randomweaving (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
randomweaving) wrote2007-12-02 07:03 pm
randomweaving) wrote2007-12-02 07:03 pm
Entry tags:
WIP Week: Children of Eden
Working Title: Children of Eden
Characters: JD/Perry and all the familiar faces
Preview Rating: PG-13
Summary:The sequel to Changeling. Half a year after the Change first hit, the last wave is complete, and civilization as we know it is all but in ruins. JD, Perry, and the others have been given the task of aiding the sick and wounded, and helping them to the Fae colonies that are being established across the continents. But one radical group who call themselves the Children of Eden believe the Change is a curse, and they will stop at nothing to rid the world of its evil--even at the expense of humanity itself.
Prologue
A tall, lanky figure hurried through the abandoned streets, dodging piles of broken glass as she went. She was wrapped in a tattered shawl, which the long, bony fingers of one pale hand clutched tightly around her neck. She could not have been over thirty, but she looked much older, stress and fear and hunger having drawn harsh lines across her sallow face and aged her weathered features. Her other hand was gripping the straps of a half-full pack, slung hastily over her shoulder. She seemed nervous, and as she walked, she frequently glanced over her shoulder, as though expecting one of the shadows to break away from the darkness and pursue her.
But she was alone, and the streets echoed only the flapping of the worn soles of her tennis shoes, and the rapid, frightened sound of her breathing.
Both picked up as she finally came within sight of her destination: a large, imposing stone building on the corner of the street a block away. Its windows, even in the relative darkness of early autumn twilight, glinted, their colored portraits of kneeling figures at once stern and humble. The large double doors were ornately carved from polished oak, their brass handles gleaming dully; atop the highest steeple was an ornate crucifix.
The faded wooden sign in front of the cathedral once read "Saint Margaret's Convent," but it had been painted over during one of the riots; a red series of three 6's obscured most of the word "Saint," and someone had scrawled under that in blue: "God is dead." The woman shuddered, lowering her eyes from the sight and hurrying past, to the barred wooden doors.
She released her shawl long enough to knock rapidly on the wood.
The door creaked open slightly. "In whose name do you come?" came a soft voice from within.
"The name too holy to be spoken in the tainted world," the woman recited.
Password spoken, the door creaked open further; she looked up and nodded hastily to the guard. "Brother Rick," she said by way of greeting.
"Sister Elizabeth," he responded, pushing the door closed. His hoof stamped lightly. "You're late."
"I had to go further this time," she replied, trying not to stare; of all the Children of Eden, Rick was the only centaur who'd refused to be hobbled when he wasn't on guard duty. It had caused quite the stir, but the large man had insisted he was of more use to the congregation if he kept up his strength. Ultimately, Mother Mary had relented, and Elizabeth knew it had more to do with Rick's usefulness as a guard. The man had been large as a human, and intimidating: a former football player for Texas A & M turned personal athletic trainer for the Broncos, Rick was a large black man with a goatee and a somber, no-nonsense expression on his face. On one arm he had a tattoo of a large crucifix; on the other, he'd inscribed "Expect Pain."
Now, the lower half of his body was that of a large draft horse, shining black coat and heavy hooves that made the floorboards vibrate when he walked. And if he wasn't intimidating enough, well... the scars of his self-inflicted mutilation--his proposed alternative to hobbling--certainly did the trick. They crisscrossed his rump and legs, some old and white, others new and pink and angry-looking. The story was Mother Mary took a riding crop to him every morning while he prayed and she chanted holy incantations--though Elizabeth was sure most of the scars were self-inflicted. Mother Mary was a stern woman, but she was nearly seventy-five, and many of the cuts were simply too deep to have been inflicted by her hand.
Elizabeth realized she'd been staring again and looked down quickly. "Forgive me," she murmured, glancing up again when she heard his tail swish.
"You are forgiven," he replied, as per custom. "Now go. She is waiting."
Elizabeth nodded and turned away, hurrying down the aisle between the pews toward the back of the church. A few Congregants were seated on the long, dusty benches, but they paid her no mind, their eyes closed tight and their lips moving in fervent prayer. She tried not to stare at the ones whose changes were more obvious and just barely kept herself from sprinting toward the rectory.
Once there, she knocked three times. "In His Holy Name I entreat entry, Mother Mary," she said, voice only shaking a little.
There was a pause, and the door was pulled open a crack. Elizabeth found herself staring into the perpetually-frowning face of Brother Jacob, Mother Mary's younger brother and chief advisor. "Mother Mary is praying now," he snapped. "Take your findings to the kitchen and get to devotion. You're already late."
He made to close the door, but Elizabeth stepped forward. "I--wait, Brother Jacob, please," she said. "I need to speak to her. It's... It's about the scavenging grounds, sir."
Brother Jacob's frown somehow deepened. "What about them?" he growled.
Elizabeth shifted nervously from foot to foot. "Sir, please... I need to speak to her."
"It's okay, Jacob, let her in," came a voice from within the chamber; Brother Jacob turned, the firelight from within the room reflecting off the bald top of his head.
"But Mary--"
"You'll do as I say, Jacob, that's a good lad. Let her in."
Jacob gave Elizabeth a scowl, but murmured, "As you wish, Mary," and pulled the door open, stepping aside.
Elizabeth entered, trying to swallow her nervousness. She'd only been in the rectory twice: once for her first visit with Mother when she'd been trying to gain entry into the Congregation, two months prior, and once a week later, for her... initiation.
She shuddered at the memory, recalling all too vividly the excruciating pain as they'd taken the consecrated knife to the base of her gossamer wings, chanting prayers while she'd screamed around the gag they'd given her to help with the pain--pain medication was a rare commodity, now.
But she shoved those thoughts aside, turning back to Mother with a start when the sound of the door closing behind her pulled her back from her wandering thoughts.
Mother was sitting in her wheelchair, a blanket draped carefully around the lower half of her body, its best efforts not obscuring the fact that it was not hiding legs. Elizabeth swallowed, lifting her eyes, but finding the older woman's piercing gaze resting on her made her flush. She lowered her eyes again, bringing them to rest instead just below, on the point of the older woman's nose. "Mother. The scavenging grounds are growing sparse," she blurted.
Mother tilted her head, then waved a hand dismissively; from beneath the dressing gown wrapped around her thin frame, Elizabeth caught a glint of scales. "We have known this," she said. She turned from Elizabeth, raising her eyes to the crucifix mounted on the wall. "He will provide," she said, smiling softly, her eyes going gentle.
"No," Elizabeth said, then took a step back when those eyes hardened again and turned on her sharply. "I mean--forgive me, Mother, I only meant we... the Vagrants are encroaching," she said desperately. "They have begun to take what He has provided as ours. I had to go nearly twenty blocks this time." She drew a breath and held it, hoping Mother didn't order her flogged for daring to speak so freely, but she knew she would only be flogged worse, if she did not present her full report now.
But Mother merely nodded slowly. "Yes," she murmured, looking back toward the crucifix. "We are being further tested. Indeed, I had suspected we may be."
There was a very long moment of silence, in which Elizabeth did not dare move, but finally, Mother said, "Very well, child. You are forgiven. Take what you were able to find to the pantry and go. Devotion is already in progress."
"Yes," Elizabeth murmured, looking down; then, hesitant, she said, "I--ma'am, may I go and see my son first? He... he was frightened this morning before I left... the scavenging has gotten more dangerous..."
Mother looked back at her, a frown again on her brow. "You will see him at mealtime," she said. "I hardly think interrupting his lessons would be appropriate. Go to Devotion, Sister Elizabeth."
Elizabeth swallowed her disappointment, but nodded. "Yes, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am. In His Name."
"In His Name," Mother replied, then waved her arm again. "Go, now."
Elizabeth turned, nearly running into Brother Jacob in her hurry to get to the door. She pulled it close behind her, catching the beginning of Jacob's words: "Twenty blocks, Mary--this is getting ridiculous..."
But she did not stay to hear what they said. She had given her report, and her duty was now to take her findings to the kitchen, then return to Devotion.
She hurried along the cold stone corridors, blinking in the gathering darkness; soon the candle lighters would be making their rounds, but for now she was simply careful to watch her step as she traversed the uneven floors, heading down toward the basement.
She had just rounded the corner, however, when a voice from the shadows made her jump. "Momma!"
She spun, eyes wide, and saw her son, Eric, rising to his feet from where he'd been crouched in a small corridor leading back to the bathrooms. He darted forward, the large, auburn-feathered wings on his back making him slightly unsteady on his feet. The Initiation was not performed until the children hit puberty, and Eric was only five; however, the Congregation did strap them down, using strips of leather--reins, belts, even dog collars, in some instances. Eric had cried so much at the uncomfortable confinement that Elizabeth had finally made him a deal: late at night, when the Congregants were asleep, she would untie his wings and let him stretch them freely, leaving them that way until the first knock came to wake them for Morning Devotions and breakfast. In exchange, Eric managed to keep himself from crying at the discomfort, and this ability made his teacher praise him as one of the most well-behaved children in the class.
That wouldn't last, of course, if he was sneaking out. "Eric!" she hissed. "What are you doing?"
Eric's lip curled a little. "I tol' Sister Jessica I had to go to the bathroom. I was scared, Momma," he whimpered. "Sandy said sometimes the Scavengers didn't come back an'..."
"Shh," Elizabeth whispered back, pulling him into her arms and stroking his hair. "Sandy doesn't know. I'm here--I won't ever go away for good, okay?"
Eric sniffed and nodded, reaching up with one chubby hand to wipe at his tears.
"Hey," Elizabeth said softly. "I have something for you." She reached into the pocket of her skirts and pulled out half a candy bar she'd found lying in the broken store window. She showed it to him. "Tonight, after Evening Devotions, we'll have ourselves a real treat," she said, smiling. "Okay?"
Eric's eyes were wide. "But you're s'posed to turn it in," he said. "Everything from the hunting..."
"Well, we just won't tell anyone I found it, will we?" she said, giving him a solemn wink as she slipped the candy back into her pocket. "It will be our secret."
"Like Free Bird?"
Elizabeth smiled softly at the code name they'd given his nightly wing release. "Exactly," she agreed. "Now you need to go back to class before your teacher gets angry."
"'Kay," he said, scrubbing at his cheeks again. Elizabeth gave him a kiss, scruffing his red curls before pushing him along toward the classroom.
