Post by Reede on Apr 2, 2024 11:00:10 GMT -5
(Transcript from after the return from Harroway. Sorry for the delayed posting!)
There were the police to deal with.
By the time they returned to London, Avery was forging hard toward a real holiday, talking up a storm about where they might go--he seemed fixated on Greece, on Egypt, on any number of places around the Mediterranean--and had his typical wrestling match between the real, honest need to get away for a while and his sense of responsibility regarding work. There was the Cage to prep and figure out for Singh and his crew, as a new project and priority, and upon returning to Kings Orchard and dropping by the corner shop to pick up their post he found no fewer than seven letters hoping to hire Flynn & Flynn due to disappeared relatives and friends. A notice had been nailed rather rudely to the front door of his own building that he was a person of interest in an inquiry as to an incident regarding a Gaunt-Schraber 1900 Gemini on such-and-such date.
The latter hadn't come with a fantastic punch of shock because Eddie had warned him that the police had come around, and that he and Gerold had been squirreled away elsewhere. Even so, hands full of papers and head full of responsibilities, Avery Flynn had gone very still at the curb and just stood there for a while after Felix had unlocked the door and gone inside to make sure nothing had been disturbed.
When he'd gotten moving again, he marched into the chaos and made a little order.
He'd go to the police himself. He picked out two of the letters that felt the most pressing to him, and drew up instructions regarding the dismantling of the Cage in India, to get the parts packed up--presumably for shipping to London, though in truth it was to make it easier on them when they zipped in and transported the stuff to Flynn & Flynn themselves, using their own odder, faster methods.
The hardest thing for Avery to do was let go of the idea that he had to be present for things to work out.
Felix, who did not hate the idea of a holiday but who tended to relax over a nice bacterial slide with a cup of tea as well as on the deck of a yacht, pointed out that there was now an & Associates painted on their sign. & Associates was, specifically, Aurelia Dumitru, the idea behind it that she retained as much privacy as she pleased until she said she wanted Dumitru displayed on the building, but & Associates now included any number of other people.
"Eli's in town," Felix had said.
Avery had tried not to wince, but Felix expected it and saw it. "It's not that I don't trust him to get it done," Avery had told him hastily.
"You don't trust him to get it done the way you would," Felix said in swift counter-attack. "But he could do it, and that's what matters. He could get those people home, and you could go and breathe for a while. Eddie would help him. Gerold's itching to prove that he's still alive, and Liessel's hoping to walk outside without flinching. It might do everyone a lot of good."
This particular conversation was taking place not in the workroom and not in the parlor, but out behind the building.
The grate was off the drain in that communal yard, and the Flynns were lowering themselves down into a very dark hole on a newly rigged up pulley system.
Someone was walking to Flynn and Flynn & Associates.
That someone was not new to the area. She knew these streets, knew the best way to get there depending on the time of day. The clip-clip-clip of her boots on the soot covered London streets took her closer and closer to the establishment that had her name and yet didn't. Heads turned as she walked. This was an every day occurrence and one that was near impossible to avoid. In fact, she was certain she heard the sound of a street bike crashing into a pile of garbage but didn't look over her shoulder to check. Looking back tended to make these things worse.
It wasn't as though she were dressed in anything elaborate. The gown was a simple pale green walking dress with matching gloves. A little rouge was dabbed on her cheekbones and lips to bring a little color back to her milk coffee colored skin. Her vibrant red hair was pulled into an messy chignon pinned by golden jewels that sparkled in the dim sunlight.
It was the woman, not the jewels, makeup, or gown, that nabbed all their attention.
Eventually, she arrived at the building, rolling her shoulders in preparation to enter through the front. However, stopped when she heard voices from the nearby alley. Voices that she knew better than the route that brought her here.
Curiosity always getting the better of her, Aurelia veered off the path and moved towards the direction of the voices. "Flynns?" She called out, not quite seeing them when she rounded the building's corner. "Are you out here?"
