counter space between it and a small stove with upper cabinets above it. Next to the stone was a small farmhouse-style sink to complete the kitchenette. There were two sliding doors on the right wall, painted the same gray as the hallway door.
“Where do those doors go?” Daniel questioned, eyebrows furrowing as he looked at them.
“The first one goes to the main bedroom,” Guide Fields explained. “The second goes to a small bedroom.” She stepped inside the suite after Daniel, following him as he placed his jacket and bag on one of the dining chairs. “Typically, this suite is used for Bonding or Bonded Pairs and their children when they need some isolation time. Instead, we have everything set up for Daniel in the main bedroom and Evander has his own little space in the second bedroom. Guide Oroyo has a space in the Healer’s Wing down the hall if there’s ever a need for you all to stay overnight, and if your grandparents or aunt want to stay, the suite next to this one is empty and will remain so until you no longer require this one.”
Daniel nodded, staring out the window at the hibernating garden he could see. He wonder what it looked like in full bloom and hoped to see it at some point, but it was still interesting to see the waiting-for-winter plants in their home. “Thank you,” he murmured, turning to face the adults. “Do you want to do the scans now?” He ruffled a hand through his hair as he looked up at her.
Guide Fields studied him for a moment, taking in the paleness of his face. “No, I think we can start with what Guide Oroyo found in his own scans, so you can take a nap while we have our discussion. Latent Burns can bring you your blankets and you can sleep while we discuss everything that we need to.”
Some of the tension was released from Daniel’s body. “Thank you,” he murmured, reaching for his T-Rex and heading toward the door for the main bedroom with Killian following along behind him. He climbed into the king bed, tugging at the charcoal comforter until he could get under the blankets. Sleepily he watched as Killian spread the other blankets over top, the older young man briefly tapping a quick rhythm on his ankle before he was left to sleep in the darkened room.
–
“Well, Daniel,” Guide Fields started with a small grin. “The good news is your psionic landscape looks less like a battlefield from World War Two than it did before. Many of the holes are beginning to fill in; in fact, the most egregious holes are already a stunning five percent smaller than they were when Guide Oroyo first scanned you a few weeks ago. That is a very quick turn around considering your physical health. On a similar note, your physical health is also gaining ground with every bit of healing your mind goes through; the less your energy is focused on shielding out the emotions and thoughts of others that are let in by the holes in your psionics, the more you can physically heal enough for the doctors to be satisfied with you undertaking any more transplants. In the meantime, we’re going to continue working on smoothing out the sharp edges of your mental landscape.”
“How are we going to do that?” Daniel asked curiously. They’d done a bit of healing while they were still in Philadelphia, but it had been very little since he was still reeling from coming Online. And he wasn’t sure what kind of healing this type of injury would require.
“Guide Oroyo has done some work while you were asleep,” Guide Fields told him, leaning forward in her spot on the dining chair across from him. “He’s been reweaving the fraying pieces in your shields together, pulling the faltering ends together and almost putting a bandage on them until they can weave together under their own power or hold the weaving he’s already put in place. I heard from Prime RavenDancer that you were learning to crochet?” At Daniel’s nod, she continued, “It’s a bit like when you run out of yarn in the middle of a project, and you add a new ball—if you tie the ends together properly, they’ll stay together no matter how many times you wash it or pull it or whatever, but if you don’t do it right, then the ends come apart, and the project unravels. Tyreen’s been starting the knots for you in this metaphor; he’s been tying the first knots, and when your psionics can hold onto the weavings without his help, then he can let those ‘bandages’ go.
“Guide Oroyo has also been helping your Bonds strengthen, pulling the wayward ends that would naturally wind themselves back into the main Bond over time into place and securing them down until your shields can integrate the properly. You’ve been helping it along, of course, but what progress you make is almost overridden by the damage elsewhere that you are still trying to heal.”
“So to help you heal more, we’ve got to guide you through a series of meditations that will take you as close to the Spirit Plane as we can get you without actually stepping over the line at the moment,” Tyreen explained. “It’s dangerous for you to go to the Spirit Plane right now; your failing health makes the Spirit Plane a very tempting place to stay, and it’s very possible for you—or any unBonded Guide really—to just get lost there with no way of coming back other than being dragged out by a Shaman or their Sentinel.”
Daniel winced, understanding exactly what they meant even though they weren’t saying it plainly. It was entirely possible that he would feel so much better in the Spirit Plane that he would refuse to leave it. He knew it was a possibility, there had been many times over the past year that he’d just wanted to sleep and not have to deal with anything at all. It was really only Evander that had kept him going at some points.
“We’ll do a small one today, so you can get a feel for it,” Guide Fields announced, shifting on her chair. “It will be only fifteen minutes, but it will be enough for you to get a taste and figure out how this is going to go for when we can do longer sessions.”
“Okay,” Daniel agreed with a sharp nod, “can we start now?”
“Let’s move somewhere more comfortable, and then yes, we can start now,” Tyreen agreed, standing up from his dining chair and pushing it back into the table. “Let’s try sitting on the inset, see how well you can handle it all there, otherwise we can try a meditation room or something else.”
Daniel pushed himself up from his chair, moving slowly since his nap had left him feeling a bit stiff, but he pushed the chair back into the table. Moving to the couch, Daniel kept a hold of his T-Rex as he settled down on the side facing the windows and in the sunlight covering half of it. He waited for both adult Guides to join him, watching the leaves left on the ground blow around in the wind.
“Alright Daniel,” Tyreen started, an otherworldly quality creeping into his voice as he began to speak. “Let’s begin. Close your eyes and listen to the sound of my voice. I want you to take a deep breath,” he waited for Daniel to follow the instructions. “Now let it out, and imagine a field—it doesn’t matter what kind; it could be flowers or corner or just grass—but I want you to imagine you are standing in the middle of a field—”
Daniel followed the instructions, drifting away from the physical plane towards the Spirit Plane and turning inward toward his damaged mental landscape that presented itself in a very holey field of flowers. A very holey field of flowers. It would be a long process of healing. A very long process, but Daniel had no choice but to go through it. It would all be worth it in the end, there was no question about it.
