Once & Future 5: Blast from the Past, a Smallville + Merlin Crossover fanfic

Disclaimer: Don't own Smallville/Merlin

Series: Once & Future

Sequel to: Back To The Future

A/N: This should be the last oneshot before the multi-chaptered fic the oneshots were always leading up to.

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Chloe felt completely out of place as she looked around the underground fight-club she'd infiltrated to try and figure out who was using metahumans and forcing them to fight, many times to the death, and many times against their will. One of the survivors had managed to escape and make her way to Isis, looking for sanctuary. Apparently the place had made a name for itself amongst the metahuman world, more than Chloe could've ever thought it would, and as she listened to the beaten young girl's story she'd felt a little bad for the fact that she'd been relieved for this horror story because it helped her forget her own issues for a while.

Ever since Arthur had returned with past!Merlin, Chloe had been going over the history books, waiting for them to change, but they hadn't. They still didn't speak about the marriage of King Arthur, or his children, or of his death. He was there one day, a great king, England's greatest, and then the next a kinsman of Arthur's was the king of the throne, by apparent peaceful means. He hadn't overthrown Arthur. There'd been no war, no betrayal, no Modred and no Avalon.

Another disturbing fact was that Arthur had still gone to Northumbria in his first year as King. Why had he done this? She'd warned him that somehow that trip was connected to everything! So why had he still gone?!

Chloe shook her head and reprimanded herself for letting her mind wander while on the job. Her greens went to Merlin and Morgana, who also worked at Isis and were also there undercover, mingling in the crowd. Merlin wasn't doing as good as she and Morgana though, the guy fitting as well as Clark would've had he come. They hadn't even invited Lana considering that Lana was the face of Isis and had she stepped a foot in the underground fight-club everyone would've known what was going on. That was why Lana and Gwen were with Bette (the girl who'd escaped the nightclub) back at Isis, while Clark and Lana's boyfriend Percy waited as backup outside.

Morgana's blue gaze caught Chloe's from across the dim, crowded room and she nodded discreetly with her chin.

Chloe's greens trained in the direction that the witch had indicated, her stomach plummeting at the scoreboard which read that two had already died in fights that night.

Merlin noticed it as well and his eyes narrowed.

"Our next fight is about to begin, distinguished gents and ladies!" Someone yelled. "Make sure you've got your bets in because it's Penny against Beast!"

A roar of applause arose from the crowd.

Chloe narrowed her eyes as she made her way towards the fighting ring, pushing her way through the crowd and somehow making it to the front lines in time to see the first guy be shoved inside. He didn't look like a beast at all. He was lanky and pale, with black hair and brown eyes, and looked vaguely familiar to her.

"Beast!" Everyone yelled. "Beast!"

The guy looked around him, visibly disgusted with the crowd.

Chloe's eyes widened as she recognized the EMT who sometimes would bring metahumans to Isis. "Davis?"

He'd gone missing two weeks ago.

She hadn't realized he was a metahuman as well. No wonder he was such a great help with the more skittish ones he brought to her!

"And Penny!" The short, fat man declared as someone else was shoved into the ring.

This guy was the polar opposite of Davis, bronzed skin and golden hair, blue eyes and muscular. He ignored the people cheering for him, his gaze solely focused on Davis.

"Penny! Penny!" The crowd chanted.

Chloe's heart stopped in utter horror. "Arthur?" Her gaze swung to Merlin, seeing his shock as well as he stared at Arthur.

Morgana pushed her way through the crowd towards Chloe.

The fat ringmaster pulled out a gun and shot it into the air.

Davis threw his head back and roared, beginning to shift, turning into a…beast.

Arthur, instead of looking worried or even vaguely surprised at this development, merely sneered as he clenched his fists and attacked. He swung his fist, the knuckles (which were covered with fingerless leather gloves) connected with the monstrous-Davis's face and sent him swinging as Arthur continued on the offensive as he punched and kicked, dodged Davis's attacked as the much larger being continued to shift and change.

The crowd loved it, yelling his name.

Merlin and Morgana watched in horror.

Chloe felt sick to her stomach.

Arthur was ruthless, not giving Davis a chance as his bones, the human should be at a disadvantage just because he was human, and yet he was destroying Davis. He climbed up on Davis' back and grabbed him by his neck, getting ready to break it.