Chickens clucked over each other at the sound of her voice, but soon a dual-voiced answer in human speech:
"Back here!"
There was a little metallic squeaking, a little shuffling.
Emerging from the alley into the shared service yard, Aurelia would find the big, moisture-darkened tripod rig there, rope and pulleys braked and readied, and the Flynn twins midway through getting themselves harnessed so they could drop down. Sleeves rolled up, jackets hung off the rigging to the side out of the mud, they were both a little smudged. There had been some summer rain here while they'd been away.
"Brainstorming day," Avery explained as a greeting. He took a step toward her, and there was another squeak from the pulley, and he stopped. "Come along if you like." He eyed her dress. "... or we can brainstorm a different way."
"Hello Avery, darling." She greeted while meeting him where he stopped. Quickly she kissed his cheek in way of greeting before stepping back to get a good look at the tripod.
"This is certainly interesting. What am I looking at here?" She asked by way of saying that she had no interest in brainstorming beyond the methods the Flynns were currently using.
"We'd install an elevator if we had time today," Avery told her.
"I have the plans drawn up," Felix said, still working his harness buckle tighter.
"Climbing up and down with the house materials has gotten cumbersome," Avery explained. "So we decided to upgrade. We've got some decisions to make."
Which was often done with tools in hand, at Flynn & Flynn. There was only so much staring at blackboards that one could do. It was always better to get something accomplished while thinking things through.
Between the two of them, the Flynns quickly updated Aurelia on the police situation--It was the investigation of the incident in the park with Septimius and his Surveyors, but the police had little to go on except the Gaunt-Schraber--and the seven letters. More letters regarding missing persons than the Flynns had ever gotten at one time. And then there was the matter of the holiday. The holiday, and how a certain individual needed to relax for a while before he turned into someone else.
"What if we ask Gerold and Eli to help out?" Aurelia suggested at the end of the recap. "They're both in town. They're both readily available to help - it might do both of them some good to feel useful?"
She moved in a slow circle around the tripod, eyeing the structure and the set up they created. Also, Aurelia made sure to stop by Felix for a brief hello-hug before stepping back to consider how this would work with an elevator system.
Felix put an arm around Aurelia and hugged her to his side, his hand held away from her clothes. But the chance of muddiness transferring to her was a hazard of the job, and he seemed to consider her enough of a veteran that she'd taken the risk upon herself. "That's what I told him," Felix put in once Aurelia went to eyeing the apparatus.
Avery cinched the last strap at his chest and turned, a fly partially caught in a spider's web, three pulleys jerking on their hooks in response to the small move. "Whatever he says, Gerold's still hurt, and he's still otherwise employed. I'll grant you that Eli, with Eddie backing him up, might do all right. But the clients would never speak to us again. They'll tell their friends that Eli farted his way through the hors d'oeuvres and let his horse into the pantry."
"So we work with him on his bedside manners." Aurelia waved a little hand in the air. "And if Gerold was needed somewhere else, then they would have already sent him there. He only lingers when things are quiet. Plus he might be exactly what we need to help keep Eli in line and not scare off our clients."
Adjusting the hemline of her dress, the Eforie crouched to look at the pulley system at a different angle. However she saw it was enough for her to nod her head in silent approval before standing upright once more.
"Is he not also considered a Flynn by the two of you?" The question was more to Avery than to Felix.
Avery grinned. Tiredly, but truly. "He grew on us."
"Like a mold," Felix added, grinning far less tiredly.
She returned a grin to Felix before licking her lips and smoothing out her features with thought.
"Then it is time he's given the opportunity to live up to that name." Aurelia said with a nod. "Besides, how are we ever going to take a vacation if we cannot trust the people we love to keep an eye on things while we're gone?"
"It's that there are seven," Avery said, throwing a look Aurelia's way. He still had shadows around his eyes, but already, just being back in his own city, he held his shoulders more relaxed, seemed less drained by choices and chaos. Whatever could be said of their day at the Garden, facing Spring and Alfar and struggling to make sense of what to do, and how fast they had to do it, it was Harroway that had aged Avery more. From Barrow to mountain to town.