Part 10—A brother
“Are you ready for this?” Anders questioned quietly, gently running his fingers through Daniel’s hair, relief filling him at the returning thickness he was already finding in Daniel’s hair, even though it had only been a few weeks since they’d started weaning him off of the harsh treatment plan that Margaret had placed him on.
Daniel stared at the door to the meeting room they were waiting in, keeping an awareness of Evander as the tot played on a colourful carpet nearby. He shrugged, turning his attention briefly up to Anders before turning it back to the door. “I’m nervous,” he admitted, “I didn’t even know he existed, then Prime RavenDancer told me we have a brother who is only a couple of years older than me…”
“And were you surprised by the news?”
“A bit? But also, not really?” Daniel reached up to rub at his chest in an up and down over his heart. “I could feel like I was reaching for something, but it was out of my reach, and I couldn’t find it no matter how much I tried. Then she showed me his picture and it was like ‘I know you,’ and I knew that this was who I had been reaching for at every moment. It was as if seeing him just made it all calm to a pause; I mean, I still feel like I’m reaching out for something, but it also feels like I am just waiting for the other side to reach back towards me.”
“And now you’re nervous about meeting him since you might reach out and he might not reach back,” Anders hummed understandingly. He had felt the same way with his parents and his sisters when he had come home after coming Online; he hadn’t been sure they would or could or even should accept him considering the circumstances that had brought him—and Hollis—Online to begin with. That feeling had lasted for about two seconds in the face of his sisters’ relief that he was home, alive, and in one piece after so many others sent into the Korean Theatre had not come home, not been alive, or not been in one piece on the other side. “I don’t think he will be able to stop himself from reaching out; you’re newly Online, and for a Latent, that is a very compelling feeling to be around a new Guide as they learn about their Gifts. Not to mention, you are his brother, his baby brother, and he’s going to want to protect you. And Evander is his baby brother; he will protect you both to the best of his ability.”
“I want this to go well,” Daniel sighed, slumping against his grandfather with a huff as the man pulled the blanket he was wrapped in tighter around him. “I want him to like me, and Evan, and I want him to be happy that we exist, even if we didn’t know that we each existed.”
“You won’t know until he gets here,” Anders reminded, wrapping his arm around the teenager’s shoulders, letting him leech off his body heat. It had snowed recently, and now Daniel was struggling to keep warm, even with blankets and heating pads and human body heat plus hot foods, hot beverages and hot baths.
“I hope—” Daniel cut himself off as he fixed his attention on the door again, eyes fading to the in-between as he focused on something or someone outside their room.
It was like watching a conga line. First, Daniel noticed something outside the room that caught his attention in the middle of his sentence. Then Evander stopped playing with the wooden blocks Miranda had picked up for him at the store, turning to look at the door with the cutest little frown of confusion on his face. Then finally, Miranda looked up from stacking blocks for Evander and stared at the door through narrowed eyes.
“They’re here,” Daniel murmured, just as Anders’ hearing picked up the sound of footsteps and several heartbeats—some racing and some not—approaching the room. The door opened, and Guide Fields stepped inside briefly, scanning the room with her eyes quickly before she nodded at Anders and stepped out. A few quick words were exchanged between her and the guests outside before she pulled the door open again and let them all inside.
Daniel knew who William was immediately, his Gifts reaching out for the Latent teenager across the room and getting an excited response. The Bond slipped into place like a river running into a lake after being dammed up, smooth and easy and like it was always meant to be there. William felt a bit like Evander, almost Online but also not at the same time, powerful but muted, Guide but Sentinel, all of it fluid like nothing was set in stone. Daniel had no way to really describe this feeling he was getting from both of his brothers other than to say it was like everything was always changing as if in some place something couldn’t decide what it should be.
William had changed from the picture that Prime RavenDancer had shown him. His dark curls had been tamed with a short haircut that left them spiky and all over the place. He was tanner than he had been in the picture, even months after the end of Summer, with faint tan lines around his watch and on his face where he’d been wearing glasses of some sort. He was taller, standing near shoulder to shoulder with Guide Fields, who was no slouch in the height department at 5’9″. He was broader, his shoulders stretching at the fabric of his sweater slightly. He was dressed in dark wash jeans, a black sweatshirt, and gray hiking boots, with a gray parka folded over his arm.
“Daniel,” William breathed, arms falling to his side and letting his jacket drag across the ground as he stared wide-eyed at the younger teen.
“Hi,” Daniel said quietly, suddenly feeling very shy and self-conscious. William was everything that Daniel wasn’t at the moment; healthy and strong, energetic and cheerful.
“Oh, baby brother,” William murmured, absently setting his jacket on the table as he rounded the room to kneel down in front of Daniel. “What has been done to you?” he muttered, fussing with the blankets covering Daniel as Anders stepped away, leaving the boys to their peace as he went to greet William’s mother, stepfather, and younger sister.
“Anders Buckley,” Anders said, holding his hand out to William’s stepfather. “I remember meeting Mathilda when Michael brought her home for a weekend while they were in college, but after they broke up…” He left the sentence to linger, knowing the adults would understand, but William’s younger sister would miss the implications.
“Yarrick Blumenthal,” the younger man responded, shaking Anders’ hand. “Mathilda and I met at a conference in Jacksonville just after she graduated from college. I had just graduated from Princeton myself.”
“It was love at first sight!” the little girl standing between Mathilda and Yarrick chimed in with a grin, looking up at her parents. “At least that’s what Savta said when I asked her!”
“Lyra, love,” Yarrick laughed, reaching down to brush a hand over the top of her honey-brown hair, tugging gently at the little butterfly clips holding her hair back. “Can you say hello to your brother’s grandfather?”
“Hello, Saba!” she greeted, turning her grin on Anders and revealing the gap where her front teeth should be. Dark brown eyes fixed on him from behind bright green cat’s eye-shaped glasses.