Chloe's eyes widened in horror as she moved forwards and grabbed the cords of the ring. "NO!"

Arthur looked up at her.

There was no recognition in his face.

It caused her to take a step back.

Davis took the opportunity to knock Arthur off of him, slamming him against the wall and lifting him up high in the air by his throat.

Chloe ducked under the ropes and raced onto the battlefield, ignoring the 'boos' sent her way, or when the men who'd come after her were levitated none-too-gently into the air by Morgana's magic. She instead hurried towards Davis and Arthur, and placed her hand on Davis' arm as Arthur struggled for breath. "Don't do it, Davis, you don't have to kill him. I know you don't want to. I know the real you-you save people-you don't kill them."

Davis wouldn't look at her, obviously hating that she was seeing him like this, in this form.

All around them, Morgana and Merlin dealt with the people in charge of this horrible operation, quite easily handling them considering how pissed off the two extremely powerful magic users were.

Clark and Percy had joined in sometime during the fight as well, because she could see them out of the corner of her eye, but she concentrated on the matter at hand.

"Davis, please. You're still the same guy who has to keep changing that damn lightbulb for me." She squeezed her friend's arm. "This doesn't change anything. They're the monsters not you."

His gaze finally turned to her.

She gave him a little smile.

Davis took in a stuttered breath as he dropped Arthur to the ground and slowly began to change back to the friend she knew.

Chloe caught him in her arms as he stumbled, the guy having taken a horrible beating from Arthur and now that he was in his human form he wasn't even able to hold himself up. "It's alright Davis." She wrapped her arms around him, unable to look at Arthur right now, confused and somewhat scared. "Everything's going to be okay." She let her healing ability activate and begin to drain into him, healing his broken bones and other injuries Arthur and other fights had left in his body. "It's all over."

The blonde finally managed to gather the courage to look in Arthur's direction, finding the bruised guy sitting on the ground watching the chaos around him numbly.

Davis fainted in Chloe's arms, dragging her to the ground, the girl half buried under him as she was forced to sit down next to Arthur, her gaze on him once more. "Are you okay?"

His gaze went to her and he nodded. "I can't fight them, not even now, even though it's all I want to do with every fibre of my being." He motioned to the back of his neck. "They implanted something back there and if any of us disobey them they flip the switch. It's an ugly sight once they detonate the sucker."

Chloe licked her lips as she stared at him.

He eyed her before his gaze went to Davis. "Will he live?"

She nodded.

"Good." Arthur's gaze went to the chaos once more. "I didn't want to kill him, but it was either him or me - kill or be killed. He knew it too. This was far from his first fight."

She cleared her throat. "Arthur?"

He jerked at the sound of his name and turned to look at her. "How do you know my name?"

That confirmed it then, he had no idea who she was.

Arthur must've died and this was his reincarnation.

The legends about the Immortal Once & Future King were just that: legends. She'd told past!Arthur that she'd like it if he reincarnated, but truthfully she would've preferred it if the legends had been real and she could've had the Arthur who looked at her as if she was some sort of gem. She knew it was selfish of her, but no one had ever looked at her like that in her life, and now no one would ever again.

She pushed back the bitter disappointment at the realization that any connection they'd had-that the feelings he'd once had for her-were gone. "How long have you been a captive here?"

He eyed her suspiciously before he leaned hard against the wall, shirtless and bruised. "I don't know. A year? Maybe more?"

She closed her eyes tightly. "Jesus."

"So I'm guessing you guys are from that Isis place I've heard about." He surprised her by announcing, his head tilted towards her. "Am I right?"

She nodded, smile shaky. "That would be us."

"So Bette made it." Arthur gave a small smile. "I didn't think she would." He tilted his head up to look at the ceiling. "She used to talk about Isis like it was some sort of realm of the gods, I honestly thought it was a fairy tale. But you guys were apparently real." He gave a crooked little smile. "I guess we're lucky I was wrong and she was right."

Chloe couldn't look at his smile, she shifted her greens away. "Do you know if the people running this fight-club had any other branches?"

He shook his head. "They didn't exactly bring us in for tea and share their sinister plots with us."

She nodded and looked up when Clark appeared in front of her.