"I grant you that it's strange on the surface," Felix said cautiously. "It could be that they're still panicked from the spells in August. I want to find out as much as you do. But I think what it really comes down to, Avery, is that you've forgotten how to relax."
"I'm relaxed!" Avery huffed at him, holding out the ropes to his harness as if somehow they proved how easygoing he was.
"That is not usually how one who is relaxed would respond." Aurelia replied, shaking her head. "In fact, I'm almost certain that it's someone who isn't relaxed who would say that." She moved closer to him. "You look like you haven't had a decent sleep in weeks."
She came at him and he gave her an arched eyebrow. "Et tu, Aurelia?" He released the ropes and wiped his hands together as he held her gaze. "I'm okay."
"We love you." She said, not needing to look at Felix to know he agreed. "And it's because we love you that we're worried about you. A candle can only burn for so long before it's eventually snuffed out. You have to let go of some of the control and give it to someone else." She paused. "Let Liessel help as well."
He'd started to lose some of the tension in his face, looking down at the pile of wood waiting for them, and the pack of their tools nearby, but the mention of Liessel had his gaze snapped back to Aurelia's. He winced a little, brow tensing, and found a retort ready on his tongue.
Which would have lost him his claim that he was relaxed and okay, and therefore he kept it stuck there.
Felix's movement to stand next to Aurelia would have been silent, except for the pulleys that needed some oil. "You used to know how to relax. You were the one always telling me to do it, that things would be okay, and not burn down if I turned my back."
Avery turned a little to the side, looking wary without meaning to, when Felix started talking, and now his mouth tightened until he made it stop that nonsense.
And the way he was standing was, very clearly, to himself and anyone who glimpsed him, not the stance of a relaxed human being.
"You told me that you need time to be still - when did that become so hard for you to let happen?" She asked gently.
Avery stared at Aurelia. Glanced at his brother.
Before him were the two people he trusted the most.
He was still for a long while.
Out there, beyond the buffer of the buildings that all backed up on this yard, the bustle of London could be heard. Even voices--muffled as they were--from inside the flats behind them, and carts out on Kings Orchard.
He felt his face grow hot, and his eyes, and knew they'd see it. He ducked his head away, but stopped that, too, pitting his energy into keeping his face from contorting, and his mouth from twisting.
"They never seemed so helpless before."
Aurelia felt that comment deep in her chest. It was a fear she also shared but never spoke aloud except for one time. And even that felt like a betrayal. Yet...
"Avery..." She stopped and took in a deep breath, trying again. "They've got to be able to do this on their own and we have to be able to let them."
He reached out for her hand. His own was gritty with mud here and there, but he wasn't thinking of that, just the need to hold on to her.
"I mean everyone."
"I think she means everyone, too," Felix said.
"I do." She took his hand and stepped in closer for him to embrace if that's what he needed. The mud be damned.
"I need you, Avery Flynn. Your brother needs you." She said. "We need you healthy, and whole, and rested."
Aurelia stepped in, and Avery's rope squeaked when he suddenly let go of her hand to crush her tight to him, pulling her close. It wasn't pretty or composed. It was the nakedest, most sudden, consuming need to hold on to another person.
Aurelia twisted just enough to signal Felix to come close as well. Then her arms were around him, and she up on the tips of her toes to hold him as tight as possible.
Felix was there, arms around them both, encompassing them. "You don't have to be a god," was what he said.