"Bye, Angel," she whispered.
"Bye Momma!"
She sighed, watching him scamper awkwardly down the corridor. It wasn't fair he had to keep his wings tied up that way--wasn't fair that the children should have to suffer for whatever Sins Mother Mary had concocted in that overstuffed fishbrain of hers. Elizabeth had always been a good Catholic, attending Mass on Sundays and Wednesdays and going to confession at least once a week, but this... this sham of a religion was like nothing she'd ever learned while studying the Catechism.
But... well, Mother Mary and her Children of Eden at least represented safety. She sighed again, shaking herself and heading toward the kitchen to deposit the meager spoils of her all-day hunt in the pantry. Eric wasn't terribly happy here either, but at least he had friends his own age, and food to eat, and a safe place to sleep at night. It was more than she could have provided for him alone; when his father hadn't survived the Change, and their home had been caught up in the fires that swept the city, there had been nowhere else to turn.
For now, the Children of Eden, and their crazy leader, were the best chance of survival Elizabeth and Eric had. She knew they'd leave, eventually--there was no way she'd let them cut off her son's wings--but for now, they would keep doing what they were doing: hunkering down, keeping their heads low, and praying that something would happen to set the world back in order.
The thought made her twist her lips wryly as she walked down the cold staircase toward the cellar.
At the rate things were going, they'd need nothing short of a miracle.
* * *
Chapter 1
At first, JD wasn't sure what woke him. The bedroom was still dark, and a glance at the clock told him it was only a little after two in the morning. Jack was still sleeping peacefully in his crib, and the steady rise and fall of Perry's chest beneath him told him his lover slept as well.
But something had awoken him; he had an odd, unsettled feeling. It felt almost like...
Like he was being watched. He turned to the window and jumped, barely biting back a startled yelp, wings snapping out and flapping once before he'd calmed himself.
"Aleiah," he hissed. "I told you not to do that! Come in the front door!" And wait until dawn, he added grumpily in his head, but he'd long-since learned that was a battle with no chance for victory.
The Fae child's face grew sheepish. "Sorry!" she mouthed through the glass, and flitted away; moments later, JD heard the garage door open, and the soft patter of footsteps in the kitchen.
JD groaned, pushing himself up and away. "Perry," he murmured, shaking the larger man's shoulder gently. "Perry, wake up."
Perry's brows drew together, but he didn't open his eyes. He grunted. "S'too early, JD," he muttered, rolling away and unfurling one leathery wing to wrap around his body in a protective cocoon.
JD rolled his eyes, and poked Perry's exposed back. "Aleiah's here," he said.
Perry lowered his wing and glanced back at him. "Again?"
JD nodded. "She's in the kitchen. I told her to wait for us there."
Perry lifted an eyebrow. "She did the window thing again, didn't she?"
"Yeah. Scared the living piss out of me."
"That explains why the bed is damp," Perry returned, and JD smacked him on the hip.
"You know very well why the bed is damp, so don't give me that," he retorted. "And you weren't terribly keen on changing the sheets afterward either, so suck it up. Now come on. You remember what happened last time we left her alone for too long in the kitchen."
Perry winced and nodded, pushing the blankets aside and sitting up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. "Fair enough," he murmured. He grabbed his discarded boxers and tugged them on, then looked through the pile of clothing on the floor for a clean pair of sweatpants.
"Here," JD said, tossing him some from across the bed. He'd already donned his own, though he'd skipped the boxers. With any luck, whatever Aleiah wanted could be dealt with quickly, and he and Perry could get back to bed.
Perry caught them and pulled them on quickly, rubbing his eyes. "She's a smart kid, but I have yet to make her understand the concept of waiting until after dawn," he said with a yawn. "If she's here to talk to us about tubers again I'm going to hurt someone."
JD chuckled. "You an' me both," he agreed, taking Perry by the hand and tugging him forward. "Come on."
Perry obeyed, letting JD lead him down the stairs.
JD didn't bother to hide a yawn as he headed for the coffee maker, sighing at their dwindling supply as he got it started. Have to get used to getting up without the caffeine burst, soon enough...God knew where they'd get more now. They'd been lucky with supplies, at first, and the Fae had been more than generous in both providing them with food and teaching them how to provide more for themselves as much as they could--the Fae were strictly vegetarian. But Sean, of all people, turned out to be a skilled hunter, so that'd solved their meat problems. Still...there were some things they just couldn't provide for themselves, and coffee beans were one of them.
Aleiah observed the ritual as she always did, looking fascinated, though JD knew she wouldn't ask to taste it. Not again.
Grinning at the memory of the time she had, he nodded to her. "What's up?"
She squirmed, beaming at him, swinging her legs in the air where she sat on the barstool. "Father says it is time," she said, and her musical voice sent a vibrating chord of excitement through the air. "The Clan is preparing."
"It's time?" This was definitely too much to deal with before coffee. JD wiped the sleep out of the corners of his eyes and shook his head. "Already? I mean..." Well. It was September, they'd had months to prepare, but still. He didn't feel ready. He shot a look at Perry, but the older man was nodding slowly. JD sighed and ran a hand back through his hair. "Okay. How much time do we have to get ready?"
"They are going to leave tomorrow," she said. "At dawn."
Perry frowned, glancing at JD. "That soon?" he murmured. "I... that doesn't give us much time to prepare, Aleiah..."
"Father says you need not bring much," she replied. "You will not need to pack food--we will provide that for you. And you have many useless things." This she said quietly, as though it were an embarrassing secret and she didn't want to make them feel bad. "You will, of course, not need those."
Perry rolled his eyes, knowing that to the Fae, "useless things" included everything from cell phones to silverware. "We'll decide which things we need, I think," he told her. "Some of them may seem useless to you, but we may need them."
Aleiah frowned doubtfully. "Like what?"
"Like warm clothing," Perry replied. "We get cold in winter, remember?"
She wrinkled her nose. "Oh yes. That is so silly of you...It is too bad you could not learn to control your temperatures as we can..."
JD shook his head, pouring coffee and making Perry's--sugar, no cream--automatically, handing him the mug before making his own. They hadn't mastered that, no, but...he sipped his coffee, thinking of all the things the Song had changed. He'd asked Elliot, out of curiosity, what she'd been doing for birth control--being the only one of them who really had to worry, he doubted Carla and Turk were cross-fertile now, and he and Perry wouldn't have been anyway. She'd given him a look, and said she'd told her body not to ovulate, so it stopped.
He'd decided to keep his questions to himself, after that. Or at least, to himself, Perry, and the Fae. They couldn't understand the human hesitance around so natural an act as mating, anyway. And didn't understand why they took only one mate...
Perry cleared his throat, saying something else, and JD realized he'd been letting himself drift away. He took another sip of coffee and pulled his attention back to the conversation.
"...something to be said for simply enjoying some of those things," he was telling Aleiah. "Even if we could control our temperatures and I didn't need my flannel boxers or my fleece sweatshirt, I still like wearing them. Besides, the rest of humanity would be a little put-out if we showed up naked."
"I could live with you going around naked all the time," JD murmured in an undertone, before giving him an innocent grin. "It's a Human Thing, Aleiah." How many times had he said that since he met her? Too many. "We have to wear clothes, and they have to be appropriate for the season."
"Oh." She wrinkled her nose. "Humans are hard to understand," she sighed. "I fear I will never know why you do the things you do."
"Well, don't take it too hard, kid," Perry said. "We don't always understand everything we do."
Aleiah sighed, but nodded. "So you have said," she replied. "But I still wish I could learn more quickly."
"You're learning us much faster than we're learning you," JD pointed out, rousing himself enough to find the candied apricots he knew she liked, and offered them to her, putting water on for tea. "So we'll need to be ready by tomorrow night. There'll be room for Jack in the creche?" He tried to ignore the way his voice went a little funny with the words. But he wasn't looking forward to leaving his new-found son behind, even if it was safer for him.
"Of course," Aleiah said, puffing her chest out proudly. "I am to look after him, you know."
"And we know you'll do a good job," Perry assured her, casting JD a sympathetic glance. "We'll just miss him, that's all."
"Right," JD assured her. He swallowed, avoiding Perry's eyes, knowing he might not be able to hold it together. They'd moved Jack's crib back into their room when they'd learned more about the task the Fae had outlined for them, wanting to spend as much time with the child as possible before they were forced to leave him behind. But it was still hard. He glanced toward the stairs involuntarily, wanting to check on the child but knowing Jack would be less grumpy if they let him sleep uninterrupted.
Besides, he didn't want to be rude to Aleiah. Even if he knew the Fae child wouldn't take it amiss if he left. Fae had different ideas about politeness than the humans did--Like waking us up at two in the morning, he thought wryly. He finished his coffee and rinsed the mug, making the oddly scented tea the Fae preferred and giving it to Aleiah. She seemed in no hurry to leave, but then...she never was. And if there was more to her message, she'd get around to it.
But he didn't bother to hide a yawn, when it overtook him. "When will we be leaving? And where are we going?"
"I told you, tomorrow, when the sun rises. And you will go to the West, back to your home."
"We're going home?" Why did that surprise him?
Aleiah nodded, swinging her feet lightly. "You will meet with others there," she said. "And gather them, for a time, before you are sent on your true task."
Perry looked up at JD, reading the look on his lover's face and deciding that, rude or not, they needed some time alone. "Aleiah?"
She looked at him. "Yes?"
"Would you mind giving us some time alone, please?" Perry said, knowing if he phrased it any more subtly the child wouldn't understand him. The Fae were nothing if not blunt.
Fortunately, they did not easily take offense, either. "Of course!" she said with a smile, hopping off the barstool. She took one more sip of her tea, then handed the mug to JD. "Thank you," she said. "Mother and I will return tomorrow to say goodbye and take the youngling."
JD turned, setting her half-full mug on the counter. "I--yes, thank you," he said. "Goodbye, Aleiah."
She smiled at him, wings flitting out once more, and went to the garage door, pulling it open. "Goodbye!" she called over her shoulder, then darted across the garage before springing into the air, vanishing in moments.
JD reached out with his foot and nudged the garage door shut, then wandered to the barstool the Fae child had abandoned, slumping down into it. "Well. That's that, I guess," he said quietly.