"They had Davis?" Clark asked in surprise before he noticed Arthur and his eyes widened. "A-."

"Clark, this is Arthur." Chloe hurried to stop him. "He's one of the fighters they've kept prisoner here."

Clark looked confused and yet nodded. He picked up Davis and then disappeared as he superspeeded away towards the hospital they were associated with.

Arthur blinked. "That must be a useful metahuman ability."

She let him assume that as she took in a deep breath and turned to him. "Come on then, your turn."

Arthur eyed her curiously before he nodded and flinched in pain as he scooted closer.

"Stop-I'll come closer. I should've thought of the fact that you're hurt." She shook her head and moved to kneel in front of him, her gaze lowered to his chin as she placed her hands on his bare arms. She refused to look up higher than his chin, refused to look up at his face. This way she could pretend he was just some stranger she was healing as she activated her healing ability and felt her warmth go into him. It was the fact that she wouldn't look at him that made her miss the way his eyes widened when her power entered his body, Arthur's eyes flashing before they narrowed and stared at her in utter confusion. Fascination and a mixture of many other emotions faced over his features. "You've got a warrior's body."

"E-excuse me?" His voice sounded odd.

She blushed as she realized that she'd been looking at his bare, sweaty chest when she'd said that. "I mean that your bones have many old breaks in them, and I can see scaring on your skin in various stages of healing-the breaks in your bones are the same. This will help, of course." She licked her lips and shifted her gaze to the right, to where Percy was carrying out a very skinny, very sickly looking girl. Behind him, a group of other prisoners were hurrying to safety, free at last. "We're going to take you to a hospital to be looked at and then we'll take you to Isis where we can get that detonation device you talked about removed safely." She lifted her hands from his skin, which had been warmed by her power, and clenched her fists as she rested them on her thighs and sat back, a weak smile on her face as she looked at his chin once more before she stood. "You'll be right as rain after that."

He was silent.

She cleared her throat and walked away, telling herself that this was for the best. At least she knew that Arthur had reincarnated and was alive. How many nights had she wondered why he was the only one who wasn't here? How many nights had she worried that she'd done something to monumentally screw him over? Now she'd saved him, she'd helped make things right, and while he was apparently some sort of metahuman he was alive and well and once they got that detonation device out of his body he'd be safe and able to live out the rest of his life happily.

"Over here!" Morgana motioned Chloe over as the dark haired beauty helped a girl with a horribly crushed leg hobble. "They were going to make her fight tonight! Can you believe it?"

"I'm cryokinetic," the girl whimpered. "They said I didn't need to walk."

Chloe bent to her knees in front of the girl, who couldn't be more than fifteen, observing the way the bones were completely crushed in that leg. "This will hurt."

"Miss," the girl whispered tearfully. "It already hurts."

Chloe looked up at her before she nodded and placed her hand on the girl's leg and closed her eyes, forcing her power into the girl. She ignored the screams that echoed throughout the room as the girl shook, Morgana having to hold onto her tightly as the bones within her leg began to reform. It was a taxing experience on both Chloe and the poor girl, and once it was finally done, Chloe swayed slightly and yet managed to keep on her feet, a sheen on sweet on her forehead as she looked up at the girl, who'd fainted from the pain a while back. "She'll be fine."

Morgana eyed Chloe. "Will you?"

Chloe's gaze went to Arthur, not seeing him where she'd left him.

"Merlin took him somewhere, he's fine." Morgana assured her.

Chloe took in a deep breath. "He's a reincarnation."

Morgana nodded. "We figured as much."

"He doesn't remember."

Morgana nodded once more.

Chloe stood and wiped her sweat from her forehead. "I'll be fine." She gave Morgana a smile. "He's alive. That's all I wanted."

Morgana didn't smile back. "You're not giving up just because he doesn't remember, are you?"

"Chloe!" Clark yelled, holding a boy who seemed hardly holding onto life. "We need you over here!"

Chloe's eyes widened as she hurried towards the kid, unable to believe that someone this young had been forced to fight here. "What's wrong with him?"

"I don't know." Clark laid the boy down on one of the dingy sofas the people watching the fights would sit on. "Some of the others said that he's been sick, and hasn't awoken in a couple of days."

