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~.~
"You convinced him your brother was a real magician?"
Elliot laughed as he stood to gather their plates.
"Sure did." his eyes twinkled and creased at the side as he shot her a wide grin, "Had to hide in that tree and drop leaves every time the old man asked, too."
"For how long?" she snorted, only half believing him.
He played thoughtful, holding a plate in each hand as though weighing them.
"About a year."
"A year?"
"You do things like that," he said with a good-natured shrug as he took her plate for her, "for blood."
"Family is important." his mother agreed, passing her side-plate up to him with a smile as he passed her.
Wraith watched him leave, sipping from her glass for something to do. While it hadn't been as awkward an experience as she'd feared, she was still looking forward to getting back to somewhere more familiar. She felt a little guilty about that, considering the month it had taken for them to find the time for the visit. Between their latest victory and all the different things that had entailed, - filming Promos and doing interviews were but the tip of iceberg, - and their own individual schedules, it had taken the three of them more effort than they'd expected to find a mutual weekend off.
She's watching you.
Wraith fought the urge to look up, but she could feel the gaze as the Voices said.
"The concept of Family is fascinating." Pathfinder chipped in, ever positive, "The shared sense of community has been proven to be beneficial to all involved in many ways."
Mrs Witt let out a chuckle, and hummed approvingly.
"Family makes people a little crazy, sometimes, but overall I would agree."
"It is lamentable, that I cannot explore the concept myself," the robot mused, a touch of disappointment in his tone, "but it is still enjoyable to perceive in others."
"Well," Elliot's mother leaned onto the tabletop just as her son came back through with bowls, "family don't have to be blood."
Wraith caught the warning look her squadmate shot his mother but didn't have the chance to chase it as their robot friend responded.
"I have heard this phrase before!" he exclaimed, shifting forward excitedly in his seat, "Perhaps you would be so good as to explain your understanding of it?"
Mrs Witt laughed at his enthusiasm, nodding sagely.
"Sure, sure."
She looked around as though for inspiration, her gaze brushing Wraith in a way that made her tense. Mirage circled the table to place their three bowls, and Wraith wondered fleetingly if it was one of his usual attempts to provide comfort to her with his proximity, as she took her fork from the table just for something to do.
"Take siblings, for example. They're born from blood, or raised together as though they were." she began, settling into her seat, "They grow together, learn and play together, suffer hardship together. They support each other through things, when something affects one it affects them all, in some way."
Wraith couldn't help but think of the brief mentions Elliot had made of his brothers, over the years. While he'd never told her so, she sensed pain and loss there and had never pursued it. At first, she hadn't been particularly interested in knowing, and somewhere along their line she'd realised she didn't want to prod at potential wounds. Now, she watched him trade a glance with his mother and she saw that odd sorrow, and it made her heart clench.
While perhaps family was a concept almost as foreign to her as it was Pathfinder, it saddened her that he might be hurting.
"Like hive animals!" Pathfinder applauded, his screen lighting up, "Oh that is interesting!"
The Witts laughed.
"Sure, buddy. Kinda like that. Only they have minds of their own, for the most part."
"For the most part." Mrs Witt agreed, chuckling at the way Elliot looked sheepish in response, "Sometimes they follow their older brothers around like shadows."
"Ma..." he groaned, turning his face toward the ceiling.
She seemed to take no heed, but his smile was fond despite the pink in his cheeks, and the sight made Wraith's lips pull into a smile. It was a weird kind of pleasant, the thought of a younger Elliot, and it surprised her.
"But," Ma Witt conceded, tilting her head to one side, "sometimes family comes in a different shape."
She means you.
Wraith was startled by the sudden Voice, and caught enough off guard by its meaning that she almost missed what was said next.
"We pick our own family. Whoever they might be, the ones we care about."
Her voice was low and gentle, almost vulnerable. When she looked at Wraith, suddenly, her eyes were steady and full of something Wraith couldn't name, but which made her pulse fumble with a strange sense of chagrin.
"We support them, just the same, we hurt for them when they're hurt, we help them fight their battles, because we love them, like blood."
Realisation dawned on Wraith rather painfully as the older woman finished with a smile. Her heart kicked and spluttered, adrenaline sore in her veins. She swallowed down the sudden feeling of claustrophobia, the elephant that was giant and expanding in the room, taking all the air up, it felt like.
And Pathfinder, bless him, missed that cue entirely. He bounced in his seat, his screen flashing brightly with glee as he worded it there, right between them all.
"Like us!"