"Yeah," Perry replied, and for a long moment they were silent. Then, Perry reached across the bar and took JD's hand, giving it a concerned squeeze. "You okay?"
"I'm not not okay, but...I'm not completely there, either." JD offered him a wry smile. "We knew it wouldn't last forever...and I suppose I actually am ready to get out there, to start helping. I just don't want to...I wanted more time. Like until Jack was twenty or so." He squeezed Perry's hand again and let go, resting his head in his hands. "Everyone will be okay, and he'll be safer than the rest of us...And we have to help everyone else. But..."
"I know," Perry murmured. "Believe me, I know." He wondered how Jordan must feel, completely cut off from her son. He and JD had taken him to the coast, in August, flying high and taking turns carrying him when he got tired; they'd managed to track her down using JD's projection, and while she'd laughed at the sight of Perry's wings, she'd nearly wept with joy to see Jack again. "Hey, look at it this way: at least they're letting us all stay together." Not like they could stop us if they wanted to, he added mentally, but at least it's a battle we don't have to fight.
JD snorted. "Like they could've kept us apart. Besides, we work better as a unit. Especially you and me."
Perry smiled as JD voiced his thoughts. "Have since day one," he agreed. Then, "Do you want to go back to sleep for awhile? It's still pretty early."
"Bed, yes. We don't have to sleep right away..." But though the words were flirtatious, JD's tone wasn't. He slid off the stool and turned the coffee maker off, hugging Perry close for a long moment before releasing him to go up the stairs again. "We'll need to be up in a bit, anyway, to let the others know, so we can all start packing our useless things."
Perry chuckled. "She's not exactly subtle, is she?" he said with a grin, allowing JD to lead him back toward their bedroom. "But it does make it easier to tell her to take a hike when we need."
They walked into the room, voices lowering so as not to wake Jack.
"Subtlety doesn't seem to be in their makeup..." JD yawned, shucking his sweatpants again, easing his wings a bit since he couldn't stretch them out inside. He crawled into bed next to Perry, glad the other man's wings could fold so small...they hadn't had to change how they usually slept. He waited for Perry to settle himself, before laying his head on the older man's shoulder, relaxing half on his chest, one wing covering them both. "She means well, though."
"They all do," Perry agreed. "And clueless or not, she's certainly more...approachable than some of her clansmen."
JD chuckled. "Yeah," he said softly. He shivered slightly, snuggling closer, closing his eyes with a sigh as Perry's arms pulled him in more securely.
But despite the early hour, he could not seem to calm himself enough to sleep again. Whether it was the caffeine or simply the shock of Aleiah's news, his mind was racing too quickly to let him slip back into the respite of slumber. "Perry?" he said softly.
"Yeah?" He felt as much as heard the reply, and smiled softly, stroking Perry's bare chest with his fingertips.
"Never mind," JD murmured, laying his hand flat again. "We can talk when we wake up again..." Perry was here beside him, stronger than he'd been before the Change, and perfectly healthy. Nothing was going to happen to him he couldn't take care of...
Even so, it was a long time before either of them found sleep again.
* * *
JD woke up to hear Jack babbling to himself, and sighed, slipping gently from Perry's arms to go pick the boy up. "Hey, little bug," he murmured. "Time to get you changed and fed, isn't it?" He changed Jack's diaper, and carried him downstairs, trying not to think about the fact that the next day would be the last time he'd do this for a while.
He teased Jack instead, cleaned him up when he was finished eating--as always there was more food on the boy than in him--and finally settled down with him in front of the empty fireplace, playing for a bit, trying to savor the time with him. It wasn't that JD didn't trust the Fae, he did, explicitly. But they weren't human, and knowing his son would be left with them for who knew how long... "You'll still be my bug," he murmured to himself, and Jack looked up, flipping his wings out and giggling.
JD smiled sadly, startling a little when he heard hoofsteps behind him. He looked up, as Elliot came in from the den. They'd converted it to a bedroom for the centaurs, so she and Sean wouldn't have to wait for the living room to clear to go to bed. "Hey..." he offered her a smile. "Good morning."
"Mornin', JD. You're up early." She made her way into the kitchen, and he still couldn't help watching her.
"Was up at two," JD offered. "Aleiah dropped by. We've got our marching orders."
She turned her head, hair grown long over the summer months flipping out of her face. "When?" she said quietly.
JD drew a breath. "Tomorrow," he admitted, leaning forward to rub his eyes. "First thing in the morning, apparently."
Elliot made a small, frustrated noise in her throat. "Not much for advanced warning, are they?" she muttered, opening the coffee tin and grimacing. "Though maybe that's a good thing, since it doesn't look like our coffee stock is going to hold much longer than that anyway."
JD chuckled ruefully. "Yeah," he agreed. "That'll be one thing I'll really be glad for, when agriculture starts up again. Coffee beans."
"Amen." She scooped up a few tablespoons of the grounds and dumped them into the machine. "So. Which way are we heading?"
JD bit his lip. "Home," he said softly, and his voice rose a little poignantly on the word. It felt so strange to say--this was home to him now.
"Home?" Elliot repeated, and she drew her arms around her middle, brow furrowing. "What are...I mean...why...?"
"Aleiah didn't say, actually." JD leaned over and scooped Jack away from the fireplace, getting him toddling in the other direction. "But I suppose we can reach more people, that way, if we're working from somewhere familiar. It's strange...I thought I'd be happier about it." He sighed. "Though that could be because we're leaving Jack with the Fae."
Elliot gasped, eyes widening. "Oh, JD..."
"Yeah...it sucks, but he wouldn't be safe with us. We're not going to be safe, we can't take a baby into that just because we don't want to be away from him..." He shook his head. "It's going to be strange, going back. Everything's changed..."
"Pun intended?" Turk asked, coming down the stairs. "Dude, I hear you say we're leaving?"
"Tomorrow, yeah. We've got today to shut the cabin down and to pack."
"Fan-damn-tastic," Turk muttered, walking into the kitchen and glancing at the coffee pot's timer.
"Yeah," JD replied, accepting the ball that Jack handed him and tossing it up into the air, catching it with a quick flick of his wrist and making Jack giggle.
"Perfect," Turk muttered. "Rioting masses, here we come."
"I think things will have calmed down by now, since everyone's changed," Carla pointed out, heading down the stairs after him. "That's why we waited so long to go back, remember?"
"I don't know what they expect us to do, exactly," Turk muttered, snagging the coffee pot as soon as the timer beeped and making a face at Elliot when she huffed indignantly. "I mean, why are people going to listen to us?"
"Because we can heal them through song?" JD shrugged. "I don't know, but the Fae seem to think they will. And they haven't been wrong yet, even if they're not always terribly tactful in telling us things...Suppose that's why we're going. They need the human touch."
Elliot finally snagged the coffee pot back, pouring two mugs. Sean accepted one as he came in, and Elliot brought him up to speed on what was going on.
JD looked at them, milling around the kitchen, getting food and somehow staying out of each other's way, even with sixteen feet total to worry about...He shook his head slightly. If nothing else, they certainly weren't helpless, even if they were being sent into danger. "We know the Fae are establishing outposts, we've just got to get people healthy and convince them to go to them..."
"Because we all know how easy it is to get frightened people do listen to what we tell them," Perry said sarcastically, finally wandering down the stairs to join them. Carla met him at the foot of the stairs and handed him a plate of scrambled eggs with a few slices of toast.
"Oh, quit your whining," she said, swatting him on the arm. "At least it's what we're trained for, right?"
JD hid a smile, once again redirecting Jack's toddling to keep him from the fireplace. Like a moth... he thought, then giggled to himself. Carla had been the most eager learner of the Fae's healing techniques, and of them, she consistently had the best attitude about the task the strange creatures had set before them. JD knew it had a lot to do with finally being able to fulfill her dream of being a doctor--or at least, the current equivalent of one.
Perry grumbled something, and glanced over at JD. "You two eaten yet?"
"He has, I haven't," JD replied, and Perry moved forward long enough to turn over the plate Carla'd given him to JD before heading into the kitchen to fix his own.
"All right, everyone with hooves, stand still until I'm out of the kitchen," he ordered, making Sean smirk and Elliot roll her eyes. Carla and Turk had already left the kitchen, and settled themselves near JD, making a living barrier between Jack and the fireplace.
"Thanks," JD murmured, digging into his food now that he didn't have to watch the child every moment.
"No problem. So I take it he knows?" Turk nodded at Perry, who was spooning eggs onto his plate and talking to Elliot in undertones.
JD nodded, watching his lover with a small smile on his face. "Aleiah woke both of us at about two in the morning," he replied. "She told us then."
"Girl still doesn't get the whole human sleep cycle bit, does she?" Turk muttered, and Carla elbowed him.
"You're one to complain--she didn't wake you up."
"Still," Turk defended. "When my feathered friend over there suffers, I suffer with him."
JD laughed, then settled back to listen quietly as the easy banter continued. Sean and Elliot clopped over to join them, and Perry settled in beside JD, completing their usual circle--a living playpen for Jack. He tried not to think about how much he would miss this, the comfortable safety, the companionship. How much he would miss them.
"Hey," Perry said softly, while Elliot and Sean argued about whether or not they needed to bring the curry combs. "You okay?"
JD sighed, leaning his head against Perry's shoulder, one wing curling around the older man automatically. "Yeah, I guess," he murmured, pushing around the cooling remains of his eggs with his fork. "I'm just going to miss this, you know? I know we knew it wasn't going to last, but... a big part of me really wishes it could have."
Perry simply nodded, slipping his own arm around JD's waist and watching him toy with the remains of his breakfast. After a few moments, he said, "You're going to give Jack bad habits, you know, if he sees you playing with your food all the time."
JD snorted. "Guess we won't have to worry about that," he said ruefully, though he set aside his plate all the same. "Not like he'll be seeing much of me after the next day or so."
He was aware his voice was getting a little louder in his distress, and that Elliot had paused in her argument for the combs to glance at him, concerned. Perry nodded at her, then turned to JD. "Hey, come on, kid," he murmured, drawing his arm away and rising to his feet, dislodging JD's wing in the process. "Let's take a walk."
JD sullenly allowed Perry to pull him to his feet, and they stepped out of the circle of warm bodies and headed toward the sliding door. "Back in a bit, gang," Perry called over his shoulder. "Watch the bug for us."
