Extra: the past haunts the future
For those who celebrate, Merry Christmas! For those celebrating, Happy Hanukkah! For everyone else, happy Wednesday. :)
We’re taking a short break from the main storyline today to show a little something off to the side. Pawel’s been worried (of course!) about Conor. Have you been curious? Let’s have a little outside viewpoint about Conor. (And a little bit about Pawel, too).
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the past haunts the future
Colt/Leo (with all their kids), 2,923 words
Colt doesn’t mean to be late getting home; it just happens. He picks up Jennie from pre-K, then collects Emma from her after school program. Jennie needs cupcakes for some reason he doesn’t fully understand, and Emma asks if she can bring in brownies to cheer up the new kid in her class, and next thing he knows he’s standing in the grocery store with a full cart and two hungry children while he tries to wrangle dinner arrangements over the phone with Nevaeh.
“We aren’t burning anything down,” Nevaeh says. There’s a clatter in the background, the rustling of the phone moving before she yells, “Matt cut that out! I swear to God, I’m going to—I have to go because Matt’s climbing in the pantry. He’s a rat. I think he’s trying to hide from Duke and I don’t even know, but I promise, we’ll have spaghetti ready to go on the table when you get home. How’s Emma?”
It all spills out in a rush and a single breath, and it’s a good thing that Colt’s used to how their eldest teen foster speaks when she’s distracted. There’s a soft whoosh and a thump and a yell in the background.
Jennie blinks up at him from where she sits in the cart, a box of cupcakes halfway to open in her lap. Her fawn brown eyes go wide and innocent and she carefully sets the box down again.
Colt pinches the bridge of his nose. “I’ll see you when we get home. Shouldn’t be too long. I’d bring dessert but I’m not sure anyone there needs sugar and apparently everyone’s taking sweets to school tomorrow anyway.”
Nevaeh doesn’t respond, simply disappears with a click as the call ends.
Emma tugs at Colt’s sleeve. By the time he looks at her, she has her hands behind her back as if she never touched him. “His daddy disappeared, too,” she says quietly. “We have to get the right brownies. We can get enough for the whole class, but Conor’s most important.”
“What kind does he like best?” Colt doesn’t remember a Conor, but Emma says the kid’s new, and it sounds like he’s having a rough time.
Not only that, it sounds like he’s having the kind of rough time that Emma more than understands. Colt motions and they weave through the bakery until they stand in front of a display of multi-packs of cookies and brownies. Emma steps forward and surveys them all thoughtfully, her lips pursed and brow furrowed. She finally reaches out and taps a box with one dark finger. “These?” she asks hopefully.
Colt picks up the box she picked—dark chocolate with a toasted coconut and caramel topping—along with a box of plain brownies. “We’ll get two, in case he doesn’t like coconut.”
Emma scoffs. “Everyone important likes coconut.”
Colt doesn’t doubt that they do when its drowned in caramel like a certain addictive cookie, just like these brownies happen to be, but he’s seen enough picky kids to know they should bring options. “Just in case,” he says, as both boxes go in the cart.
Jennie has a cupcake out of the box and chocolate frosting smeared on her hands. Nothing else seems damaged, so Colt lets it go. There are bigger fights that could be had than this one right now.
He’s not sure how a run to collect food for school turned into a week’s worth of shopping, but their kids go through a lot of food, and if he’s at the store he might as well pick up a few things.
Several grocery bags worth of “few” that is.
Emma helps him put the bags in his SUV, while Jennie scrambles into the back seat and her booster, leaving chocolate fingerprints everywhere along the way. His phone rings while he’s getting both girls buckled into their respective booster seats, singing out with the tone he set for Leo. Colt lets it go until everything’s set with the girls and he’s gotten the car started, by which point the ringing has long since stopped. He speaks clearly: “Call Leo.”
It’s picked up on the first ring.
“You’re on speaker,” Colt says, before Leo even answers, because there are things that shouldn’t be said in front of a car full of kids. “I had to stop off to pick up a few things, so we’re just leaving the store now.”
“What kinds of things?” There’s rustling in the background, which means that Leo’s still at his desk. The rustling stops, and Leo’s voice is clearer. “I’m walking out the door now. I am well aware that I should’ve been home—”
“You texted and said you needed me to pick up the girls, that wasn’t a problem.” Colt waves it away as he pulls out of the parking lot and heads for home. “It’s not the first time one of us has covered for the other and it won’t be the last. Nevaeh had dinner well in hand, I think. Matt and Duke were… something chaotic, I’m not sure. I wasn’t clear on it from what Nevaeh said. Anyway, I needed to pick up cupcakes for Jennie’s pre-K and Emma wanted to bring in brownies for the new kid in her class.”
“Conor!” Emma yells out. “His daddy disappeared, too!”
A soft hiss of breath, almost inaudible.
“Leo?” Colt says softly.
“Conor Szczek’s in your class?” Leo asks.
The bottom drops out of Colt’s gut.