“Hello, Lyra,” Anders greeted with a smile, kneeling down to meet her face-to-face. “I really like your dress,” he complimented genuinely, looking down at the patchwork knee-length dress she was wearing.
“Oma made it for me!” She did a little twirl so he could see the various fabrics in the different shades of blue and purple that made up the dress. “I have a blanket to match, and my bunny has a matching dress!”
“Did you bring your bunny?” Anders asked, thinking about the wolf plush that Evander refused to be separated from since they’d given it to him.
“I did!” She raced over to the bright purple backpack by the door, pulling at the zipper until she could get a 16″ lilac rabbit teddy bear with a blue ear and a matching dress out of the large pocket. “See! Nani matches!”
“Very nice,” Anders praised with a smile, nostalgia filling him with memories of his girls at that age and their obsessions with their own stuffed toys. “Would you like to show Evander your bunny? I think he’d like that.”
“Yes! I’ll show him Nani and all my other toys,” she rushed out, racing away and grabbing her backpack, dragging it over to where Evander was sitting with Miranda, watching the proceedings quietly with his wolf at his side in immediate reach. Lyra stopped at the edge of the colourful carpet, setting her backpack at her feet. She greeted Evander cheerfully but calmly, waiting to see what the toddler would do, holding Nani against her chest with both her arms.
Anders barely heard Evander’s quiet “Hi,” from where he was standing. Evander waved his little hand, peering up at Lyra curiously. “Play?” Anders heard him ask hopefully, reaching for a ball and holding it out to her. “Peas?”
Lyra’s response was drowned out by a rumbling bark from where William and Daniel were sitting. They looked back to find Erys nudging at Daniel’s pup, who had a thin band of bright red around its neck. The red band moved under their watch, revealing it was a small snake curled around the pup, though from how relaxed the pup was, it obviously wasn’t hurting anyone. Erys remained next to the pup, licking over their ears and down the back of their head to drag over the edges of the snake’s scales.
Daniel was still in his chair, one hand folded in his lap, the other curled into the ruff of fur around Erys’ neck, gently running his fingers through her thick fur. William was sitting cross-legged at Daniel’s feet, one hand on the pup and the other wrapped around Daniel’s ankle under the blanket. They were quietly talking, focused on each other and not the adults, though with the way their gazes kept flickering to their younger siblings, they were still aware of the rest of the room.
Anders sighed quietly in relief at the sight. “Daniel was worried,” he murmured, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned back against the wall. “But it looks like that was unfounded. William is very taken with his little brothers from the focus he has on them.”
“Liam was also worried,” Mathilda admitted, tucking a stray strand of black hair back behind her ear. “We found out yesterday that Liam is a match for Daniel’s transplant; he was worried that Daniel would be too far gone for him to even offer, but looking at that boy, Daniel will survive and surpass every expectation thrown at him.” She smiled, “Liam has been researching everything he could get his hands on about bone marrow transplants and Juvenile Leukaemia. He has a million and one questions for the doctors and Daniel’s Guide Healer, so expect that to happen at some point. I don’t know if he’s going to offer today, but Liam is willing to take the time off of his activities to donate.”
A tension Anders had been carrying since finding out about Daniel’s Leukaemia drifted away at the news. “You won’t stop him?” he asked, watching his—and they were his, all four of them; his Sentinel had claimed William and Lyra both as soon as they stepped through the door—boys quietly talk.
“No,” Yarrick replied instead of Mathilda, wrapping his arm around his wife’s waist. “Liam knows his mind; he’s disciplined and well read. He knows what he wants and what he wants is to help his brother, no matter how much it takes out of him or how long it takes.” It was quiet for a moment before he admitted with a small wry grin, “And Lyra did try to talk him out of it by scaring herself with ideas, but Liam refused to be swayed.”
Anders chuckled at that, flicking his eyes to the carpet where Lyra was now helping Evander build a tower out of blocks. “Did he convince her it was a good idea?”
“It took a bit, but yes, he convinced her it was a good idea for him to help their brother in anyway he could possibly do so. She offered to get tested too, but we told her that Liam had more than enough to help Daniel,” Mathilda added with a laugh. “She tried to poke herself with a needle to try the test too, but Liam stopped her.”
“That girl has a good heart,” Anders murmured.
“The best kind of heart,” her parents agreed with a nod, Mathilda adding, “She’ll grow up to be something amazing.”
“We won’t have to worry about the transplant just yet,” Anders admitted. “Daniel is still too physically weak for the doctors to feel comfortable putting him under any kind of anaesthesia. Guide Healer Oroyo is not thrilled with the idea of him going into a hospital setting that quickly either; his empathy and psionic landscape are still in turmoil, so Tyreen wants him to heal more before even allowing him to back within twenty feet of a hospital. He’ll need tests and checks to see whether he’s healthy enough for the transplants to go through.”
“His care is being done here at the Center or at home?” Mathilda asked quietly in interest.
“Mostly here,” Anders admitted, “As much as I wish he could be at home, it’s better that he’s here where there are nurses and easily accessible doctors. His care is assured here, rather than at home where we are several miles away from even the nearest neighbour, let alone the nearest hospital or town.” He ran a hand through his hair. “A few weeks from now, we’ll likely have to see about getting him into a clinic for testing rather than a hospital, but we’re still changing his medications over, so that’s the current problem.”
“He will get better,” Mathilda assured him, reaching out to squeeze his arm gently. “Daniel is powerful, anyone who looks at him can feel it, and with his connections to this family, our belief will bolster him into getting better to the best level he possibly could. He will surpass even his own hopes and wishes, there’s no doubt in my mind that he will.”
Anders nodded with a deep breath out, staring at the boys as Daniel folded into William’s shoulder, hugging his older brother eagerly. William wrapped his arms around the younger boy, tugging him from the chair, blankets and all, down into his lap for a proper hug. The three Spirit Guides remained curled up together at their side, Erys meeting Anders’ eyes and giving a canine grin as she groomed the pup’s ears again.