Wraith fought the burning urge to flee, the painful heat of the acknowledgement in the air, feeling like she was being stared at, like she was being stripped of her walls and laid bare for anyone to take a shot at her. She focused hard on breathing, which seemed suddenly so difficult, and she kept her gaze down on her plate, fingers clenching tightly enough that her nails dug into her palms through her gloves.
"Yeah, Path." Elliot agreed, clearing his throat awkwardly, "Kinda like us."
Pathfinder made the familiar robotic sound that they knew to be his equivalent of a happy hum.
"I do not have blood." he continued, oblivious to the atmosphere, "But I would consider you both blood, if I did."
He sounded pleased with himself, and clapped his hands together.
"Your desserts are getting cold!" he notified them, seeming not to notice the awkward expressions around him, "Will they lose their pleasantness?"
Mrs Witt chuckled, and Wraith tried to hide her wince at the knowing that was so evident in the sound.
Conversation returned, Elliot's mother amiably answering the questions from Pathfinder as they struck him, and Wraith managed to fight the clenching uneasiness in her throat well enough to pick at the pie on her plate.
Their host suggested a walk after dinner, to show them around the town and point out several landmarks and areas that had historical relevance they might find interesting. Pathfinder of course was eager to explore any new knowledge, and Wraith was sure he'd provide enough interest for both of them as she declined as politely as she could, desperate for some time to herself.
While being around her squad outside of battle was becoming easier with time, they were the exception to a rule. Socialisation took a toll on her always, and though the woman had been more than welcoming, Wraith was exhausted and prickly and needed some space.
"Are you sure you won't join us, hon?"
Wraith pulled up a smile and shook her head.
"No thank you, I think I'd like to just lie down for a while."
"Wraith's a bit of a lone wolf," Elliot chimed in helpfully as he helped his mother into her coat like the actors in those old movies he'd made Wraith watch, "she likes to disappear on us to keep up her air of mystery."
He made the last words dramatic, going so far as to wriggle his fingers in the air like a magician as he did. Wraith bit her lip to hide her smile, but his mother chuckled.
"Alright, alright." she said, pushing him a little, "Did he get around to showing you your room?" she turned her head toward him without even pausing for an answer, "Did you show the girl a room?"
"Yes, Ma. I showed her her room."
As the woman nodded, satisfied, and bid Wraith goodbye, Elliot followed her out the door with an exaggerated eye roll for Wraith's amusement, raising one hand in a mock-wave as he did.
"I will catalogue all of the historical relevancies that you might find interesting." Pathfinder informed her as he too left, "Bye, Wraith!"
"Bye." she called softly, closing the door and watching them through the glass as they went down the path.
The silence in the house welcomed her like a comfortable blanket and she sighed gratefully, even able to hold at bay the gnawing anxiety at being in an unfamiliar place. She slipped through the building, following the carpeted staircase to the hallway of bedrooms.
The room Elliot had shown her earlier smelled faintly of him, and Wraith forced aside the notion that he'd given her the room for that reason. It'd make sense for him to sleep in the room he typically did when he was here, and yet she couldn't shake the certainty that he'd switched. There was that feeling again, that new twist of deepening affection that couldn't be hidden from no matter how she tried.
Shit.
Wraith curled into a ball on the bed, too weary to do anything more than remove her shoes, lying atop the blankets as it washed over her, that thread of familiarity. She was never sure exactly what it was, and concluded long ago that it must be a combination of sorts, the lingering scents of all his favourite products and the trace of his own smell.
It was uncomfortable to think about, so she didn't. She lay in the growing dim of the evening and did nothing but count her breaths, slow and sedate in the unfamiliar room, trying her best not to think about how badly she wanted to be back somewhere she knew better.
At some point she dozed off, waking with a jolt in the dark and flushed with dread that she couldn't place her surroundings, that old panic that had followed her from the start of her memories resurfacing again, the Voices yelling in a chilling fear.
It was an agonising few seconds of cold sweat before the memory returned and she could feel her racing heart slow. So much for sleeping through some of their remaining time here, she thought as she eased herself up to shake out the lingering fight or flight sensation, filled with new unsettled energy, her every nerve alight now and burning to move.
She snuck to the door, easing it open and listening to the quiet of the house. Pathfinder would be around, somewhere, even if everyone else was asleep, though he may have powered down in his own manifestation of sleep. With the unsettled awfulness she was still feeling in her gut, she sort of hoped she'd find him awake, just for company.