Chloe sat on the edge of the sofa and leaned down as she rested one hand over the boy's heart and another over his forehead. "Wake up little boy. It's time to wake up and feel better. Time to go home." She activated her healing ability and sent it within his body, horrified at just how sickly this child was, just how neglected his health had been. Unlike the others, who were at least teenagers, this one was truly a kid. What sort of monsters ran this operation? "Come on, everything's going to be alright. You'll be fine," she whispered to him soothingly. "We're here to help you. These people won't hurt you ever again, I promise." She could feel his body slowly responding to her magic, but he was so deteriorated it took more than she expected, and by the time she as able to stabilize him Chloe nearly stumbled off of the sofa.

Clark caught her. "Chloe? Are you alright?"

"He was near death and I had to use up a lot of energy to bring him back." She hid her face in his neck, tired, sweating profusely, and taking a little break as she just breathed in his scent. "He'll be fine now."

"I'm going to take you-."

"No." She shook her head and pushed away, gaze on the state of the people around them. "Some of these people need me. They won't make it to the hospital."

"You can't overdo your ability, Chloe." Clark narrowed his eyes at her. "Healing two, three people, fine. But more-."

"Chloe!" Percy called from her right. "We need you over here! It's bad! I think he's septic!"

Clark's grip on her tightened. "Gwen-."

"-and you worry too much." Chloe pressed a kiss to Clark's nose as she pushed to her feet. She took in a deep breath. "Percival? Where are you?"

"Over here!" Percy swung his arms around.

Chloe noticed the tall, muscular giant in the chaos and confusion and made her way towards him.

-X-X-X-X-X-

Isis was overcrowded with the people from the fight club, but they were getting their detonation devices removed safely and being reunited with their family members, and those who didn't have a family or place to stay were being offered one at the boarding facilities Isis offered, as well as participation into the social reintegration programs that Lana ran. They'd help the metahumans get decent jobs and places to live before ushering them back into the world. Helping metahumans deal with their abilities, and protecting them from the people who would hurt them wasn't the only thing that Isis did. It was a well-rounded program, and was one of the reasons why Chloe loved it so much. Already there were counseling sessions set up for those who wanted to attend and address the trauma that they'd gone through at the hands of their captors-captors who'd been arrested and were being brought up on charges of kidnapping and other counts against various Human Rights.

Chloe stood on the desk of her office, wearing her impossibly high heels as she tried to change the lightbulb. Usually one of the guys did this for her (though somehow it usually ended up being Davis of all people) but with everything that had happened everyone was understandably busy and the light that always ended up blowing had blown once again and she was forced to try and fix the issue herself or be left in darkness once the sun went down. She cursed being so short sometimes, it really wasn't worth it sometimes, no matter how "cute" Lois swore it made her. The blonde huffed and puffed as she stretched upwards, lightbulb on the tips of her fingers as she tried to push up on her dangerously high heels and connect the damned bulb to the damned light.

"I feel like I should say something about how dangerous that looks."

Chloe squeaked at the unexpected voice, and she lost her footing, giving a cry as she fell backwards.

There was a curse and rushed footsteps.

Somehow-impossibly-she fell into Arthur's arms, the blonde staring up into his face, not even noticing when the bulb fell to the ground and shattered loudly.

Arthur stared down at her before he raised an eyebrow. "I also feel the need to say: I told you so."

Chloe cleared her throat before she looked away. "I would've been fine if someone hadn't scared me."

He lowered to her feet and stared at her shoes. "Are those even safe to walk in, much less stand up on high tables in?"

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you see how high that is?" At his 'of course I do' look, she continued. "I'm not tall enough to reach it without them on."

"You're not tall enough to reach it with them on either," he countered.

He kinda had a point there, and she hated it.

Taking in a deep breath, Arthur's gaze lowered to the shattered glass. "You have another one? A lightbulb, I mean?"

Understanding the offer, Chloe went to grab her spare lightbulb and brought it to him. "Thank you."

"Think nothing of it." He climbed onto the table and went to work, the back of his neck bandaged from where the detonation device had been removed.

In lieu of watching him like some sort of creeper, Chloe went to grab a broom and dust-pan, collecting the glass fragments safely into it and then dumping them into her trashcan. By the time she was done and had put the broom and dust-pan away Arthur was finished as well, off of the table, and standing by a large painting, staring at it.