Anders could hear William’s humming as the older boy rubbed his hands up and down Daniel’s back. Daniel let out a low noise of contentment, curling his head under William’s chin and pressing his nose to the collar of William’s shirt. Anders wondered whether William knew he was putting Daniel to sleep, but he wouldn’t be surprised if that was on purpose, considering William was soon picking Daniel up and carefully getting to his feet, carrying the younger boy over to the couches at the back of the room. William settled down on the end of the couch, squirming around until they were both laid out along the length of the couch, Daniel sprawled out over top of the older teen.
Miranda got up from where she’d been folded on the floor, watching the two youngest, and crossed the room. She murmured something to William that Anders didn’t catch before she started fussing with the blankets, pulling them over Daniel properly and making sure that William was comfortable before she gently patted William’s shoulder and went back to the younger kids. She settled down against the body pillow she’d brought with her, taking the book Evander offered her to read as he sat down next to her. With a smile, Miranda raised her other arm in an offer to Lyra, waiting for the girl to join her before she started to read.
“This is going well,” Anders hummed happily, a smile spreading on his face. “This is going very well.”
Part 11—A first meeting
In Daniel’s opinion, the first court-mandated visit with Maddie did not go well. At all.
It was seven weeks after he’d come Online; three weeks after he and Evander moved into the house in Virginia; two weeks after they met Liam and Lyra; and twelve days since Anders and Miranda flew out to Florida to finish their tour of duty. Max had set up the meeting for the first weekend in December since it was the first open slot in their schedules that lined up enough; Maddie didn’t have anything happening that weekend for Margaret to claim that it was a “can’t be missed event”. Max decided on meeting in a library for the duration, if only to keep the likelihood of public spectacle on the low end since there were certain levels of propriety that libraries required.
They showed up at the library nearly an hour before the scheduled meeting time, pulling into the parking lot and sliding into a space close to the door. Daniel slipped out of the car easily, bringing his backpack and his blanket with him. He waited on the short sidewalk between the building and the parking space for Max to help Evander out, standing with Tyreen to wait for his aunt and brother. Once inside the library, Max left Daniel to settle into a plush green armchair in the young adult section as she took Evander into the brightly coloured toddler’s section to find some new books to read. Tyreen stayed close for a moment, watching as Daniel got himself settled before he wandered off to the adult’s corner of the library. Daniel pulled his book out of his backpack, settling into his seat with his blanket over his lap. He flicked his gaze up to find Tyreen, watching as the man settled himself at a table in the adult’s section with his notebooks and papers for his coursework.
Tyreen took his job as Daniel’s Conservator very seriously; he’d transferred every course he could to distance learning, and for those he hadn’t been able to, he’d made arrangements with the professors to have a guaranteed spot in the next offering of that class. Tyreen made sure he was around for every trip away from the house and the Center. He was very conscious of what could happen if Daniel had some kind of meltdown, and he wasn’t going to allow that kind of thing to harm either Daniel or anyone else. Between Tyreen and Max, nothing would happen, but Tyreen took what he’d been charged with very seriously.
Daniel wasn’t sure who would be bringing Maddie to the meeting; he only knew that it wouldn’t be their parents. Their grandparents had been very clear about that point when they came back from the courthouse—that neither he nor Evander was required to ever see their parents again outside of general family functions where they weren’t the only visitors. Otherwise, their parents were practically forbidden from seeing them alone; there always had to be some kind of supervision.
And Daniel was thankful for that. If Daniel had his way, that would be the only way his parents would ever be involved in Evander’s life ever again. Evander would never know them as his parents; he barely knew them as his parents now, and suddenly seeing them more often wouldn’t change that. Instead, he would only know the love and care of their grandparents and their aunts and other extended family members, and their birth givers would only be just that—the ones who gave birth to them. They would never have another hand in anything to do with Evander; they’d have to go through Max, Anders, and Miranda first.
Daniel was so lost in thought that he missed Maddie’s arrival thirty minutes later, looking up to suddenly find her sitting in the chair across the carpet from him. She hadn’t said a word to him when she arrived, hadn’t even made a noise for him to notice she was there. She looked the same as ever; her dark hair was pulled back from her face in a pair of French braids held together with blue elastics that had bright purple plastic butterflies on them. Her heavy winter coat, the bright purple monstrosity that she’d gotten for Christmas the previous year, was folded over the arm of her chair, the one she was using as a pillow, so it cushioned her head from the chair’s arm. She was dressed in some of her nicer clothes, but not the nice ones, ones he knew that Margaret had bought her for a friend’s birthday party earlier in the year.
Daniel stared at her for a long moment, hoping that she’d look up and he could greet her properly. It felt like an eternity of watching her flip pages, reading her book in a type of silence and stillness he wasn’t used to seeing from her. Maddie was always moving or mumbling out loud or even reading whole passages of the book aloud because it was funny, annoying, or she was confused by the meaning and wanted clarification. There was none of that this time; she was almost too still and too quiet, and too focused. It was like she was a whole different person, and it didn’t take Daniel long to figure out what she was doing, or at least what she was attempting to do.
Daniel waited for nearly five minutes to see whether she would ever look up at him, but when she didn’t, he figured he would just give her time and turned back to his book. He focused on the latest Goosebumps book he’d taken out, settling into the story of Gabe and Sari in the middle of an Egyptian pyramid, dealing with a newly awoken mummy.
Ten minutes later, when he reached the end of the book, Daniel looked up again, pushing himself up from his sprawl in the chair to look over at Maddie. She still wasn’t looking at him, and she hadn’t changed position at all in the time he hadn’t been paying attention to her. So, with a frown, he got up from his chair and moved to the front desk, returning the book to the library’s inventory. When he came back, his blanket had been moved more into the chair from where he’d left it half on and half off, but otherwise, Maddie was back in the same position she’d been in when he left to return his book.