Avery's head was full of people who needed a god. The People of Harroway had not been plan-less, not been without action, but to him they'd seemed so dearly in need of help. He didn't say that now. Aurelia knew. Felix knew. And maybe if the day he'd spent in the Garden had not happened, it might not have seemed so stark to him. Because there was Harroway out there, suppressing Liessel's entire life and destroying things that Avery cherished in people, but that tableau had come to him hard on the heels of a day when most of the people he knew had been likewise subdued. They'd needed a god, too. And here was Singh, in need of a god. And there was Adeline, in need of one. And Eli's reincarnations--he could use one. Ethan's entanglements--how could Flynn & Flynn not have found the answer by now? Out there was Gerold Schoen, and while he said he had God, maybe he might have rejoiced if out of the upstairs workshop had come the formula to help his friend, too, God or not.
Against Aurelia's hair, Avery shuddered out a breath and tried to prise loose some of the sense that if he were cleverer he might be able to get some things done for those he loved.
"Just being Avery Flynn is more than enough." Aurelia said on the heels of Felix's words. Her words were a whisper in his ear though Felix was certainly close enough to hear their muffled version.
"You need a break. I need a break with you. We cannot keep doing this if we're to reach someday."
Avery breathed. Made himself do it deeply. Tried to make himself listen to what she said. Knew she was right.
You need a break.
I need a break with you.
"The world was all right before we got here," Felix said. "It's better for you being here, but it won't crash if you took a cruise."
"Please, Avery." She said softly. "If you cannot do this for yourself, then please do it for me and Felix. We need you too."
Avery hugged her more tightly. He pulled one arm from around her, though, sliding it loose, so that he could claw his brother in tighter. He rifled for something to say. Even yes felt hard. Like it wasn't enough. Couldn't be big enough. Didn't sound enough like how he thought he should sound. But three words were out before he could weigh them out or edit them.
"I want to."
"You can." She insisted softly. "And we'll be here to help you every step of the way." One hand was moving through his hair, nails lightly scraping across his skin.
Avery closed his eyes and hugged them tighter. There were dirty harness straps, buckles not meant to be hugged around, and tools, but he at least could trust the strength of these two a minute more.
He didn't say anything. No assurances. The quick, confident orderliness of his usual ways were a deep, sacred part of him, but there were other deep sacred parts, too, and they were a little starved just now. The thought of going on a different sort of adventure, of sun and sea, of reclaiming just a little ease, enjoying some luxury, felt nice. The idea was a little weighed down by what he'd been feeling--that to know that there was work to be done, and to choose this anyway, was selfish, that he was failing people--but he couldn't deny that in the vision of what they might do was a bright spark of delight. And he'd missed that.
"Sunshine." Aurelia said softly in his ear as if she could hear his own thoughts. "Warm ocean water lapping at our feet while we walk along the shoreline. Finding little adventures in far away lands to tell our friends about." She paused and took a little breath. "Lazy mornings spent sleeping in and dreaming about someday."
He laughed, and it was so sudden that it surprised him. It was quiet, but they were so close that there was no missing the sudden jolt of it. "Are you reading my mind?" he murmured, the accusation lilting even as his shoulders relaxed and with them his arms--just a little. Like a sigh.
"Call it a new talent." There was a light chuckle in her voice. Eventually she pulled back enough to look at both brothers. "We need to heal ourselves before we can help heal others. We'll look over the seven letters and see what we can give to Eli and the others. If it feels more serious, then we can save those for ourselves to tackle before we leave. But make no mistake, Mister Flynn, we are leaving for a holiday by the end of this month."
Avery eyed her.
& Associates.
Was this the smartest business decision he'd ever made?
He was beginning to suspect.
"Who's the boss here, again?"
Her head tilted back as she smiled at him.
"Equal partnership."
"Next you'll be wanting your name on the sign." He arched a brow at her, daring--or offering?
"I would be interested in seeing what the letterhead looks like with my name on it..." She considered thoughtfully.
"F, F, and D," Avery mused.
"All the bad grades," Felix noted.
"The best of the bunch." Aurelia grinned.
"We'll have to do some shopping," Avery said, finally becoming aware of how the corner of one buckle was digging into his stomach. He eased off on his grip on Aurelia and Felix, and Felix loosened his own arms a little more, but did not let go.