Carla gave them a thumbs up, and Perry tugged JD through the door after him, pushing it shut, then linked his arm through JD's.
"You mean we're actually walking?" JD said incredulously. His wings twitched wistfully. "I thought by walk you meant fly."
"No, I meant walk, because I want you to talk to me, and when we fly it's usually too loud for that," Perry replied. "I'd rather not have to shout."
JD sighed, tempted to shove his hands into his pockets, but allowing Perry to lace their fingers together instead. They started up the now-familiar path through the woods (Alieah had marked it for them with her Song, and told them they would be safe--JD didn't know exactly what she'd done, but nothing had ever tried bothering them when they stayed on the trail). For a time they were silent, and JD was just about to snap irritably that if Perry wanted to talk, he should try opening his mouth and doing it, when the older man finally did.
"All right," Perry said softly. "Why don't you tell me what's bothering you?"
JD frowned, momentarily speechless. "What's bothering me?" he finally said. "You even have to ask?"
"Yeah, I do," Perry said. "Circumstances notwithstanding, you've been acting a little tense lately, and I know you. There's more to this than the obvious. So spill. What's up?"
JD scowled. "I don't know how you're so calm about this," he said. "Leaving Jack behind."
Perry glanced at him, face carefully neutral. "You think I'm calm?"
"You sure as hell act calm," JD replied.
Perry nodded, slowly. "Yeah, I do," he replied. "For your sake, and for his. I don't want to leave him behind any more than you do, JD, but the fact is, he'll be safe with the Fae, and he won't be safe if he comes with us, and as a father, I've accepted that what's best for my son always takes priority over what I want."
JD stopped, tugging his hand out of Perry's. "You think I don't want what's best for him?" he whispered, eyes wide. "You think I wouldn't tear my own heart out if I thought that was what was best for him? He's my son too, damn it!"
Perry turned to face him, sticking his hands into his pockets. "I never said he wasn't, JD," he pointed out mildly. "You're the one who feels the need to constantly remind everyone."
"I...!" JD took another step back, then spun, furious, and started down the path again. He heard Perry follow him, but he didn't slow down.
"JD!" Perry called, when it became obvious that JD wasn't going to stop on his own. "Newbie, will you get back here already?"
"He is your son, Perry!" JD spat suddenly, spinning around so abruptly that Perry almost ran into him. "He really, truly is. What claim do I have to him?" he jabbed his finger to his chest. "Because the fact that you and I are fucking doesn't make him mine, and you know it. It's not fair, okay? There, you happy?"
Perry stepped forward and took JD's shoulders in his hands. "No, I'm not," he said, voice low and intense. "I'm not, because if that's all you think we're doing, then you're right, he's not your son. But that's not all we're doing, JD. You know it as well as I do. So no, maybe biologically he's not yours, but that doesn't make you any less his father. Why are you doubting that, after all this time?"
"I..." JD's eyes suddenly filled with tears, and he let his head fall to Perry's chest, slumping so quickly that Perry wrapped his arms around him, afraid he was going to fall. "My dad left," he murmured against Perry's chest. "My dad left us, and I... Perry, I swore that when I became a father, I'd never, ever do that..."
Perry closed his eyes, drawing JD close, relieved they'd finally gotten to the heart of it. He rocked the younger man gently, feeling JD's arms wind about his waist as he sobbed into Perry's shoulder.
"You're not leaving him, JD," he murmured. "Not like your dad did. You're doing this for his sake. I mean, come on--would you rather we brought him with us, into who knows what kind of dangers?"
"No!" JD's reply, though muffled, was still vehement. He pressed a little closer, sniffling. "I'd... I'd rather just... I'd rather this whole thing hadn't happened in the first place, and we could just stay with him and be a normal family..." But that wasn't quite right either, was it? If this Change hadn't happened, he wouldn't have become a part of Perry's family in the first place. He'd still be Newbie or Sarah or Elizabeth, and Perry would still be Dr. Cox, and Jordan would be his family and Jack would just be the kid JD babysat on occasion. "Okay, no, I don't," he sighed after a pause. "But I... I do wish it was over already."
Perry nodded, pulling away. "Yeah," he said softly. "I do too, but there's nothing we can do about it. The Fae know what they're about, JD, and they wouldn't send us out there if there was no hope of coming back. Hey." He tilted his head, bringing his finger up under JD's jaw and forcing the younger man to look at him. "We'll get through this," he said. "We'll come back to him, and we'll be a family. I promise, okay?"
JD wiped at his eyes and nodded, giving Perry a watery smile. "I... yeah," he said. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to freak out on you, it's just..."
"It's hard," Perry said. "I know. Trust me, kid, I know." He smiled, then. "Hey. Race you back to the house?" With a snap of leathery hide, Perry extended his wings, and raised his eyebrows in challenge.
JD's spread his wings in response. "You're on, Batman," he said with a smirk. "Prepare to eat my feathers."
"You gotta catch me first, Robin," Perry shot back, and sprang into the air, JD close at his heels.
* * *
They got back to the house, to find the others deep in planning. JD took Jack off to himself for a bit, and returned seeming much calmer, after. He didn't tell anyone else what he'd said to the boy, but it seemed to have gotten rid of the rest of his outward worry.
The rest of the day passed in something of a haze. JD found himself up to the elbows in one of Ben's old boxes, that afternoon, sneezing as his wings raised more dust when he shifted them. "Fucking..."
"You okay out there?" Perry's head appeared in the garage door from the kitchen, where he'd been helping Carla and Elliot pack the food into the hiking backpacks he'd brought.
"Fine! Feather dusters are working too well..." JD shook his head, pulling a wing out the way to look over his shoulder, the gesture automatic now. "There's some heavy weather gear in here."
"Excellent--I'll be out to help you in just a minute, okay?"
JD just waved him off, turning his attention back to the boxes. There were parkas--fur-lined, he noted, and smirked a little, thinking that the Sullivans' tendency to never spare expenses of any sort was certainly coming in handy--heavy-duty insulated gloves, head wraps, and ski masks. He noted the last with a chuckle; if it got terribly cold, masks might come in handy, particularly if they were doing a lot of long-distance flying.
Perry appeared a few minutes later, after JD had pulled out the gear and set it into piles around him. "Okay," he said, shutting the garage door behind him as he approached. "We've almost got all the food packed up. Well, everything we can carry, anyway," he added. "Elliot and Sean are going to end up with most of it, because they'll be able to carry it."
"Makes sense, I guess," JD said, frowning over the pile in front of him. "Most of this isn't going to fit anyone but you, and maybe Sean, but at least it'll be too big on the rest of us, not too small..." He looked up, when he realized Perry was chuckling at him. "What?"
"How long is it going to take you to remember you're not a scrawny kid anymore?" the older doctor asked, grinning as he crouched next to JD and examined his findings. "This will come a lot closer to fitting you than you think. In fact, I imagine it'll fit pretty nicely."
JD blushed. "Oh yeah...All right, then. It'll fit you and Sean and me, and almost Turk...the girls will have to live with oversized things. I'll haul it inside and sort it out. They've got the food, you've got the rest of our gear in the backpacks...Is there anything else?" One day hadn't seemed nearly long enough when Aleiah broke the news to them, but as far as JD could tell, they were close to done.
Perry thought. "No," he said after a moment. "I've already gotten the cabin mostly shut down. I'll have to turn off the generator, but I'll do that in the morning before we go." He looked at JD and shrugged. "I guess we could take one last trip to the field, if everyone wanted to," he added. He didn't say what he was thinking--that it would be a good way to say goodbye--but he could see from the look on JD's face that the younger man was all too aware of the fact that in less than a day, they'd be leaving behind the place that had been home for months.
"Yeah," the younger man said softly, folding his arms across his stomach and looking at the gear he'd unpacked. "I guess that'd... that'd be a nice... a nice memory to have."
Perry moved forward, slipping his arm around JD's shoulders. "Hey," he murmured. "You okay?"
JD leaned into his embrace, one wing automatically going around the other man. "I...I guess so. Yeah, I am. I just...we're all going to leave, and I know we'll be together, but I don't know what'll happen, and...and I'm scared. Of losing more family."
Perry sighed. He knew he could offer platitudes--promises that everyone would be all right, that it would all turn out fine--but they'd be empty promises, and JD would know it. "I know how you feel," he replied softly.
JD looked up and smiled softly. "I know you do. And that helps, a lot."
Perry squeezed JD's shoulders, and for a moment they stood in silence. Then Perry released him. "Hey, come on," he said quietly. "Let's go see if the others are ready for some lunch. I don't know about you, but I'm starved."
"I'm not really hungry, but...okay," JD replied softly.
Perry sighed again, wishing he could draw JD from the funk he'd slipped into, but knowing there was really nothing he could do. The Fae had made it quite clear they'd been called to do this, and in truth, they'd all felt it, too.
It didn't make it easier, though.
He reached out and took JD's hand in his, squeezing gently. "Come on," he murmured, turning and leading JD into the kitchen.
JD followed, hand still held in Perry's, eyes flitting up to the broad line of his lover's shoulders, the now familiar-curve of his tightly-folded wings. If nothing else, he still had his Perry--and that was definitely something. It was everything, in fact. The memory of the horrible month without him was still too fresh to allow JD to forget just how lucky they were to be together.
I never will, he promised himself fervently. Never. And as long as there's anything I can do to prevent it, I'm never going to let him go.
And as he watched his lover talking to the others, joking with Carla as they decided what to have for lunch and begin to lay it out on the counter, he let that promise settle into his heart, growing into a firm vow that he knew he would keep, or die trying.
* * *
Characters: JD/Perry and all the familiar faces
Preview Rating: PG-13
Summary:The sequel to Changeling. Half a year after the Change first hit, the last wave is complete, and civilization as we know it is all but in ruins. JD, Perry, and the others have been given the task of aiding the sick and wounded, and helping them to the Fae colonies that are being established across the continents. But one radical group who call themselves the Children of Eden believe the Change is a curse, and they will stop at nothing to rid the world of its evil--even at the expense of humanity itself.
Prologue
A tall, lanky figure hurried through the abandoned streets, dodging piles of broken glass as she went. She was wrapped in a tattered shawl, which the long, bony fingers of one pale hand clutched tightly around her neck. She could not have been over thirty, but she looked much older, stress and fear and hunger having drawn harsh lines across her sallow face and aged her weathered features. Her other hand was gripping the straps of a half-full pack, slung hastily over her shoulder. She seemed nervous, and as she walked, she frequently glanced over her shoulder, as though expecting one of the shadows to break away from the darkness and pursue her.