Frowning at her again, Daniel grabbed his blanket and wrapped it around his shoulders like a shawl, moving past Maddie towards the Teen section of the library. There were so many options that there had to be something else to read. He wandered the stacks, studying the titles and covers of several books before he found himself standing in front of Tolkien’s works. He immediately focused on The Hobbit, pulling it down from the shelf. He weighed the book in his hands, trying to decide if he wanted to finally read a book Margaret had deemed off-limits years ago or if he should go for something else. Worrying his lip for a moment, he finally came to a decision—he would throw out every rule and thought his birth givers had tried to instil in him, and he would start by reading this book Margaret had turned her nose up at like it was common trash. Though it did reminded him that he would need to have a very frank discussion with his Aunt about the new rules to follow—and maybe to see if there was anything his grandparents needed him to keep to.
Determined, Daniel clutched the book to his chest and moved out to the sitting area to get his library card from his backpack. He set the book on the seat of the chair as he dug through his backpack for his wallet. He ignored the look on Maddie’s face that he could barely see over the top of her book. He knew what she was thinking, and he had no reason now to believe anything Margaret had to say; she wasn’t the boss of him anymore. With his wallet in hand, he grabbed the book and moved to the circulation desk. He waited his turn behind a young woman with a smiling toddler on her hip, making funny faces at the kid as he waited and getting peals of laughter from the tot. He grinned at the giggles—and the projected joy from the toddler—making another cross-eyed look as they stepped forward a place in line.
A little body crashed into Daniel’s legs, and he looked down to find Evander curled around his left leg, small fingers twisting into the fabric of his blanket with one hand and the other clutching a brightly coloured book. Blond hair flopped into the tot’s face, and he huffed and rubbed his face against Daniel’s leg to get it out of the way. “You need a haircut,” Daniel mused and gently pushed a hand through Evander’s hair. “Whatcha got there, Ev?” Daniel asked, bending over to reach for the book even as the toddler held it up for him to see. “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie? Don’t be bringing any mice home, pup, I don’t think Grandma would be very happy if you did,” he teased, gently tweaking the tot’s nose as they stepped forward another place in the line.
“Da!” Evander complained, waving the little hand that had been grabbing his blanket at the offending fingers, shaking his head at the feeling of his nose being pinched. “Mean! No mouse. Book.” He shook the book pointedly.
“Did you want Aunt Max to read it to you or me?” Daniel murmured, gently running his hand over the top of Evander’s head and pulling the riot of curls back a bit. He looked down into Evander’s face, brushing his thumb over the red mark on his brother’s forehead.
“You,” Evander answered, blinking up at him as he leaned against Daniel’s leg again. “Otter book for Ani Maz.”
“You got a different book for Aunty Max to read?” Daniel questioned. “What book?” He twisted a curl around his fingers, tugging lightly and getting a pout from the boy.
Daniel looked up when Max cleared her throat, showing him a copy of The Paper Bag Princess. Daniel smiled, fairy tales were some of Evander’s favourites, so it wasn’t really surprising to him that Evander had picked out the story from the many hiding in the Children’s Section. Some of Daniel’s favourite stories to read or tell Evander were fairy tales where everything ended with a happily ever after, but especially the ones where the princess saved herself—and often everyone else.
“That’s a good book,” Daniel agreed, leading Evander to the circulation desk where the young librarian was waiting for them to come over. Daniel set his book on the counter, then held out his hands for Evander’s books, taking the three books he’d found—including an alphabet book on animals—and adding them up to the pile. He stepped to the side after passing over his library card, taking Evander with him as Max stepped up to the counter with hers and Evander’s library cards and some books of her own.
It took five minutes for the librarian to mark all the books under the right accounts since Max also had a few returns to make for herself and Evander. Daniel was a strictly one-book-at-a-time sort of person—at least when it came to the library since they came here so often to test his control over his shields—but they were still trying to instil a love of learning and reading into Evander that their birth givers hadn’t helped or even bothered with. It seemed like it was working; between the amount of time Daniel had spent reading to the tot while they were in the hospital together, and then when they were brought home to Virginia, and now the free, easy, and constant access to a variety of books, both at home and at the library, Evander was very enthusiastic about reading… or at least about listening to someone else reading. It was one of the only times Evander was still; otherwise, he was constantly on the move.
When they stepped away from the desk, Max dropped a hand to Daniel’s shoulder gently, getting the boy’s attention on her. “We’ve been here an hour,” she murmured, eyes flicking between Daniel and the chair where Maddie was still sprawled out. “Have you spoken to your sister at all?” she asked.
“No,” Daniel said shortly, huffing as he frowned at Maddie. He knew what she was doing, it was a well-used tactic by Margaret, so it didn’t surprise him that Maddie was copying her behaviour. He laid it out for his aunt plainly, “She’s giving me the silent treatment for something.” He folded his arms over his chest, the book pressed flat against his body. “But if she isn’t going to talk to me or Evander either, I want to go home. I have books to read and another square to make for the blanket Grandma is going to help me put together when she gets back.”
Max huffed a laugh and leaned down to kiss his head. “Alright, little wolf,” she agreed with a sigh, pushing his hair back from his face, “Go get your things ready while I let Tyreen know we’re going.”
Daniel nodded, reaching out towards Evander, holding out one hand calmly. “Come on, Ev, we’ll go get my stuff while Aunty is busy.” Evander grabbed his hand, wrapping his little fingers around three of Daniel’s, and Daniel led the way to the chair he’d claimed. He set his new book down on one side of the seat before helping Evander up into the chair, waiting for the younger boy to settle before he started packing up his things, few though they were. He tucked the book and his wallet into the smaller inner pocket of his backpack, thankful for the hardcover of the book that meant it wouldn’t be damaged by being squished among the crochet bits and bobs hiding inside the larger pocket of the bag.
When he was finished, Daniel pulled his jacket on, zipped it up, and got his hat on over his curls. He sighed, letting his tension out before shouldering his bag. Holding his hand out for Evander to take to slide off the chair, Daniel turned blue eyes on Maddie, staring at their sister in cool silence for a moment before tiny fingers curled around his hand again. “Goodbye, Madeline,” he said dryly, gently tugging Evander away before she could even respond, not that she looked up from her book at the words. Daniel shook his head and moved to Max’s side, waiting for her to help Evander into his jacket and hat as they waited for Tyreen to finish cleaning up his table. He shook his head again at Maddie’s behaviour before they exited the library for home.