Avery nodded. "You win," he told Aurelia. "But I win, too. Let's talk destination. --I've always wanted to see the Nile."
There were the police to deal with.
By the time they returned to London, Avery was forging hard toward a real holiday, talking up a storm about where they might go--he seemed fixated on Greece, on Egypt, on any number of places around the Mediterranean--and had his typical wrestling match between the real, honest need to get away for a while and his sense of responsibility regarding work. There was the Cage to prep and figure out for Singh and his crew, as a new project and priority, and upon returning to Kings Orchard and dropping by the corner shop to pick up their post he found no fewer than seven letters hoping to hire Flynn & Flynn due to disappeared relatives and friends. A notice had been nailed rather rudely to the front door of his own building that he was a person of interest in an inquiry as to an incident regarding a Gaunt-Schraber 1900 Gemini on such-and-such date.
The latter hadn't come with a fantastic punch of shock because Eddie had warned him that the police had come around, and that he and Gerold had been squirreled away elsewhere. Even so, hands full of papers and head full of responsibilities, Avery Flynn had gone very still at the curb and just stood there for a while after Felix had unlocked the door and gone inside to make sure nothing had been disturbed.
When he'd gotten moving again, he marched into the chaos and made a little order.
He'd go to the police himself. He picked out two of the letters that felt the most pressing to him, and drew up instructions regarding the dismantling of the Cage in India, to get the parts packed up--presumably for shipping to London, though in truth it was to make it easier on them when they zipped in and transported the stuff to Flynn & Flynn themselves, using their own odder, faster methods.
The hardest thing for Avery to do was let go of the idea that he had to be present for things to work out.
Felix, who did not hate the idea of a holiday but who tended to relax over a nice bacterial slide with a cup of tea as well as on the deck of a yacht, pointed out that there was now an & Associates painted on their sign. & Associates was, specifically, Aurelia Dumitru, the idea behind it that she retained as much privacy as she pleased until she said she wanted Dumitru displayed on the building, but & Associates now included any number of other people.
"Eli's in town," Felix had said.
Avery had tried not to wince, but Felix expected it and saw it. "It's not that I don't trust him to get it done," Avery had told him hastily.
"You don't trust him to get it done the way you would," Felix said in swift counter-attack. "But he could do it, and that's what matters. He could get those people home, and you could go and breathe for a while. Eddie would help him. Gerold's itching to prove that he's still alive, and Liessel's hoping to walk outside without flinching. It might do everyone a lot of good."
This particular conversation was taking place not in the workroom and not in the parlor, but out behind the building.
The grate was off the drain in that communal yard, and the Flynns were lowering themselves down into a very dark hole on a newly rigged up pulley system.
Someone was walking to Flynn and Flynn & Associates.
That someone was not new to the area. She knew these streets, knew the best way to get there depending on the time of day. The clip-clip-clip of her boots on the soot covered London streets took her closer and closer to the establishment that had her name and yet didn't. Heads turned as she walked. This was an every day occurrence and one that was near impossible to avoid. In fact, she was certain she heard the sound of a street bike crashing into a pile of garbage but didn't look over her shoulder to check. Looking back tended to make these things worse.
It wasn't as though she were dressed in anything elaborate. The gown was a simple pale green walking dress with matching gloves. A little rouge was dabbed on her cheekbones and lips to bring a little color back to her milk coffee colored skin. Her vibrant red hair was pulled into an messy chignon pinned by golden jewels that sparkled in the dim sunlight.
It was the woman, not the jewels, makeup, or gown, that nabbed all their attention.
Eventually, she arrived at the building, rolling her shoulders in preparation to enter through the front. However, stopped when she heard voices from the nearby alley. Voices that she knew better than the route that brought her here.
Curiosity always getting the better of her, Aurelia veered off the path and moved towards the direction of the voices. "Flynns?" She called out, not quite seeing them when she rounded the building's corner. "Are you out here?"
Chickens clucked over each other at the sound of her voice, but soon a dual-voiced answer in human speech:
"Back here!"