She gulped when she realized what it was and hesitated for a second as she called herself an idiot for not having even remembered that that was in here.

"You guys seem to have a thing for the whole King Arthur myth." Arthur called over his shoulder and then paused when he realized she was right there, his smile sheepish before his gaze returned to the painting of King Arthur and his Knights, as well as an elderly Merlin, seated around the round table. "I've noticed little nods to it around the whole place, I'm almost surprised that the place isn't called "Camelot" instead of "Isis"."

She licked her lips. "Lana named it, she owns the organization. But she lets us decorate our offices as we see fit… and she has a fondness for the Arthurian legends herself so she doesn't mind." Especially since her boyfriend, Percy, was the reincarnation of one of the knights in that painting.

To be truthful, Lana had reconsidered rebranding, calling "Isis" "Albion" instead, but "Isis" had already become too well-known a name by that time and it wouldn't make sense-would hurt their cause. So in the end the name had stayed.

"So… this isn't an infirmary." Arthur gazed away from the painting.

Chloe blinked at the random comment. "Why did you-?" Her eyes widened. "Because of my meteor ability you thought I was the institute's nurse?"

He nodded, unabashed, hands in his sports jacket.

She let out a laugh at that. "No. I'm not." She pulled a blonde strand behind her ear. "Gwen-we have a psychologist with us who helps our kind. It isn't easy to be different, and it isn't easy to open up about it, but she's a sweetheart and she truly cares, which is something that anyone who goes to her counseling sessions realizes the second they meet her and give her half a chance." She cleared her throat. "We're thinking about adding a medical doctor to the staff though, but we haven't actually done so. It's why those we saved from the fight club were taken to the hospital and not brought straight here." She cleared her throat. "My ability is healing, but I can only heal a certain amount and to a certain degree before it takes a toll on me, so it would be better to actually have a medically trained person on the staff to take care of those who need it. I could assist with the more severe cases of course, bringing them from the brinks as I did at the club, but other than that the doctor would nurse them back to help more gradually, naturally."

Arthur nodded silently. "I see. I didn't realize that it hurt you to heal people."

"Some people don't have draw-backs on their mutations-consequences, mine does, though only if I use it on too many people who are severely injured." She shrugged as she looked away. "Doesn't matter because it's worth it."

He continued to watch her in silence before he too looked away. "So if not a nurse, what exactly are you?"

"Me?" She turned her greens on him. "Would you believe me if I said I was PR?"

"Really?" His blues returned to her.

She nodded as a smile curved her lips. "I studied journalism before… things… happened and I took over the Public Relations of Isis." She gazed around her office. "It's not what I imagined myself being, I dreamed of working at the Daily Planet and winning the Pulitzer, but my cousin will have to fulfill that childhood dream for me. This-this is my dream now. Helping people with what I do, and helping the organization that helps those people." Her gaze returned to Arthur and she paused at the intent way he watched her. "What?"

"Nothing." He shook his head. "It's just that everyone I've talked to who works here has this passion about the place." He gave a shrug. "I don't think I've ever felt anything close to how you all feel for this place for anything in my entire existence. To be honest, I'm kind of envious."

Chloe didn't know what to say to that.

Clark knocked on the door. "Sorry to interrupt."

Chloe tore her gaze from Arthur to look back at Clark, a small smile on her face. "Hey. What's up?"

Clark's gaze went to Arthur before he cleared his throat and turned to Chloe, worried. The alien obviously wanted to hug and comfort her and was visibly restraining himself from reaching out for her. Her intergalactic best friend was taking the whole "Arthur doesn't remember" situation worse than Chloe was, and she loved him for it. "Uh, Merlin wanted to talk to you about the ad you're going to be putting in the paper for the extra help we'll be needing?"

Chloe blinked in confusion. "He needs to talk to me about this right now? But the advertisement won't come out in a couple of weeks."

Clark shrugged. "He said it was urgent, that you should put certain characteristics in that he didn't think you'd added."

Chloe snorted, a little insulted Merlin thought she'd overlooked something critical. "Oh did he?"

"You're advertising for a job here?" Arthur asked curiously.

Chloe turned to him in surprise. "Yeah."