“That’s Conor. He just started. He’s staying with his Dziadziu until his dad comes back. He’s just temporary too, like me.” Emma stares at the rearview mirror, and Colt meets her eyes, not rejecting her words.
Emma hopes her parents will appear as abruptly as they disappeared. And if they do, well, that’s great for Emma and Colt would be happy for her. But they’d miss her, too. She’s already one of their kids, even if it’s only been a couple of months.
“So anyway.” Colt fights to keep his tone even. He knows Leo can hear the beat of his heart over the line, the way it tripped over Conor’s surname and how it still feels like its rushing now. “Cupcakes and brownies turned into a not-so-quick trip to resupply everything the kids have run out of. We’re on our way home now. You’re heading out already?”
The question there is really are you going to come home and explain this to me and he’s positive that Leo understands that.
“I had to cover Cap’s shift,” Leo says carefully. “I need to swing by his place to drop off some paperwork. Shouldn’t take long. Make sure the boys leave some food for me, okay?”
“Matt and Duke are both pretty gross, but you old people still eat more,” Emma says and Jennie giggles brightly. Colt can see Emma’s pleased smile in the mirror as she offers a hand for a high five, and Jennie smacks it.
Colt chooses to ignore the rudeness since, for the moment, the girls are bonding.
“I’ll see you at home then.” Colt touches the phone to end the call, and drives the rest of the way in silence.
Given what information he has already, he has a feeling that whatever story Leo has to add to it isn’t going to make him feel any better.
#
Dinner is chaos, as usual. After dinner it’s time to make sure the little kids get homework done first, then get ready for bed while the older kids claim the kitchen table for their turn. Colt and Leo handle the cleanup in silent cooperation, hoping that it’ll move the evening along without arguments.
Emma is the one who dawdles, lingering outside the room she shares with Jennie until even Nevaeh has gone to bed. She goes to get a cup of water and brings it in to set on her nightstand, then goes to brush her teeth for the third time. When she announces quietly that she needs to pee for the fourth time in an hour, Colt reroutes her to the living room, where Leo waits on the couch.
She hesitates, then climbs onto the couch, sitting on the center cushion between Leo and Colt. Her lips are pressed together, her braids swinging forward in her face.
“What’s wrong?” Leo asks quietly, leaning closer to her; Emma flinches slightly.
Colt sets his arm across the back of the couch, fingers lightly brushing Leo’s shoulder until he pulls back and gives Emma more room.
“I’m okay,” she mumbles. “I’m just worried about Conor. And I wonder if his parents and my parents are in the same place. And if maybe there’s something out there going around stealing Talented adults or something. And if it wants more adults, or maybe it wants moms and dads. Or maybe it wants kids next.”
Colt meets Leo’s gaze over the top of Emma’s head.
“We’re not going to let anything get you and steal you away,” Leo says quietly. Firmly. Colt looks at him and sees the king of the plains, the majestic lion as clearly as if Leo had shifted his form.
Emma licks her lips, presses them even more tightly together. She clasps her hands tight in her lap, shoulders shaking. “But what if it—what if you’re not here?”
Oh.
“Emma,” Colt says quickly.
Her head lifts, eyes wide as she looks at him. “You can’t promise—”
“I can promise that we will do everything in our power to ensure that we are here for you,” Colt says solemnly. “We know there’s maybe something out there, and we’ll watch for it, and we will make sure that you—and Duke and Matt and Jennie and Nevaeh—are all cared for and safe. You’re right; I can’t promise that something won’t try to come for us. But I can promise that if it does, Leo and I will fight back with everything that we have and are.”
Her mouth stays open in a small rounded ‘O’.
“Colt said it better than I could,” Leo agrees. “And remember, I work with Conor’s grandfather—”
“Dziadziu,” Emma corrects them.
“Cap is doing everything he can to find Conor’s dad,” Leo continues. “And I’ll make sure he knows that you think that maybe it’s the same thing that took your parents. Because that’s good information, and maybe it’ll help the police.”
For the first time that Colt can remember since Emma came to them a couple of months ago, he sees hope light her eyes. She smiles slightly, and her hands unclench. “Thank you,” she says solemnly. She slides off the couch, padding away on bare feet. “I think it’s going to be nice out tomorrow,” she says as she walks away. “It’s spring. It ought to be nice so we can play outside.” The door to her room closes with a soft thunk after she goes in.
Colt slumps back on the couch.
Leo tilts his head, eyes closed as he listens. After a moment his expression eases. “She’s almost asleep,” he murmurs. “The rest already are.”
Colt looks at the long hall that leads to the three bedrooms on the main floor: Jennie and Emma, Matt and Duke, and Nevaeh installed in what’s supposed to be the master suite. He and Leo gave it up to her when Emma arrived at the end of January, while they moved into the playroom over the garage. “Maybe we should think of getting a bigger house,” he says.