But she was alone, and the streets echoed only the flapping of the worn soles of her tennis shoes, and the rapid, frightened sound of her breathing.
Both picked up as she finally came within sight of her destination: a large, imposing stone building on the corner of the street a block away. Its windows, even in the relative darkness of early autumn twilight, glinted, their colored portraits of kneeling figures at once stern and humble. The large double doors were ornately carved from polished oak, their brass handles gleaming dully; atop the highest steeple was an ornate crucifix.
The faded wooden sign in front of the cathedral once read "Saint Margaret's Convent," but it had been painted over during one of the riots; a red series of three 6's obscured most of the word "Saint," and someone had scrawled under that in blue: "God is dead." The woman shuddered, lowering her eyes from the sight and hurrying past, to the barred wooden doors.
She released her shawl long enough to knock rapidly on the wood.
The door creaked open slightly. "In whose name do you come?" came a soft voice from within.
"The name too holy to be spoken in the tainted world," the woman recited.
Password spoken, the door creaked open further; she looked up and nodded hastily to the guard. "Brother Rick," she said by way of greeting.
"Sister Elizabeth," he responded, pushing the door closed. His hoof stamped lightly. "You're late."
"I had to go further this time," she replied, trying not to stare; of all the Children of Eden, Rick was the only centaur who'd refused to be hobbled when he wasn't on guard duty. It had caused quite the stir, but the large man had insisted he was of more use to the congregation if he kept up his strength. Ultimately, Mother Mary had relented, and Elizabeth knew it had more to do with Rick's usefulness as a guard. The man had been large as a human, and intimidating: a former football player for Texas A & M turned personal athletic trainer for the Broncos, Rick was a large black man with a goatee and a somber, no-nonsense expression on his face. On one arm he had a tattoo of a large crucifix; on the other, he'd inscribed "Expect Pain."
Now, the lower half of his body was that of a large draft horse, shining black coat and heavy hooves that made the floorboards vibrate when he walked. And if he wasn't intimidating enough, well... the scars of his self-inflicted mutilation--his proposed alternative to hobbling--certainly did the trick. They crisscrossed his rump and legs, some old and white, others new and pink and angry-looking. The story was Mother Mary took a riding crop to him every morning while he prayed and she chanted holy incantations--though Elizabeth was sure most of the scars were self-inflicted. Mother Mary was a stern woman, but she was nearly seventy-five, and many of the cuts were simply too deep to have been inflicted by her hand.
Elizabeth realized she'd been staring again and looked down quickly. "Forgive me," she murmured, glancing up again when she heard his tail swish.
"You are forgiven," he replied, as per custom. "Now go. She is waiting."
Elizabeth nodded and turned away, hurrying down the aisle between the pews toward the back of the church. A few Congregants were seated on the long, dusty benches, but they paid her no mind, their eyes closed tight and their lips moving in fervent prayer. She tried not to stare at the ones whose changes were more obvious and just barely kept herself from sprinting toward the rectory.
Once there, she knocked three times. "In His Holy Name I entreat entry, Mother Mary," she said, voice only shaking a little.
There was a pause, and the door was pulled open a crack. Elizabeth found herself staring into the perpetually-frowning face of Brother Jacob, Mother Mary's younger brother and chief advisor. "Mother Mary is praying now," he snapped. "Take your findings to the kitchen and get to devotion. You're already late."
He made to close the door, but Elizabeth stepped forward. "I--wait, Brother Jacob, please," she said. "I need to speak to her. It's... It's about the scavenging grounds, sir."
Brother Jacob's frown somehow deepened. "What about them?" he growled.
Elizabeth shifted nervously from foot to foot. "Sir, please... I need to speak to her."
"It's okay, Jacob, let her in," came a voice from within the chamber; Brother Jacob turned, the firelight from within the room reflecting off the bald top of his head.
"But Mary--"
"You'll do as I say, Jacob, that's a good lad. Let her in."
Jacob gave Elizabeth a scowl, but murmured, "As you wish, Mary," and pulled the door open, stepping aside.
Elizabeth entered, trying to swallow her nervousness. She'd only been in the rectory twice: once for her first visit with Mother when she'd been trying to gain entry into the Congregation, two months prior, and once a week later, for her... initiation.
She shuddered at the memory, recalling all too vividly the excruciating pain as they'd taken the consecrated knife to the base of her gossamer wings, chanting prayers while she'd screamed around the gag they'd given her to help with the pain--pain medication was a rare commodity, now.
But she shoved those thoughts aside, turning back to Mother with a start when the sound of the door closing behind her pulled her back from her wandering thoughts.
Mother was sitting in her wheelchair, a blanket draped carefully around the lower half of her body, its best efforts not obscuring the fact that it was not hiding legs. Elizabeth swallowed, lifting her eyes, but finding the older woman's piercing gaze resting on her made her flush. She lowered her eyes again, bringing them to rest instead just below, on the point of the older woman's nose. "Mother. The scavenging grounds are growing sparse," she blurted.
Mother tilted her head, then waved a hand dismissively; from beneath the dressing gown wrapped around her thin frame, Elizabeth caught a glint of scales. "We have known this," she said. She turned from Elizabeth, raising her eyes to the crucifix mounted on the wall. "He will provide," she said, smiling softly, her eyes going gentle.
"No," Elizabeth said, then took a step back when those eyes hardened again and turned on her sharply. "I mean--forgive me, Mother, I only meant we... the Vagrants are encroaching," she said desperately. "They have begun to take what He has provided as ours. I had to go nearly twenty blocks this time." She drew a breath and held it, hoping Mother didn't order her flogged for daring to speak so freely, but she knew she would only be flogged worse, if she did not present her full report now.
But Mother merely nodded slowly. "Yes," she murmured, looking back toward the crucifix. "We are being further tested. Indeed, I had suspected we may be."
There was a very long moment of silence, in which Elizabeth did not dare move, but finally, Mother said, "Very well, child. You are forgiven. Take what you were able to find to the pantry and go. Devotion is already in progress."
"Yes," Elizabeth murmured, looking down; then, hesitant, she said, "I--ma'am, may I go and see my son first? He... he was frightened this morning before I left... the scavenging has gotten more dangerous..."
Mother looked back at her, a frown again on her brow. "You will see him at mealtime," she said. "I hardly think interrupting his lessons would be appropriate. Go to Devotion, Sister Elizabeth."
Elizabeth swallowed her disappointment, but nodded. "Yes, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am. In His Name."
"In His Name," Mother replied, then waved her arm again. "Go, now."
Elizabeth turned, nearly running into Brother Jacob in her hurry to get to the door. She pulled it close behind her, catching the beginning of Jacob's words: "Twenty blocks, Mary--this is getting ridiculous..."
But she did not stay to hear what they said. She had given her report, and her duty was now to take her findings to the kitchen, then return to Devotion.
She hurried along the cold stone corridors, blinking in the gathering darkness; soon the candle lighters would be making their rounds, but for now she was simply careful to watch her step as she traversed the uneven floors, heading down toward the basement.
She had just rounded the corner, however, when a voice from the shadows made her jump. "Momma!"
She spun, eyes wide, and saw her son, Eric, rising to his feet from where he'd been crouched in a small corridor leading back to the bathrooms. He darted forward, the large, auburn-feathered wings on his back making him slightly unsteady on his feet. The Initiation was not performed until the children hit puberty, and Eric was only five; however, the Congregation did strap them down, using strips of leather--reins, belts, even dog collars, in some instances. Eric had cried so much at the uncomfortable confinement that Elizabeth had finally made him a deal: late at night, when the Congregants were asleep, she would untie his wings and let him stretch them freely, leaving them that way until the first knock came to wake them for Morning Devotions and breakfast. In exchange, Eric managed to keep himself from crying at the discomfort, and this ability made his teacher praise him as one of the most well-behaved children in the class.
That wouldn't last, of course, if he was sneaking out. "Eric!" she hissed. "What are you doing?"
Eric's lip curled a little. "I tol' Sister Jessica I had to go to the bathroom. I was scared, Momma," he whimpered. "Sandy said sometimes the Scavengers didn't come back an'..."
"Shh," Elizabeth whispered back, pulling him into her arms and stroking his hair. "Sandy doesn't know. I'm here--I won't ever go away for good, okay?"
Eric sniffed and nodded, reaching up with one chubby hand to wipe at his tears.
"Hey," Elizabeth said softly. "I have something for you." She reached into the pocket of her skirts and pulled out half a candy bar she'd found lying in the broken store window. She showed it to him. "Tonight, after Evening Devotions, we'll have ourselves a real treat," she said, smiling. "Okay?"
Eric's eyes were wide. "But you're s'posed to turn it in," he said. "Everything from the hunting..."
"Well, we just won't tell anyone I found it, will we?" she said, giving him a solemn wink as she slipped the candy back into her pocket. "It will be our secret."
"Like Free Bird?"
Elizabeth smiled softly at the code name they'd given his nightly wing release. "Exactly," she agreed. "Now you need to go back to class before your teacher gets angry."
"'Kay," he said, scrubbing at his cheeks again. Elizabeth gave him a kiss, scruffing his red curls before pushing him along toward the classroom.
"Bye, Angel," she whispered.
"Bye Momma!"
She sighed, watching him scamper awkwardly down the corridor. It wasn't fair he had to keep his wings tied up that way--wasn't fair that the children should have to suffer for whatever Sins Mother Mary had concocted in that overstuffed fishbrain of hers. Elizabeth had always been a good Catholic, attending Mass on Sundays and Wednesdays and going to confession at least once a week, but this... this sham of a religion was like nothing she'd ever learned while studying the Catechism.
But... well, Mother Mary and her Children of Eden at least represented safety. She sighed again, shaking herself and heading toward the kitchen to deposit the meager spoils of her all-day hunt in the pantry. Eric wasn't terribly happy here either, but at least he had friends his own age, and food to eat, and a safe place to sleep at night. It was more than she could have provided for him alone; when his father hadn't survived the Change, and their home had been caught up in the fires that swept the city, there had been nowhere else to turn.