There was a little metallic squeaking, a little shuffling.
Emerging from the alley into the shared service yard, Aurelia would find the big, moisture-darkened tripod rig there, rope and pulleys braked and readied, and the Flynn twins midway through getting themselves harnessed so they could drop down. Sleeves rolled up, jackets hung off the rigging to the side out of the mud, they were both a little smudged. There had been some summer rain here while they'd been away.
"Brainstorming day," Avery explained as a greeting. He took a step toward her, and there was another squeak from the pulley, and he stopped. "Come along if you like." He eyed her dress. "... or we can brainstorm a different way."
"Hello Avery, darling." She greeted while meeting him where he stopped. Quickly she kissed his cheek in way of greeting before stepping back to get a good look at the tripod.
"This is certainly interesting. What am I looking at here?" She asked by way of saying that she had no interest in brainstorming beyond the methods the Flynns were currently using.
"We'd install an elevator if we had time today," Avery told her.
"I have the plans drawn up," Felix said, still working his harness buckle tighter.
"Climbing up and down with the house materials has gotten cumbersome," Avery explained. "So we decided to upgrade. We've got some decisions to make."
Which was often done with tools in hand, at Flynn & Flynn. There was only so much staring at blackboards that one could do. It was always better to get something accomplished while thinking things through.
Between the two of them, the Flynns quickly updated Aurelia on the police situation--It was the investigation of the incident in the park with Septimius and his Surveyors, but the police had little to go on except the Gaunt-Schraber--and the seven letters. More letters regarding missing persons than the Flynns had ever gotten at one time. And then there was the matter of the holiday. The holiday, and how a certain individual needed to relax for a while before he turned into someone else.
"What if we ask Gerold and Eli to help out?" Aurelia suggested at the end of the recap. "They're both in town. They're both readily available to help - it might do both of them some good to feel useful?"
She moved in a slow circle around the tripod, eyeing the structure and the set up they created. Also, Aurelia made sure to stop by Felix for a brief hello-hug before stepping back to consider how this would work with an elevator system.
Felix put an arm around Aurelia and hugged her to his side, his hand held away from her clothes. But the chance of muddiness transferring to her was a hazard of the job, and he seemed to consider her enough of a veteran that she'd taken the risk upon herself. "That's what I told him," Felix put in once Aurelia went to eyeing the apparatus.
Avery cinched the last strap at his chest and turned, a fly partially caught in a spider's web, three pulleys jerking on their hooks in response to the small move. "Whatever he says, Gerold's still hurt, and he's still otherwise employed. I'll grant you that Eli, with Eddie backing him up, might do all right. But the clients would never speak to us again. They'll tell their friends that Eli farted his way through the hors d'oeuvres and let his horse into the pantry."
"So we work with him on his bedside manners." Aurelia waved a little hand in the air. "And if Gerold was needed somewhere else, then they would have already sent him there. He only lingers when things are quiet. Plus he might be exactly what we need to help keep Eli in line and not scare off our clients."
Adjusting the hemline of her dress, the Eforie crouched to look at the pulley system at a different angle. However she saw it was enough for her to nod her head in silent approval before standing upright once more.
"Is he not also considered a Flynn by the two of you?" The question was more to Avery than to Felix.
Avery grinned. Tiredly, but truly. "He grew on us."
"Like a mold," Felix added, grinning far less tiredly.
She returned a grin to Felix before licking her lips and smoothing out her features with thought.
"Then it is time he's given the opportunity to live up to that name." Aurelia said with a nod. "Besides, how are we ever going to take a vacation if we cannot trust the people we love to keep an eye on things while we're gone?"
"It's that there are seven," Avery said, throwing a look Aurelia's way. He still had shadows around his eyes, but already, just being back in his own city, he held his shoulders more relaxed, seemed less drained by choices and chaos. Whatever could be said of their day at the Garden, facing Spring and Alfar and struggling to make sense of what to do, and how fast they had to do it, it was Harroway that had aged Avery more. From Barrow to mountain to town.