It was weird, to want company, she remembered. She kept catching herself longing for it, and it was like two versions of herself clashing over and over as she tried to find her middle ground.
Wraith shook the thoughts from her head and tried to find her centre, knowing that if she could only dig her fingers into calm, she'd feel more sane. She padded down the staircase, grateful for the carpet that softened her steps, and found herself wandering through to the darkened kitchen, silver moonlight filtering through the glass of the patio doors.
She slipped into a chair, and felt a little better.
When she spent nights at Elliot's apartment and found herself unable to sleep, the kitchen was where she usually ended up. He had a wide, half-height window running along one wall above the counters that showed the sky and the rooftops of the city below, and she had taken to watching the night from the shadowed apartment, finding a peace in it even when it was clear that the rest of the city wasn't yet asleep either.
The field stretched out away from the patio here with no-one but the nocturnal creatures from the bordering woodland, but the sky was the same, and Wraith sighed as she curled in on herself to watch it.
It was while she was there, like that, that his footsteps surprised her, for it seemed even the Voices were momentarily lost in the sleeper trains that were her thoughts.
"Hey," he greeted her softly with a rueful smile, "I didn't think you'd sleep long."
Still a little on edge from her unpleasant waking, she blew out a breath in reply and tried her best to smile. She couldn't even convince herself that it came out anything more than weak.
He joined her at the table, sitting across from her. Close enough for company, far enough for comfort. Her chest ached a little sweetly. He knew her better than she'd ever wanted him to. He sat quietly, staring out into the night with her, and it made her feel better than she'd ever believed a living creature could.
"I'm sorry," he spoke awkwardly after a while, "for earlier. She can get a little… intense."
Wraith tipped her head and didn't dispute it, but she couldn't quite meet his eye.
"I know that that… wouldn't have been easy." he continued, sounding embarrassed, "Comfortable, I mean."
She hummed softly, lifting her feet onto the seat edge to wrap her arms around her knees and resting her chin atop them as she looked out across the night. It was quieter here too, than at the Hub. There, it never seemed to fall silent, not really, someone awake at any hour. But here it was silent, only the sound of the breeze in the grass out back and the birdcalls from the treeline.
It was kind of nice.
Elliot said nothing more, and when she tilted her head a little to the side, cheek pressing against one knee, he was absently fiddling with something in his hands. She recognised the glint of holo-glass, and smiled to herself.
"New features?" she whispered, and he caught her eye with a faint smile of his own.
"More like refinements."
When she only blinked and held his gaze, his smile grew, eager to explain. He reeled off what he was attempting, and she watched the enthusiasm on his face as his defences slipped and he forgot to pretend he wasn't so excited.
She kind of liked to see him like that, not that she'd admit it to anyone but the deepest shadows of her own head.
"So we'll have a better idea where they're at." she surmised when he'd finished, and he turned a faint pink at his own rambling.
"Pretty much, yeah."
His brow furrowed a little as he turned his eye back to the piece of tech, and she sought a way to let him know it was okay, to show her that enthusiasm. After all, he'd made her feel better about feeling uncomfortable, just by commenting that he'd noticed without chasing it across her boundaries. He'd grown adept at treading the safe area between them, without pressing too much at her defences. It was something she'd grown to love about him, realising after it was too late.
"I bet Path'll be psyched." she murmured, and he threw her a grateful glance.
"Hope so."
She smiled, turning back to look across the open field, even though it was too dark so see anything but the shadows of rabbits.
"Good work, Elliot."
His grin was wide and he set it aside to lean back on his hands, confidence flitting back across his features.
"I am amazing, thank you, thank you." he made a pretence of bowing his head as though to an adoring crowd.
She snorted and rolled her eyes, allowing a mere curl at the corner of her mouth. For a while they were quiet again, until he spoke up once more, words carefully chosen and hushed.
"You know that… I mean, even though what she said was kinda… personal, that she was, well, right, right?"
She didn't look at him, but she didn't need to. She knew what he was saying, pulling the thought as though from her own head to float in the air between them.
Family don't have to be blood.
"I know." she breathed, and she could feel him looking at her.
Her heart thrummed gently under her skin, and his eyes on her made her skin heat, but it was… pleasant, in a way that still felt strange and new, to have him seeing her in the places she was weak and to be trusting him with them. She felt her courage flare boldly.
"I don't think I'll be convincing anyone that you're a real magician, though." she hummed, mouth taking on a wicked smirk.
He failed so spectacularly in muffling his sudden laughter that Pathfinder woke and came to join them.
~.~