For now, the Children of Eden, and their crazy leader, were the best chance of survival Elizabeth and Eric had. She knew they'd leave, eventually--there was no way she'd let them cut off her son's wings--but for now, they would keep doing what they were doing: hunkering down, keeping their heads low, and praying that something would happen to set the world back in order.
The thought made her twist her lips wryly as she walked down the cold staircase toward the cellar.
At the rate things were going, they'd need nothing short of a miracle.
* * *
Chapter 1
At first, JD wasn't sure what woke him. The bedroom was still dark, and a glance at the clock told him it was only a little after two in the morning. Jack was still sleeping peacefully in his crib, and the steady rise and fall of Perry's chest beneath him told him his lover slept as well.
But something had awoken him; he had an odd, unsettled feeling. It felt almost like...
Like he was being watched. He turned to the window and jumped, barely biting back a startled yelp, wings snapping out and flapping once before he'd calmed himself.
"Aleiah," he hissed. "I told you not to do that! Come in the front door!" And wait until dawn, he added grumpily in his head, but he'd long-since learned that was a battle with no chance for victory.
The Fae child's face grew sheepish. "Sorry!" she mouthed through the glass, and flitted away; moments later, JD heard the garage door open, and the soft patter of footsteps in the kitchen.
JD groaned, pushing himself up and away. "Perry," he murmured, shaking the larger man's shoulder gently. "Perry, wake up."
Perry's brows drew together, but he didn't open his eyes. He grunted. "S'too early, JD," he muttered, rolling away and unfurling one leathery wing to wrap around his body in a protective cocoon.
JD rolled his eyes, and poked Perry's exposed back. "Aleiah's here," he said.
Perry lowered his wing and glanced back at him. "Again?"
JD nodded. "She's in the kitchen. I told her to wait for us there."
Perry lifted an eyebrow. "She did the window thing again, didn't she?"
"Yeah. Scared the living piss out of me."
"That explains why the bed is damp," Perry returned, and JD smacked him on the hip.
"You know very well why the bed is damp, so don't give me that," he retorted. "And you weren't terribly keen on changing the sheets afterward either, so suck it up. Now come on. You remember what happened last time we left her alone for too long in the kitchen."
Perry winced and nodded, pushing the blankets aside and sitting up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. "Fair enough," he murmured. He grabbed his discarded boxers and tugged them on, then looked through the pile of clothing on the floor for a clean pair of sweatpants.
"Here," JD said, tossing him some from across the bed. He'd already donned his own, though he'd skipped the boxers. With any luck, whatever Aleiah wanted could be dealt with quickly, and he and Perry could get back to bed.
Perry caught them and pulled them on quickly, rubbing his eyes. "She's a smart kid, but I have yet to make her understand the concept of waiting until after dawn," he said with a yawn. "If she's here to talk to us about tubers again I'm going to hurt someone."
JD chuckled. "You an' me both," he agreed, taking Perry by the hand and tugging him forward. "Come on."
Perry obeyed, letting JD lead him down the stairs.
JD didn't bother to hide a yawn as he headed for the coffee maker, sighing at their dwindling supply as he got it started. Have to get used to getting up without the caffeine burst, soon enough...God knew where they'd get more now. They'd been lucky with supplies, at first, and the Fae had been more than generous in both providing them with food and teaching them how to provide more for themselves as much as they could--the Fae were strictly vegetarian. But Sean, of all people, turned out to be a skilled hunter, so that'd solved their meat problems. Still...there were some things they just couldn't provide for themselves, and coffee beans were one of them.
Aleiah observed the ritual as she always did, looking fascinated, though JD knew she wouldn't ask to taste it. Not again.
Grinning at the memory of the time she had, he nodded to her. "What's up?"
She squirmed, beaming at him, swinging her legs in the air where she sat on the barstool. "Father says it is time," she said, and her musical voice sent a vibrating chord of excitement through the air. "The Clan is preparing."
"It's time?" This was definitely too much to deal with before coffee. JD wiped the sleep out of the corners of his eyes and shook his head. "Already? I mean..." Well. It was September, they'd had months to prepare, but still. He didn't feel ready. He shot a look at Perry, but the older man was nodding slowly. JD sighed and ran a hand back through his hair. "Okay. How much time do we have to get ready?"
"They are going to leave tomorrow," she said. "At dawn."
Perry frowned, glancing at JD. "That soon?" he murmured. "I... that doesn't give us much time to prepare, Aleiah..."
"Father says you need not bring much," she replied. "You will not need to pack food--we will provide that for you. And you have many useless things." This she said quietly, as though it were an embarrassing secret and she didn't want to make them feel bad. "You will, of course, not need those."
Perry rolled his eyes, knowing that to the Fae, "useless things" included everything from cell phones to silverware. "We'll decide which things we need, I think," he told her. "Some of them may seem useless to you, but we may need them."
Aleiah frowned doubtfully. "Like what?"
"Like warm clothing," Perry replied. "We get cold in winter, remember?"
She wrinkled her nose. "Oh yes. That is so silly of you...It is too bad you could not learn to control your temperatures as we can..."
JD shook his head, pouring coffee and making Perry's--sugar, no cream--automatically, handing him the mug before making his own. They hadn't mastered that, no, but...he sipped his coffee, thinking of all the things the Song had changed. He'd asked Elliot, out of curiosity, what she'd been doing for birth control--being the only one of them who really had to worry, he doubted Carla and Turk were cross-fertile now, and he and Perry wouldn't have been anyway. She'd given him a look, and said she'd told her body not to ovulate, so it stopped.
He'd decided to keep his questions to himself, after that. Or at least, to himself, Perry, and the Fae. They couldn't understand the human hesitance around so natural an act as mating, anyway. And didn't understand why they took only one mate...
Perry cleared his throat, saying something else, and JD realized he'd been letting himself drift away. He took another sip of coffee and pulled his attention back to the conversation.
"...something to be said for simply enjoying some of those things," he was telling Aleiah. "Even if we could control our temperatures and I didn't need my flannel boxers or my fleece sweatshirt, I still like wearing them. Besides, the rest of humanity would be a little put-out if we showed up naked."
"I could live with you going around naked all the time," JD murmured in an undertone, before giving him an innocent grin. "It's a Human Thing, Aleiah." How many times had he said that since he met her? Too many. "We have to wear clothes, and they have to be appropriate for the season."
"Oh." She wrinkled her nose. "Humans are hard to understand," she sighed. "I fear I will never know why you do the things you do."
"Well, don't take it too hard, kid," Perry said. "We don't always understand everything we do."
Aleiah sighed, but nodded. "So you have said," she replied. "But I still wish I could learn more quickly."
"You're learning us much faster than we're learning you," JD pointed out, rousing himself enough to find the candied apricots he knew she liked, and offered them to her, putting water on for tea. "So we'll need to be ready by tomorrow night. There'll be room for Jack in the creche?" He tried to ignore the way his voice went a little funny with the words. But he wasn't looking forward to leaving his new-found son behind, even if it was safer for him.
"Of course," Aleiah said, puffing her chest out proudly. "I am to look after him, you know."
"And we know you'll do a good job," Perry assured her, casting JD a sympathetic glance. "We'll just miss him, that's all."
"Right," JD assured her. He swallowed, avoiding Perry's eyes, knowing he might not be able to hold it together. They'd moved Jack's crib back into their room when they'd learned more about the task the Fae had outlined for them, wanting to spend as much time with the child as possible before they were forced to leave him behind. But it was still hard. He glanced toward the stairs involuntarily, wanting to check on the child but knowing Jack would be less grumpy if they let him sleep uninterrupted.
Besides, he didn't want to be rude to Aleiah. Even if he knew the Fae child wouldn't take it amiss if he left. Fae had different ideas about politeness than the humans did--Like waking us up at two in the morning, he thought wryly. He finished his coffee and rinsed the mug, making the oddly scented tea the Fae preferred and giving it to Aleiah. She seemed in no hurry to leave, but then...she never was. And if there was more to her message, she'd get around to it.
But he didn't bother to hide a yawn, when it overtook him. "When will we be leaving? And where are we going?"
"I told you, tomorrow, when the sun rises. And you will go to the West, back to your home."
"We're going home?" Why did that surprise him?
Aleiah nodded, swinging her feet lightly. "You will meet with others there," she said. "And gather them, for a time, before you are sent on your true task."
Perry looked up at JD, reading the look on his lover's face and deciding that, rude or not, they needed some time alone. "Aleiah?"
She looked at him. "Yes?"
"Would you mind giving us some time alone, please?" Perry said, knowing if he phrased it any more subtly the child wouldn't understand him. The Fae were nothing if not blunt.
Fortunately, they did not easily take offense, either. "Of course!" she said with a smile, hopping off the barstool. She took one more sip of her tea, then handed the mug to JD. "Thank you," she said. "Mother and I will return tomorrow to say goodbye and take the youngling."
JD turned, setting her half-full mug on the counter. "I--yes, thank you," he said. "Goodbye, Aleiah."
She smiled at him, wings flitting out once more, and went to the garage door, pulling it open. "Goodbye!" she called over her shoulder, then darted across the garage before springing into the air, vanishing in moments.
JD reached out with his foot and nudged the garage door shut, then wandered to the barstool the Fae child had abandoned, slumping down into it. "Well. That's that, I guess," he said quietly.
"Yeah," Perry replied, and for a long moment they were silent. Then, Perry reached across the bar and took JD's hand, giving it a concerned squeeze. "You okay?"
"I'm not not okay, but...I'm not completely there, either." JD offered him a wry smile. "We knew it wouldn't last forever...and I suppose I actually am ready to get out there, to start helping. I just don't want to...I wanted more time. Like until Jack was twenty or so." He squeezed Perry's hand again and let go, resting his head in his hands. "Everyone will be okay, and he'll be safer than the rest of us...And we have to help everyone else. But..."
"I know," Perry murmured. "Believe me, I know." He wondered how Jordan must feel, completely cut off from her son. He and JD had taken him to the coast, in August, flying high and taking turns carrying him when he got tired; they'd managed to track her down using JD's projection, and while she'd laughed at the sight of Perry's wings, she'd nearly wept with joy to see Jack again. "Hey, look at it this way: at least they're letting us all stay together." Not like they could stop us if they wanted to, he added mentally, but at least it's a battle we don't have to fight.