"I grant you that it's strange on the surface," Felix said cautiously. "It could be that they're still panicked from the spells in August. I want to find out as much as you do. But I think what it really comes down to, Avery, is that you've forgotten how to relax."
"I'm relaxed!" Avery huffed at him, holding out the ropes to his harness as if somehow they proved how easygoing he was.
"That is not usually how one who is relaxed would respond." Aurelia replied, shaking her head. "In fact, I'm almost certain that it's someone who isn't relaxed who would say that." She moved closer to him. "You look like you haven't had a decent sleep in weeks."
She came at him and he gave her an arched eyebrow. "Et tu, Aurelia?" He released the ropes and wiped his hands together as he held her gaze. "I'm okay."
"We love you." She said, not needing to look at Felix to know he agreed. "And it's because we love you that we're worried about you. A candle can only burn for so long before it's eventually snuffed out. You have to let go of some of the control and give it to someone else." She paused. "Let Liessel help as well."
He'd started to lose some of the tension in his face, looking down at the pile of wood waiting for them, and the pack of their tools nearby, but the mention of Liessel had his gaze snapped back to Aurelia's. He winced a little, brow tensing, and found a retort ready on his tongue.
Which would have lost him his claim that he was relaxed and okay, and therefore he kept it stuck there.
Felix's movement to stand next to Aurelia would have been silent, except for the pulleys that needed some oil. "You used to know how to relax. You were the one always telling me to do it, that things would be okay, and not burn down if I turned my back."
Avery turned a little to the side, looking wary without meaning to, when Felix started talking, and now his mouth tightened until he made it stop that nonsense.
And the way he was standing was, very clearly, to himself and anyone who glimpsed him, not the stance of a relaxed human being.
"You told me that you need time to be still - when did that become so hard for you to let happen?" She asked gently.
Avery stared at Aurelia. Glanced at his brother.
Before him were the two people he trusted the most.
He was still for a long while.
Out there, beyond the buffer of the buildings that all backed up on this yard, the bustle of London could be heard. Even voices--muffled as they were--from inside the flats behind them, and carts out on Kings Orchard.
He felt his face grow hot, and his eyes, and knew they'd see it. He ducked his head away, but stopped that, too, pitting his energy into keeping his face from contorting, and his mouth from twisting.
"They never seemed so helpless before."
Aurelia felt that comment deep in her chest. It was a fear she also shared but never spoke aloud except for one time. And even that felt like a betrayal. Yet...
"Avery..." She stopped and took in a deep breath, trying again. "They've got to be able to do this on their own and we have to be able to let them."
He reached out for her hand. His own was gritty with mud here and there, but he wasn't thinking of that, just the need to hold on to her.
"I mean everyone."
"I think she means everyone, too," Felix said.
"I do." She took his hand and stepped in closer for him to embrace if that's what he needed. The mud be damned.
"I need you, Avery Flynn. Your brother needs you." She said. "We need you healthy, and whole, and rested."
Aurelia stepped in, and Avery's rope squeaked when he suddenly let go of her hand to crush her tight to him, pulling her close. It wasn't pretty or composed. It was the nakedest, most sudden, consuming need to hold on to another person.
Aurelia twisted just enough to signal Felix to come close as well. Then her arms were around him, and she up on the tips of her toes to hold him as tight as possible.
Felix was there, arms around them both, encompassing them. "You don't have to be a god," was what he said.
Avery's head was full of people who needed a god. The People of Harroway had not been plan-less, not been without action, but to him they'd seemed so dearly in need of help. He didn't say that now. Aurelia knew. Felix knew. And maybe if the day he'd spent in the Garden had not happened, it might not have seemed so stark to him. Because there was Harroway out there, suppressing Liessel's entire life and destroying things that Avery cherished in people, but that tableau had come to him hard on the heels of a day when most of the people he knew had been likewise subdued. They'd needed a god, too. And here was Singh, in need of a god. And there was Adeline, in need of one. And Eli's reincarnations--he could use one. Ethan's entanglements--how could Flynn & Flynn not have found the answer by now? Out there was Gerold Schoen, and while he said he had God, maybe he might have rejoiced if out of the upstairs workshop had come the formula to help his friend, too, God or not.
