troublewillfindme

Marlowe exhales, letting his cigarette smoke curl up into the night sky.

A child. Of course, there had been a child. Why shouldn’t history repeat itself, the snake devouring its own tail?

The whole thing feels sickeningly familiar.

–

She sits on his lap, a stuffed Marvin the Martian held tight against her chest.

On the page before them, Stellaluna finds Mother Bat, reunited at long last.

Will is late, later than he should be, a turn of events that rarely bodes well.

“More please?”

“Yeah, kiddo, we can read more.”

–

They’re quite the sight: Jane, trotting contentedly at Will’s side, and Sally, cuddled against his chest.

And Will himself, finally happy.

–

It can’t last — that is the nature of happiness.

Jack watches his son hug his daughter goodbye and, in that moment, sees Will’s heart break.

The tableau before him feels disquietingly final.

–

“It’s over,” he says, sorrow in his voice. “It’s all up to him now. Let’s just hope Weir’s faith wasn’t misplaced.”

He turns at the sound of something behind him, and is greeted by the sight of Sally, her arms tight around Marvin, eyes like she already senses something is wrong.

“Does this mean Daddy can come home now?”

He kneels down, and wraps her in a hug. He’s still not ready for this conversation.

–

She turns five a week after Will’s disappearance.

He knows damn well what she wishes for when she blows out the candles.

–

He begins to question his son’s taste in men not long after beginning to follow John Bradford’s misadventures.

Sally soon catches on.

He’s not sure how he’ll explain her liberal use of “dumb motherfucker” to anyone else.

–

She’s eleven when she learns the truth, the timing an unfortunate result of Bradford’s poking.

She takes a sip of her hot chocolate as she considers her grandfather’s words.

“Does it hurt?”

“The Ethereal?”

“Yeah.”

“No,” he says, shaking his head. “Wouldn’t know it was there if someone didn’t tell you.”

She seems to take comfort in this fact, wrapping her fingers around the mug.

“You okay? I know it’s a lot, kiddo.”

She takes another sip, quiet for a moment. “I mean, it’s a little weird to think about, but if that’s who Dad’s always been, that’s just who he is. It doesn’t change anything. He still loves me. I still love him.” She laughs quietly. “It does make Marvin a little funnier, though.”

He chuckles. “Yeah, I guess it does.”

–

And so, they wait.

And yell.

And every birthday, she makes the same wish.

Anything becomes routine, given enough time.

–

Will’s vitals go haywire, and Jack nearly orders Sally out. There are some things children, even fully-grown children, don’t need to see and if they lose her father on the table, if ADVENT somehow stripped the Ethereal out of him, he doesn’t want her here to watch.

But, by some miracle, he stabilizes — unconscious, but seemingly unharmed.

That night, he finds his granddaughter out amid the cold quiet of the stars, and holds her close while she cries, the weight of the last twenty years at last lifted.

–

He opens the door to the quarters to find Will fast asleep, one arm slung over Sally, who is sprawled across his chest.

Finally, he thinks, his son is home.