JD snorted. "Like they could've kept us apart. Besides, we work better as a unit. Especially you and me."
Perry smiled as JD voiced his thoughts. "Have since day one," he agreed. Then, "Do you want to go back to sleep for awhile? It's still pretty early."
"Bed, yes. We don't have to sleep right away..." But though the words were flirtatious, JD's tone wasn't. He slid off the stool and turned the coffee maker off, hugging Perry close for a long moment before releasing him to go up the stairs again. "We'll need to be up in a bit, anyway, to let the others know, so we can all start packing our useless things."
Perry chuckled. "She's not exactly subtle, is she?" he said with a grin, allowing JD to lead him back toward their bedroom. "But it does make it easier to tell her to take a hike when we need."
They walked into the room, voices lowering so as not to wake Jack.
"Subtlety doesn't seem to be in their makeup..." JD yawned, shucking his sweatpants again, easing his wings a bit since he couldn't stretch them out inside. He crawled into bed next to Perry, glad the other man's wings could fold so small...they hadn't had to change how they usually slept. He waited for Perry to settle himself, before laying his head on the older man's shoulder, relaxing half on his chest, one wing covering them both. "She means well, though."
"They all do," Perry agreed. "And clueless or not, she's certainly more...approachable than some of her clansmen."
JD chuckled. "Yeah," he said softly. He shivered slightly, snuggling closer, closing his eyes with a sigh as Perry's arms pulled him in more securely.
But despite the early hour, he could not seem to calm himself enough to sleep again. Whether it was the caffeine or simply the shock of Aleiah's news, his mind was racing too quickly to let him slip back into the respite of slumber. "Perry?" he said softly.
"Yeah?" He felt as much as heard the reply, and smiled softly, stroking Perry's bare chest with his fingertips.
"Never mind," JD murmured, laying his hand flat again. "We can talk when we wake up again..." Perry was here beside him, stronger than he'd been before the Change, and perfectly healthy. Nothing was going to happen to him he couldn't take care of...
Even so, it was a long time before either of them found sleep again.
* * *
JD woke up to hear Jack babbling to himself, and sighed, slipping gently from Perry's arms to go pick the boy up. "Hey, little bug," he murmured. "Time to get you changed and fed, isn't it?" He changed Jack's diaper, and carried him downstairs, trying not to think about the fact that the next day would be the last time he'd do this for a while.
He teased Jack instead, cleaned him up when he was finished eating--as always there was more food on the boy than in him--and finally settled down with him in front of the empty fireplace, playing for a bit, trying to savor the time with him. It wasn't that JD didn't trust the Fae, he did, explicitly. But they weren't human, and knowing his son would be left with them for who knew how long... "You'll still be my bug," he murmured to himself, and Jack looked up, flipping his wings out and giggling.
JD smiled sadly, startling a little when he heard hoofsteps behind him. He looked up, as Elliot came in from the den. They'd converted it to a bedroom for the centaurs, so she and Sean wouldn't have to wait for the living room to clear to go to bed. "Hey..." he offered her a smile. "Good morning."
"Mornin', JD. You're up early." She made her way into the kitchen, and he still couldn't help watching her.
"Was up at two," JD offered. "Aleiah dropped by. We've got our marching orders."
She turned her head, hair grown long over the summer months flipping out of her face. "When?" she said quietly.
JD drew a breath. "Tomorrow," he admitted, leaning forward to rub his eyes. "First thing in the morning, apparently."
Elliot made a small, frustrated noise in her throat. "Not much for advanced warning, are they?" she muttered, opening the coffee tin and grimacing. "Though maybe that's a good thing, since it doesn't look like our coffee stock is going to hold much longer than that anyway."
JD chuckled ruefully. "Yeah," he agreed. "That'll be one thing I'll really be glad for, when agriculture starts up again. Coffee beans."
"Amen." She scooped up a few tablespoons of the grounds and dumped them into the machine. "So. Which way are we heading?"
JD bit his lip. "Home," he said softly, and his voice rose a little poignantly on the word. It felt so strange to say--this was home to him now.
"Home?" Elliot repeated, and she drew her arms around her middle, brow furrowing. "What are...I mean...why...?"
"Aleiah didn't say, actually." JD leaned over and scooped Jack away from the fireplace, getting him toddling in the other direction. "But I suppose we can reach more people, that way, if we're working from somewhere familiar. It's strange...I thought I'd be happier about it." He sighed. "Though that could be because we're leaving Jack with the Fae."
Elliot gasped, eyes widening. "Oh, JD..."
"Yeah...it sucks, but he wouldn't be safe with us. We're not going to be safe, we can't take a baby into that just because we don't want to be away from him..." He shook his head. "It's going to be strange, going back. Everything's changed..."
"Pun intended?" Turk asked, coming down the stairs. "Dude, I hear you say we're leaving?"
"Tomorrow, yeah. We've got today to shut the cabin down and to pack."
"Fan-damn-tastic," Turk muttered, walking into the kitchen and glancing at the coffee pot's timer.
"Yeah," JD replied, accepting the ball that Jack handed him and tossing it up into the air, catching it with a quick flick of his wrist and making Jack giggle.
"Perfect," Turk muttered. "Rioting masses, here we come."
"I think things will have calmed down by now, since everyone's changed," Carla pointed out, heading down the stairs after him. "That's why we waited so long to go back, remember?"
"I don't know what they expect us to do, exactly," Turk muttered, snagging the coffee pot as soon as the timer beeped and making a face at Elliot when she huffed indignantly. "I mean, why are people going to listen to us?"
"Because we can heal them through song?" JD shrugged. "I don't know, but the Fae seem to think they will. And they haven't been wrong yet, even if they're not always terribly tactful in telling us things...Suppose that's why we're going. They need the human touch."
Elliot finally snagged the coffee pot back, pouring two mugs. Sean accepted one as he came in, and Elliot brought him up to speed on what was going on.
JD looked at them, milling around the kitchen, getting food and somehow staying out of each other's way, even with sixteen feet total to worry about...He shook his head slightly. If nothing else, they certainly weren't helpless, even if they were being sent into danger. "We know the Fae are establishing outposts, we've just got to get people healthy and convince them to go to them..."
"Because we all know how easy it is to get frightened people do listen to what we tell them," Perry said sarcastically, finally wandering down the stairs to join them. Carla met him at the foot of the stairs and handed him a plate of scrambled eggs with a few slices of toast.
"Oh, quit your whining," she said, swatting him on the arm. "At least it's what we're trained for, right?"
JD hid a smile, once again redirecting Jack's toddling to keep him from the fireplace. Like a moth... he thought, then giggled to himself. Carla had been the most eager learner of the Fae's healing techniques, and of them, she consistently had the best attitude about the task the strange creatures had set before them. JD knew it had a lot to do with finally being able to fulfill her dream of being a doctor--or at least, the current equivalent of one.
Perry grumbled something, and glanced over at JD. "You two eaten yet?"
"He has, I haven't," JD replied, and Perry moved forward long enough to turn over the plate Carla'd given him to JD before heading into the kitchen to fix his own.
"All right, everyone with hooves, stand still until I'm out of the kitchen," he ordered, making Sean smirk and Elliot roll her eyes. Carla and Turk had already left the kitchen, and settled themselves near JD, making a living barrier between Jack and the fireplace.
"Thanks," JD murmured, digging into his food now that he didn't have to watch the child every moment.
"No problem. So I take it he knows?" Turk nodded at Perry, who was spooning eggs onto his plate and talking to Elliot in undertones.
JD nodded, watching his lover with a small smile on his face. "Aleiah woke both of us at about two in the morning," he replied. "She told us then."
"Girl still doesn't get the whole human sleep cycle bit, does she?" Turk muttered, and Carla elbowed him.
"You're one to complain--she didn't wake you up."
"Still," Turk defended. "When my feathered friend over there suffers, I suffer with him."
JD laughed, then settled back to listen quietly as the easy banter continued. Sean and Elliot clopped over to join them, and Perry settled in beside JD, completing their usual circle--a living playpen for Jack. He tried not to think about how much he would miss this, the comfortable safety, the companionship. How much he would miss them.
"Hey," Perry said softly, while Elliot and Sean argued about whether or not they needed to bring the curry combs. "You okay?"
JD sighed, leaning his head against Perry's shoulder, one wing curling around the older man automatically. "Yeah, I guess," he murmured, pushing around the cooling remains of his eggs with his fork. "I'm just going to miss this, you know? I know we knew it wasn't going to last, but... a big part of me really wishes it could have."
Perry simply nodded, slipping his own arm around JD's waist and watching him toy with the remains of his breakfast. After a few moments, he said, "You're going to give Jack bad habits, you know, if he sees you playing with your food all the time."
JD snorted. "Guess we won't have to worry about that," he said ruefully, though he set aside his plate all the same. "Not like he'll be seeing much of me after the next day or so."
He was aware his voice was getting a little louder in his distress, and that Elliot had paused in her argument for the combs to glance at him, concerned. Perry nodded at her, then turned to JD. "Hey, come on, kid," he murmured, drawing his arm away and rising to his feet, dislodging JD's wing in the process. "Let's take a walk."
JD sullenly allowed Perry to pull him to his feet, and they stepped out of the circle of warm bodies and headed toward the sliding door. "Back in a bit, gang," Perry called over his shoulder. "Watch the bug for us."
Carla gave them a thumbs up, and Perry tugged JD through the door after him, pushing it shut, then linked his arm through JD's.
"You mean we're actually walking?" JD said incredulously. His wings twitched wistfully. "I thought by walk you meant fly."
"No, I meant walk, because I want you to talk to me, and when we fly it's usually too loud for that," Perry replied. "I'd rather not have to shout."
JD sighed, tempted to shove his hands into his pockets, but allowing Perry to lace their fingers together instead. They started up the now-familiar path through the woods (Alieah had marked it for them with her Song, and told them they would be safe--JD didn't know exactly what she'd done, but nothing had ever tried bothering them when they stayed on the trail). For a time they were silent, and JD was just about to snap irritably that if Perry wanted to talk, he should try opening his mouth and doing it, when the older man finally did.
"All right," Perry said softly. "Why don't you tell me what's bothering you?"
JD frowned, momentarily speechless. "What's bothering me?" he finally said. "You even have to ask?"