He moves when Leo tugs at him, ending up curled close to his husband, one arm around his waist as he leans his head against his shoulder. Colt rearranges himself, stretching out along the couch, burrowing back into Leo’s heavy warmth. “We’re probably going to bring home more, right?” Colt asks.
“I was thinking of telling Cap that if he needs help, Conor can always come here,” Leo murmurs, pressing the words with soft kisses against the top of Colt’s head. “I know Lucy and Rowan would send us more, if they found more around here who needed us. We can house hunt any time you’re ready.”
Colt files it away as a potential distraction against the issues at hand. But first those issues need to be discussed. “So,” he says, and leaves the opening for Leo to explain.
“I had a call this morning, and I had to drive by Hart Acres on my way back to the station,” Leo says. “You know the place: that retirement community where you have to be over fifty-five to live there, and no one is actually retired. But they do have a strict no kids rule, and this morning there was this kid standing out at the end of the road waiting for the bus.” He pauses a moment before adding, “Cap’s car was right there, waiting with him, and I recognized the kid from the pictures on his desk. Cap’s proud of him.”
Colt makes a small non-committal noise.
“So I asked.”
He makes it sound simple, but Colt knows it’s not as easy as that. After all, they’ve both known Captain Janusz Szczek since before he was the captain. They’ve known him since they were in high school, back when he was just Pawel Szczek’s father.
Pawel. Who’s apparently missing now.
“And?” Colt prompts. His throat feels tight, because it might feel like a lifetime ago, but Pawel was his most serious relationship before Leo.
Leo combs through his hair with his fingers. His head drops, words a whisper of warm breath against the back of Colt’s ear. “Conor came home a week ago and Pawel was gone,” he murmurs. “It’s the second time in a month, and this time he didn’t plan to leave Conor with the neighbor first. Conor went over to visit, and when he came back, Pawel’s car was still there, but he was nowhere to be seen. Apparently he’s not the only one to disappear. Pawel was working with some of his students, and except for one who was unconscious when Conor got there, they’ve all been listed as missing now.”
“Do they have any idea…” Colt’s voice falls away as Leo shakes his head. “Shit.”
“Yeah.”
Colt pushes himself up so he can turn and face Leo. He frames his face with his hands, leans in forehead to forehead. “You okay?”
Because this isn’t just about Colt’s ex. Colt dated Pawel more than a decade ago, before they left for separate colleges. But Leo dated him first, three years before that, when Pawel and Colt were just freshmen in high school and Leo was already a senior.
Leo shakes his head slowly. “Not really. I spent a long time talking to Cap today. Pawel’s been looking into things that might be related to how Emma’s parents disappeared,” he whispers, almost inaudible. “So she might not be wrong. Whatever it is might have come to get him, too, along with some kids on that campus.”
Colt exhales. “Leo. That’s not your jurisdiction.”
Silence.
Colt slides his thumb across his cheekbone. “Leo.”
“We have the kids,” Leo mumbles.
“We have the kids,” Colt agrees. It’s not that they’re a burden. But they promised that they would be there, that they would be family for these children. Every single one of them is chosen, a part of their household for a reason, and Colt won’t risk that.
Neither will Leo, in the end.
Leo shudders on an exhale. “Fuck. Cap’s worried. I’m worried. Near as I can tell, finding Pawel rests on the shoulders of some kids because no one else seems to care. Or understand that it might be magical.”
“Tell Cap to offer our help if we can,” Colt encourages. “And tell Cap that if he needs space for Conor, we’ll make space here. We can rearrange. I’m pretty sure Emma would happily throw Jennie out of her room to make a place for Conor to sleep.”
Leo huffs at that. “Probably. Colt, I—”
“I know.”
They’re scared. Pawel isn’t just an old school friend. Once upon a time he was the love of Colt’s life, and he’s pretty sure it was intense with Leo, too. It was strange enough when they met, finding out that they had Pawel in common. Colt never expected it to come back like this.
Colt slips away, rising slowly as he offers his hand to Leo. When his husband stands, Colt draws him close, wrapping his arms around him, pressing his cheek against Leo’s cheek They stand there for a long moment, until the tension in Leo’s shoulders eases.
“I’ll come by to talk to Cap with you tomorrow,” Colt says. “If he’s getting in after putting Conor on the bus, he’ll probably be there right about the time I get everyone dropped off. We’ll offer whatever he needs. Okay?”
“No, but it has to be, doesn’t it?” Leo captures Colt’s hand, quietly kisses the backs of his fingertips. “We have to protect them.”
They have to protect the kids, and protect themselves. But if they can do something to help out Pawel, they will. Colt knows that’s true for both of them.
Colt takes a step, tugs on their joined hands. “Let’s go to bed.”
Because tomorrow will be another day, and they’ll look at everything with clearer eyes then. And maybe when they wake up, they’ll find out that Pawel Szczek is back as abruptly as he disappeared. Maybe they’ll get lucky.
In the meantime, they have each other, and that’s what they really need.