Part 12—A healing
Daniel settled into his part of the nest—the inset couch in his healing suite—pulling pillows and blankets up around him to get comfortable before they started the healing session for the day. When he was finished getting comfortable, he looked up at Tyreen and waited to see what they were going to be up to today.
“Today, I want to check on your mental landscape and see what progress has been made since our last session,” Tyreen started, bringing his coffee mug over from the kitchenette, careful not to slosh anything on his way by. “If we’ve made more progress, then I think we’ll try focusing on a single hole in your mental landscape and seeing what happens there instead of the general healing we have been doing.”
“Okay,” Daniel agreed with a nod, sipping from the cocoa Tyreen had brought him first before setting it aside on the cupholder built into the edge of the pit behind him. “If it works what happens next?”
“If we can get one hole to close or at least shrink faster than it’s taken the general healing to start closing the gaps, we’ll change our focus to closing holes one by one instead. Each hole in your mental landscape closed puts you closer to being mentally able to head for the hospital and your transplants.” Tyreen climbed down into the pit and sat down, setting his coffee off to the side to focus on Daniel. “I know the doctors haven’t signed off on your transplant yet, not that they would be able to without my permission, nor have they finished testing William to make sure the transplant will take, but we have to start thinking about it now because you’re getting closer to being ready for it. Your physical health is improving, anyone with eyes can see that, but if we can’t get your psionic health to keep pace, when you go into the hospital for your transplant, there is the possibility of any sudden spikes in emotion in the hospital—which is always a problem, even for adults settled into their Gifts—triggering a trauma response from your Gifts and sending you into cardiac arrest.”
Daniel frowned, something about how Tyreen was talking made him think that the man had personal experience with this problem. He wanted to ask, but he didn’t want to bring up bad memories or hurt Tyreen by having him think about it.
Tyreen huffed a laugh at the look on Daniel’s face. “I do have personal experience with this,” he noted, reading exactly what Daniel wanted to know from his face and the Bond. “I broke my leg in a hiking accident my freshman year of college, about six months after I came Online, and I had to spend the night in the hospital after they set and put a cast on my leg so that the orthopaedist could double check the setting in the morning. While I was there, another young Guide was brought in for a pretty standard surgery on her shoulder after an accident. She was laughing and talking, and she seemed fine as they rolled her back to the operating room.
“About thirty minutes after she was taken back for the surgery, I was jolted out of my book by a sudden burst of pain so strong that I could physically feel it myself. A minute later, the nurses in the Protectorate ward went running by. I only found out later that the other Guide had gone into cardiac arrest because of the pain, and it took three Guide-Nurses almost twenty minutes to get her fully settled so they could restart the surgery. She ended up needing six months of rehab for both the surgery and her mental landscapes to heal from the attack.”
“What caused the attack to begin with?” Daniel asked in confusion.
“A very pregnant lady had come to visit her mother who was in the hospital after a hip replacement. She was about to leave when her water broke and she went into pre-mature labour; she was scheduled to come in for a c-section at the end of the week to have her triplets. The pain of everything was so much for her that she accidentally projected it to the entire hospital and it’s what set us all off.”
Daniel winced in sympathy and hugged his T-Rex close. “Ouch,” he muttered, just thinking about how much that had to have hurt for that lady to have sent that much pain throughout the hospital to even begin with. It had to have been a lot, and he couldn’t imagine feeling it himself, and he wanted to ask where that pain had originated.
“Exactly,” Tyreen agreed. “She and her triplets were fine afterwards, and the littlest girl was given the Guide’s name for a middle name after all the trouble.” He took a drink from his mug. “They figured out after that her projecting all that pain was the only thing that kept her from going into a pain-induced shock that would have likely made her delivery much harder.”
Daniel winced again at the thought. Aunt Melanie had been in labour for seventeen hours with Oliver—he just hadn’t been in position for most of it, rather than any real complication—so he couldn’t imagine if anything had actually gone wrong like that with her labour.
“Alright,” Tyreen laughed, setting his cup away again. “Now that I’ve scarred you with that story, let’s move onto the healing session for today.” He waited for Daniel to get comfortable again before continuing, “Let’s start with me taking a scan of your landscapes, then we’ll move onto the Spirit Plane and see what we’ve got.”
Daniel nodded and leaned back into the pillows around him, closing his eyes as Tyreen narrated what he was doing. He listened to the soft murmurs of Tyreen’s voice and drifted into that in-between place where his shields were easy for Tyreen to slip through and inside his mindscape. He could feel Tyreen moving through his psionic landscape, the older Guide’s mental touch like soft cotton against the still sore parts of his mind.
It seemed like no time at all had passed before Tyreen was calling him out of that space, his voice a bit louder than it had been as he investigated. “Daniel.” Daniel heard the call but lingered in the soft spot for a minute, hearing another call of his name before he began to surface. He blinked and looked over at Tyreen, raising his head from the back of the couch to look at the man more clearly.
“You alright over there?” Tyreen questioned, raising an eyebrow at him. At Daniel’s nod, he hummed in amusement and grabbed the bright purple notebook he’d been writing Daniel’s healing notes in. He clicked his pen and jotted a quick set of notes at the top of the page.
“How is it?” Daniel asked sleepily, yawning as he reached up to rub his eye with a hand.
“Good news and bad news,” Tyreen started. They’d made the deal when they first started the healing sessions at the Norfolk Center that Tyreen would never lie to Daniel. After all the nonsense and bullshit Daniel’s birth givers had put him through, Tyreen easily agreed to the stipulation. “So bad news is: the general healing is extremely slow; you are making progress, don’t get me wrong, but the amount of progress is slower than I’d like. The slowness is likely caused by your physical health, but it’s still not great that the wide-ranging healing is going so exceptionally slow.”
Daniel wrinkled his nose. “I can’t wait until I’m finally off all of the old medications,” he sighed, tipping his head back again. “I’ll feel better, and I’ll heal better with my body not trying to kill itself to keep the medications from killing something else.”