"Yeah, I do," Perry said. "Circumstances notwithstanding, you've been acting a little tense lately, and I know you. There's more to this than the obvious. So spill. What's up?"
JD scowled. "I don't know how you're so calm about this," he said. "Leaving Jack behind."
Perry glanced at him, face carefully neutral. "You think I'm calm?"
"You sure as hell act calm," JD replied.
Perry nodded, slowly. "Yeah, I do," he replied. "For your sake, and for his. I don't want to leave him behind any more than you do, JD, but the fact is, he'll be safe with the Fae, and he won't be safe if he comes with us, and as a father, I've accepted that what's best for my son always takes priority over what I want."
JD stopped, tugging his hand out of Perry's. "You think I don't want what's best for him?" he whispered, eyes wide. "You think I wouldn't tear my own heart out if I thought that was what was best for him? He's my son too, damn it!"
Perry turned to face him, sticking his hands into his pockets. "I never said he wasn't, JD," he pointed out mildly. "You're the one who feels the need to constantly remind everyone."
"I...!" JD took another step back, then spun, furious, and started down the path again. He heard Perry follow him, but he didn't slow down.
"JD!" Perry called, when it became obvious that JD wasn't going to stop on his own. "Newbie, will you get back here already?"
"He is your son, Perry!" JD spat suddenly, spinning around so abruptly that Perry almost ran into him. "He really, truly is. What claim do I have to him?" he jabbed his finger to his chest. "Because the fact that you and I are fucking doesn't make him mine, and you know it. It's not fair, okay? There, you happy?"
Perry stepped forward and took JD's shoulders in his hands. "No, I'm not," he said, voice low and intense. "I'm not, because if that's all you think we're doing, then you're right, he's not your son. But that's not all we're doing, JD. You know it as well as I do. So no, maybe biologically he's not yours, but that doesn't make you any less his father. Why are you doubting that, after all this time?"
"I..." JD's eyes suddenly filled with tears, and he let his head fall to Perry's chest, slumping so quickly that Perry wrapped his arms around him, afraid he was going to fall. "My dad left," he murmured against Perry's chest. "My dad left us, and I... Perry, I swore that when I became a father, I'd never, ever do that..."
Perry closed his eyes, drawing JD close, relieved they'd finally gotten to the heart of it. He rocked the younger man gently, feeling JD's arms wind about his waist as he sobbed into Perry's shoulder.
"You're not leaving him, JD," he murmured. "Not like your dad did. You're doing this for his sake. I mean, come on--would you rather we brought him with us, into who knows what kind of dangers?"
"No!" JD's reply, though muffled, was still vehement. He pressed a little closer, sniffling. "I'd... I'd rather just... I'd rather this whole thing hadn't happened in the first place, and we could just stay with him and be a normal family..." But that wasn't quite right either, was it? If this Change hadn't happened, he wouldn't have become a part of Perry's family in the first place. He'd still be Newbie or Sarah or Elizabeth, and Perry would still be Dr. Cox, and Jordan would be his family and Jack would just be the kid JD babysat on occasion. "Okay, no, I don't," he sighed after a pause. "But I... I do wish it was over already."
Perry nodded, pulling away. "Yeah," he said softly. "I do too, but there's nothing we can do about it. The Fae know what they're about, JD, and they wouldn't send us out there if there was no hope of coming back. Hey." He tilted his head, bringing his finger up under JD's jaw and forcing the younger man to look at him. "We'll get through this," he said. "We'll come back to him, and we'll be a family. I promise, okay?"
JD wiped at his eyes and nodded, giving Perry a watery smile. "I... yeah," he said. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to freak out on you, it's just..."
"It's hard," Perry said. "I know. Trust me, kid, I know." He smiled, then. "Hey. Race you back to the house?" With a snap of leathery hide, Perry extended his wings, and raised his eyebrows in challenge.
JD's spread his wings in response. "You're on, Batman," he said with a smirk. "Prepare to eat my feathers."
"You gotta catch me first, Robin," Perry shot back, and sprang into the air, JD close at his heels.
* * *
They got back to the house, to find the others deep in planning. JD took Jack off to himself for a bit, and returned seeming much calmer, after. He didn't tell anyone else what he'd said to the boy, but it seemed to have gotten rid of the rest of his outward worry.
The rest of the day passed in something of a haze. JD found himself up to the elbows in one of Ben's old boxes, that afternoon, sneezing as his wings raised more dust when he shifted them. "Fucking..."
"You okay out there?" Perry's head appeared in the garage door from the kitchen, where he'd been helping Carla and Elliot pack the food into the hiking backpacks he'd brought.
"Fine! Feather dusters are working too well..." JD shook his head, pulling a wing out the way to look over his shoulder, the gesture automatic now. "There's some heavy weather gear in here."
"Excellent--I'll be out to help you in just a minute, okay?"
JD just waved him off, turning his attention back to the boxes. There were parkas--fur-lined, he noted, and smirked a little, thinking that the Sullivans' tendency to never spare expenses of any sort was certainly coming in handy--heavy-duty insulated gloves, head wraps, and ski masks. He noted the last with a chuckle; if it got terribly cold, masks might come in handy, particularly if they were doing a lot of long-distance flying.
Perry appeared a few minutes later, after JD had pulled out the gear and set it into piles around him. "Okay," he said, shutting the garage door behind him as he approached. "We've almost got all the food packed up. Well, everything we can carry, anyway," he added. "Elliot and Sean are going to end up with most of it, because they'll be able to carry it."
"Makes sense, I guess," JD said, frowning over the pile in front of him. "Most of this isn't going to fit anyone but you, and maybe Sean, but at least it'll be too big on the rest of us, not too small..." He looked up, when he realized Perry was chuckling at him. "What?"
"How long is it going to take you to remember you're not a scrawny kid anymore?" the older doctor asked, grinning as he crouched next to JD and examined his findings. "This will come a lot closer to fitting you than you think. In fact, I imagine it'll fit pretty nicely."
JD blushed. "Oh yeah...All right, then. It'll fit you and Sean and me, and almost Turk...the girls will have to live with oversized things. I'll haul it inside and sort it out. They've got the food, you've got the rest of our gear in the backpacks...Is there anything else?" One day hadn't seemed nearly long enough when Aleiah broke the news to them, but as far as JD could tell, they were close to done.
Perry thought. "No," he said after a moment. "I've already gotten the cabin mostly shut down. I'll have to turn off the generator, but I'll do that in the morning before we go." He looked at JD and shrugged. "I guess we could take one last trip to the field, if everyone wanted to," he added. He didn't say what he was thinking--that it would be a good way to say goodbye--but he could see from the look on JD's face that the younger man was all too aware of the fact that in less than a day, they'd be leaving behind the place that had been home for months.
"Yeah," the younger man said softly, folding his arms across his stomach and looking at the gear he'd unpacked. "I guess that'd... that'd be a nice... a nice memory to have."
Perry moved forward, slipping his arm around JD's shoulders. "Hey," he murmured. "You okay?"
JD leaned into his embrace, one wing automatically going around the other man. "I...I guess so. Yeah, I am. I just...we're all going to leave, and I know we'll be together, but I don't know what'll happen, and...and I'm scared. Of losing more family."
Perry sighed. He knew he could offer platitudes--promises that everyone would be all right, that it would all turn out fine--but they'd be empty promises, and JD would know it. "I know how you feel," he replied softly.
JD looked up and smiled softly. "I know you do. And that helps, a lot."
Perry squeezed JD's shoulders, and for a moment they stood in silence. Then Perry released him. "Hey, come on," he said quietly. "Let's go see if the others are ready for some lunch. I don't know about you, but I'm starved."
"I'm not really hungry, but...okay," JD replied softly.
Perry sighed again, wishing he could draw JD from the funk he'd slipped into, but knowing there was really nothing he could do. The Fae had made it quite clear they'd been called to do this, and in truth, they'd all felt it, too.
It didn't make it easier, though.
He reached out and took JD's hand in his, squeezing gently. "Come on," he murmured, turning and leading JD into the kitchen.
JD followed, hand still held in Perry's, eyes flitting up to the broad line of his lover's shoulders, the now familiar-curve of his tightly-folded wings. If nothing else, he still had his Perry--and that was definitely something. It was everything, in fact. The memory of the horrible month without him was still too fresh to allow JD to forget just how lucky they were to be together.
I never will, he promised himself fervently. Never. And as long as there's anything I can do to prevent it, I'm never going to let him go.
And as he watched his lover talking to the others, joking with Carla as they decided what to have for lunch and begin to lay it out on the counter, he let that promise settle into his heart, growing into a firm vow that he knew he would keep, or die trying.
* * *
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As a mother, you broke my heart twice in this excerpt. First with the idea that people would mutilate not only themselves but their children. Such powerful images that mirror all they ways we less obviously surpress our children. I hope for Elizabeth that Eric will be her strength and help her find a way out the Children of Eden.
And then JD and Perry needing to leave Jack behind for his own protection. Even without JD's issues with his own father, leaving a child so young and not being able to explain what is happening is so heartbreaking. Adding to that their own uncertainity of what will happen not knowing when or if they will be able to come back. I feel for all of them.
There is just so much here and I already feel so attached to this story I hope it is continued.
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This time I have kitties to help me with the waiting game. Though they are busy stuffing pipe-cleaners under the carpet at the moment, I am sure that they will be my patient waiting buddies. ^_^
YAY CoE!
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Definatly continue or I may just go insane!!
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(Anonymous) 2008-01-04 02:54 am (UTC)(link)no subject
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I keep envisioning Kelso as a satyr and his and Perry's first meeting...
Perry Cox just stands with arms crossed and a big shit eating grin on his face.
Kelso (thinking): God help me I knew he'd love this too much.
Kelso (talking): Is there something you want Dr. Cox?
Perry still grining: Yes Beezelbob just a quick question. Where's your pitchfork? (laughs)
Kelso, frowning deeply: Jack ass
Wait that has cursing. Well the story has cursing too so my comment should be ok. If not feel free to delete guys.
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whooohooo! sequel yeah!
i love it. you knew i would, but hey. u deserve to hear it again :D
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I finished reading Changeling, like a month ago.
AND I'M JUST FINDING THIS NOW?!?!
*tries to breathe*
I loved this! I can't believe that Perry and JD have to leave Jack behind! I really hope that you both continue this... it's just cruel to leave this hanging ;]
xx
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