Against Aurelia's hair, Avery shuddered out a breath and tried to prise loose some of the sense that if he were cleverer he might be able to get some things done for those he loved.
"Just being Avery Flynn is more than enough." Aurelia said on the heels of Felix's words. Her words were a whisper in his ear though Felix was certainly close enough to hear their muffled version.
"You need a break. I need a break with you. We cannot keep doing this if we're to reach someday."
Avery breathed. Made himself do it deeply. Tried to make himself listen to what she said. Knew she was right.
You need a break.
I need a break with you.
"The world was all right before we got here," Felix said. "It's better for you being here, but it won't crash if you took a cruise."
"Please, Avery." She said softly. "If you cannot do this for yourself, then please do it for me and Felix. We need you too."
Avery hugged her more tightly. He pulled one arm from around her, though, sliding it loose, so that he could claw his brother in tighter. He rifled for something to say. Even yes felt hard. Like it wasn't enough. Couldn't be big enough. Didn't sound enough like how he thought he should sound. But three words were out before he could weigh them out or edit them.
"I want to."
"You can." She insisted softly. "And we'll be here to help you every step of the way." One hand was moving through his hair, nails lightly scraping across his skin.
Avery closed his eyes and hugged them tighter. There were dirty harness straps, buckles not meant to be hugged around, and tools, but he at least could trust the strength of these two a minute more.
He didn't say anything. No assurances. The quick, confident orderliness of his usual ways were a deep, sacred part of him, but there were other deep sacred parts, too, and they were a little starved just now. The thought of going on a different sort of adventure, of sun and sea, of reclaiming just a little ease, enjoying some luxury, felt nice. The idea was a little weighed down by what he'd been feeling--that to know that there was work to be done, and to choose this anyway, was selfish, that he was failing people--but he couldn't deny that in the vision of what they might do was a bright spark of delight. And he'd missed that.
"Sunshine." Aurelia said softly in his ear as if she could hear his own thoughts. "Warm ocean water lapping at our feet while we walk along the shoreline. Finding little adventures in far away lands to tell our friends about." She paused and took a little breath. "Lazy mornings spent sleeping in and dreaming about someday."
He laughed, and it was so sudden that it surprised him. It was quiet, but they were so close that there was no missing the sudden jolt of it. "Are you reading my mind?" he murmured, the accusation lilting even as his shoulders relaxed and with them his arms--just a little. Like a sigh.
"Call it a new talent." There was a light chuckle in her voice. Eventually she pulled back enough to look at both brothers. "We need to heal ourselves before we can help heal others. We'll look over the seven letters and see what we can give to Eli and the others. If it feels more serious, then we can save those for ourselves to tackle before we leave. But make no mistake, Mister Flynn, we are leaving for a holiday by the end of this month."
Avery eyed her.
& Associates.
Was this the smartest business decision he'd ever made?
He was beginning to suspect.
"Who's the boss here, again?"
Her head tilted back as she smiled at him.
"Equal partnership."
"Next you'll be wanting your name on the sign." He arched a brow at her, daring--or offering?
"I would be interested in seeing what the letterhead looks like with my name on it..." She considered thoughtfully.
"F, F, and D," Avery mused.
"All the bad grades," Felix noted.
"The best of the bunch." Aurelia grinned.
"We'll have to do some shopping," Avery said, finally becoming aware of how the corner of one buckle was digging into his stomach. He eased off on his grip on Aurelia and Felix, and Felix loosened his own arms a little more, but did not let go.
Avery nodded. "You win," he told Aurelia. "But I win, too. Let's talk destination. --I've always wanted to see the Nile."