Tyreen huffed a laugh at the words, nodding in agreement. “I can see the lessening stress in your psionic landscape with every lowering of the dosages you’re on, so I can agree with that. It helps a lot that your dosages keep changing because while it is making your healing harder, it is also making your Gifts stronger and exercising your mental landscapes to make them more resilient in the face of traumas. In all likelihood, once we have you fully healed, it will take extensive harm for your mental landscapes to be any more than slightly singed if anything. It will be hard for these kind of holes in your mental landscapes to develop again, especially in the same spots they have already appeared.”
Daniel was relieved to hear that news. He never wanted to deal with this kind of intense healing again if he could help it; between being in the hospital for the past nearly half a decade and the upcoming recommendations he’d heard Aunt Max telling his grandparents about that would have him in and out of the hospital for another year or more, he never wanted to do this again after this whole thing was done.
“Now that the bad news is out of the way,” Tyreen continued, writing out more notes into the notebook. “The good news is that we can go ahead with the focused healing and see what happens there. I want to focus on one of the smaller holes in your mindscape; we’ll do a short fifteen-minute session to see what that looks like, and tomorrow we’ll check to see that the healing not only worked but is holding.” He finished the scan notes with a quick flourish before focusing on Daniel, “If it does hold, we’ll see about doing a series of short sessions multiple times a day as the next test, then we’ll see from there.”
Daniel nodded. That sounded like a good plan, try one to see if it worked, then if it did work, do it again. He was happy to push himself if necessary, and having his healing go so much faster was absolutely necessary if he wanted to get any closer to healing entirely. He pulled his blankets up further on his lap, smoothing them out over his legs before leaning back again.
Tyreen finished with his notes, tucking the pen between the pages and focusing keenly on Daniel. “Are you ready to try this first controlled healing session?” he asked, already reaching for the cooking timer they used for these sessions, twisting the top toward the fifteen-minute mark.
“As I’ll ever be,” Daniel agreed with a sigh, leaning back against the cushion. He let his eyes slip closed as the timer clicked into life, using the slow ticking as a focus to draw him into his mental landscape. Soon enough, he was slipping away from the Bonding Suite and onto the Psionic Plane.
The world moved from the white-golden light of a winter’s day to the odd blue of the psionic plane. The psionic plane was a comforting place with all its shades of blue, but at the same time, it was very disconcerting for the first few minutes one was there. Daniel sighed at the lack of pain or aching or even stress he was feeling and used the time it took for Tyreen to join him to sprawl out in the blue grass amongst the flowers and just rest.
Oddly enough, no human spirit nor Spirit Guide was blue on the psionic plane, so when he felt a soft poke and raised his head to look at the offending poker to find his Spirit Guide next to him, he grinned at the pup and sat up. “Elpis,” he murmured in greeting, running his fingers through her fur. She was still much the same as she’d been when she first appeared to him; fluffy, black and much larger than he could remember ever seeing a wolf pup in film or at the zoo the one time he’d gone for a field trip in the second grade. She was a bit larger than she was when she first appeared, maybe only a few pounds heavier, and there was a white spot that had formed between her shoulder blades, one shaped a bit like a flower if he turned his head the right way.
He was ruffling her fur, playing with her ears, when he heard a rumbling roar and looked up to find Tyreen and his lion Guide, Sarabi, standing at the treeline that separated his part of the psionic plane’s representation from the rest of the plane. Daniel pulled a hand from Elpis’ fur and waved quickly before pushing himself up from the ground. “Come on, El,” he murmured, reaching down to pick her up. “Let’s go get some healing done.” She curled into his arms like a cat and let him carry her away to meet Tyreen and Sarabi in the middle of the field.
“Let’s go looking and see which of these holes is the smallest,” Tyreen suggested when they met in the middle. “There are a lot of options here, but let’s find an easy one.” He motioned Daniel ahead of him and followed as the teenager wandered off, picking his way through the divots in the ground. They paused next to a couple of different holes, humming consideringly as they stared at each of them before they moved on to the next one.
It took a few tries for them to find a hole that was only a few inches deep though it was much wider than most of the other holes. Daniel stared down at the disturbed earth, wrinkling his nose at the shades of blue he was looking at. “What about this one?” he suggested, staring at the hole.
“This one might be the easiest we can try today,” Tyreen agreed after a moment, resting his head on the top of Sarabi’s head. “It’s very shallow, even as wide as it is. So, it shouldn’t be hard for you to start filling it in. Let’s get started.” He moved away from Daniel’s side to the other side of the hole. “Here’s how we’re going to do this,” Tyreen started, rolling his shoulders as he looked at the hole. “I want you to hold your hands out toward the edges of the hole.”
Daniel moved his arms up and held his hands toward the edges of the hole, curling his fingers in the same direction as the hole, almost like he was cupping the edges of the hole like he was working with clay. He waited for Tyreen’s next instruction, listening to the rustling of the blue-grass under Sarabi and Elpis’ paws.
“Now, I need you to focus, to reach for that warm place in the middle of your chest that connects you to the psionics of the Spirit Plane,” Tyreen murmured, eyes slipping closed as he followed his own instructions as well. “When you find that warm spot, I want you to sink into it like you’re sliding into a warm bath. Settle into the heat, settle into the connection. Now reach for the edges of the hole,” his fingers wiggled as he reached for the edges of the hole. “Then start carefully pushing on the connection to the Spirit Plane, push your power into the edges of the hole and move your hands towards each other. The hole might fight you a bit; it’s a representation of a tear in the psionics of your mindscape, and it won’t want to fill in. It will try to keep from filling in, but it will eventually cede to your command and do what you want it to. You just have to be patient and calm.”
Daniel took a deep breath and started following Tyreen’s instructions. It took him a minute to find that warm spot, with how deep and weak it was. Tyreen had told him early on in his healing that his connection to the psionic plane would be weak until he was physically stronger, that it was a tactic of the psionic plane to keep him alive rather than allowing him to slip across the line into the tempting side of the Guide Gifts and fall away from the real world. The psionic plane was tempting enough on its own, and the energies that dictated tried not to allow souls to get lost in the galaxy expanse of the psionic plane.