"We're looking for a live-in security guard." Clark surprised her by blurting that out rapidly. "As you know, we have people staying with us at nights, and we don't like the fact that sometimes we have to leave them alone at nights. We'd like to leave knowing that there's always someone here protecting them."

"More like a guardian than a security guard, but the position being offered is technically that of a security guard." Chloe ran her fingers through her hair. "Percy has been doing the job all on his own so far, but he has a life and we can't expect him to be a slave to this place. It's why we're looking for two or more candidates who can help protect this place and the people who seek refuge in it." She hugged herself. "As you can see, doing what we do, we can get… enemies."

Arthur gazed between them curiously. "What would be the requirements for applying to be a… security guard?"

Chloe froze, eyes wide.

Clark grinned as he moved closer to Arthur and clapped his hand to Arthur's back. "Come with me. I have one of the application forms in the other room with me."

Arthur gave him a small smile, gave Chloe a little nod, and allowed Clark to lead him out of the room.

Chloe stared at the two of them as they left, eyes still ridiculously large, lips parted, heart racing.

What the hell had just happened?!

If it wasn't that it suited his needs Arthur would've told these people they needed to be more guarded, but he'd merely held his tongue and gratefully accepted the job when Lana Lang, the founder of Isis, accepted his application (before the job had even been advertised in the newspaper) and offered him the position. She'd informed him that they would still advertise the position as they would need at least another 'guardian' for Isis, and he didn't mind, the blonde merely making a mental note to make sure that they screened the next candidate better than they'd screened him.

For now though, he moved his belongings, which really weren't that much, into the room that would be his, and looked around it. It wasn't anything grand, but that didn't bother him because he wasn't used to having grand things anyway. He didn't care for the grandiose. He hadn't come here for a room. To be honest, he wasn't even sure why he was here. Now that he was free, now that he wasn't being forced to fight or kill to stay alive he could be anywhere in the world, doing anything he liked, and he couldn't come up with a good excuse as to why exactly he was here in this place doing this. And yet he was here, and he was going to stick this out for however long it took for him to figure it out.

Sensing movement on the opposite side of his door, which was ajar, Arthur stood and went to it, slipping it silently open to see the blonde girl, Chloe, moving down the hallway, her gaze fixed on a chart in her hands.

His gaze rose and fell down her body almost instinctively, and something tightened in his gut hungrily. He was almost sure this was the woman Davis had mentioned while they were in the cell together, the one the EMT was probably infatuated with, and now that he'd met her himself Arthur couldn't blame the guy. She didn't dress flashy like the other women in this place, and didn't wear half the amount of makeup, and her shirts weren't so low-cut-but there was something about this woman…

Arthur licked his lips as he slipped out of his room and followed her silently down the hall, watching her as she entered a room. He waited for a moment before he eased the door open and gazed inside to see her standing over the bed of a little boy who appeared to be unconscious.

"Hey you." Chloe put down the chart and leaned down to brush the boy's dark brown hair from his face, her fingers glowing with her healing power. "How's my favorite patient doing today?"

The boy was pale and unconscious and didn't answer.

Arthur recognized the kid as the telekinetic from the fight club.

"I can't believe those animals would use you." She shook her head as she rested her hand on his forehead, letting her power drain into him. "Don't tell Clark I'm still healing you. I'm supposed to be letting you heal naturally now that you're out of danger."

Arthur leaned his head against the doorframe as he watched her.

"You should be waking up soon." Chloe finally removed her hand from his forehead and sat on the bed next to him as she pulled out a book from her jacket's pocket. "I know they say that people in comas can hear things that go on around them, so I figured you must be lonely and scared right now… But most of all, I figured you must be insanely bored."

He stifled a snort of amusement.

Chloe got comfortable next to the boy as she opened her book. "I'm going to read to you about Harry Potter, another little boy with strange abilities who had to overcome a lot of problems, and who was hurt by people because of those abilities, but who found friends and people who loved him." She paused. "And FYI, I didn't just spoil the book. There's more to it than that."

Arthur bit the inside of his cheek, amusement growing.

"Okay, here we go. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Chapter One: The Boy Who Lived." Chloe licked her lips and cleared her throat before beginning. "Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense…"

A smile curved on his lips, Arthur arranged himself in a more comfortable position in the doorway, arms folded over his chest, and watched as the woman read to the boy.

Fini.