Finally having a hold on that connection inside him, Daniel took a deep breath before wiggling his fingers, watching as the edges of the hole cracked, the dirt stirring slightly but remaining basically in the same place it had started. The grass and flowers that had started encroaching into the hole from the raised edges began to move, first waving like a wind was coming through the open field and then shrinking back, visibly receding back into the flat expanses of the field. Another deep breath and Daniel began pushing his hands towards each other, sinking into that connection he had to the psionic plane and pushing his power deep.
The edges of the hole trembled a little, some of the soil from the top of the rise shaking down into the divot. Daniel could feel the hole, or whatever injury had caused the hole, fighting back, refusing to cede to his demands that the hole fills in. With a grumbled noise of discontent, Daniel tried again, pushing his hands towards each other and gaining a bit of ground against the resistance, more soil sliding from the rise to fall into the hole. He felt Elpis lean against his legs, her touch giving him a bit of a boost that let him pull his hands closer still, gaining another half-inch of ground and soil spilling into the hole to form a ring at the bottom of the divot.
The ring at the bottom of the hole almost seemed to mock him, the neat little pile of dirt practically taunting him with the feeling that he wasn’t making much of a real difference. Sure, he was closing the hole, but all he was really doing was moving things around. And that internal feeling was echoed by the lack of further movement that the edges of the hole were refusing to do as the injury resisted his efforts. His hold on the connection slipped a little, the shaking of the dirt on the edges of the hole stopping in its tracks.
Suddenly though, that ring of dirt was shifting, moving away into a smooth new bottom of the hole instead of a pile. Daniel felt the resistance easing as the soil moved, pushing his hands together nearly an inch more and setting off a significant avalanche of dirt into the hole. He looked up from the dirt as it moved, spreading out flat again.
Tyreen grinned as he finished his smoothing motion, hands out in front of him, palm down like he was smoothing out a blanket or kneading some dough. “Better?” he questioned, moving his foot to press his leg against Sarabi’s side.
“Yes,” Daniel agreed shortly, nodding sharply as he pushed his hands closer together, making major headway as he pushed his hands together almost three inches. The amount of dirt that slipped inside the hole was substantial, but just as quickly as it slid down into the hole, Tyreen was smoothing it out to properly fill the bottom of the hole, which in turn lessened how much effort Daniel needed to put in to move the edges of the hole closer together.
“Good,” Tyreen murmured, moving his hands in small circles. “Just sealing the wound won’t help all that much with healing; it’s the care and comfort given to an injury that speeds up the healing the most. So, you can push the dirt into the hole all you want, but without smoothing it out, all you’re doing is making a new obstacle, a molehill instead of a hole. It shifts the focus of the psionic energy into something else, but it doesn’t ease it, doesn’t allow the psionic energy to rest or return to the normal flows. Smoothing it out though, soothes and eases the psionic energy, pushing the parts that flow through you back into alignment with the rest of the psionic plane, making your life easier, and if we’re correct, making it easier for you to heal overall.”
Daniel looked down at the hole as he finished speaking, breathing a sigh of relief when he noticed that the hole was an inch or so deep and only about nine inches wide rather than the nineteen inches wide and five inches deep it had been when they started. He pushed his hands together again, shrinking the hole nearly two inches as he pushed the soil into the divot. Tyreen smoothed out the newly turned soil, shrinking the hole more, and Daniel could feel the resistance lessening more.
They were nearly done when the timer in the physical plane started going off, the noise of it a disembodied beeping from the heavens in the psionic plane. Tyreen looked up at the sky even though it really wouldn’t do anything to the timer before looking back down at the hole, “We’ll finish this since we’re so close to filling this hole in, then we’ll get out of here and go over what your testing will look like when you’re healthy enough to figure out what level you are at.”
Daniel nodded. “Okay,” he breathed, shoulders slumping a bit as he pushed his hands together again. Thankfully, the hole was nearly filled in; it was only really smoothing out the remaining rise of soil that was left to do. Humming quietly, Daniel finally brought his hands fully together, clapping quietly before separating them and making a smoothing motion to flatten the soil so it was even with the rest of the field around them.
When it was all flat, Daniel dropped his hands down to his sides. He stared at the bare spot in the middle of the grass, wondering what, if anything, would eventually grow back in his mental landscape to make up for the holes that had been there before. Would it be like the physical plane where there was a set progression before it turned back into the forest around his mental landscape, or would only certain things grow back? He sighed and turned to look at the rest of the field, wincing at the number of holes that still filled the almost football-field-sized clearing in the otherwise plush jungle.
“It looks like somewhere after a forest fire,” Daniel muttered, eyeing the patchy ground and thin grass that covered the field with sickly trees ringing it at the edges of the forest. “The trees are all sick looking; the grass and flowers are thin; and there is more visible dirt than anything else.”
“It looks better than we started,” Tyreen reminded, carefully stepping across the newly filled hole to wrap an arm around Daniel’s shoulders. “When we first started, and you were even too weak to get here yourself, this landscape looked like something from a warzone or the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster. There was no grass, no flowers, the trees almost looked like they were in the process of trying to run from this spot. The soil, what was still there, was so damaged that it was like dust, even breathing would stir it up into a mess, and any movement got you covered in it.” Tyreen waved an arm in a broad motion at the new growth they were seeing. “But look at it now,” he murmured, “look at it now. The grasses are growing back, there are flowers blooming in every nook and cranny possible, and the trees are bursting with leaves and flowers and they’re growing faster than weeds. Soon enough, this part of the jungle will flow seamlessly with the rest, with the well established growth like nothing ever happened. Very few will ever be able to tell the difference between what was and what should be here.”
Daniel nodded as he studied the landscape before them. It did look better than it had looked when he first arrived in the psionic plane. “I can’t wait until it’s at least flat,” he muttered, reaching down to pet Elpis one last time before he faded from the psionic plane, leaving the field behind.
