Summary: The Druitt/Magnus family is divided, scattered through the world. But another force will rise to bring the family back together and test the resolve of the network.
Disclaimer: I own nothing of sanctuary or the characters... except for Chase.
Rating: M
RISING TIDES:
SACNTUARY:
2 MONTHS LATER
Doctor Will Zimmerman dreaded heading into Magnus's office these days. All she did was sit at her desk as still as a statue or she stood by the window as still as statue. He knew the reasons for her inner turmoil; Druitt was gone, Ashley was gone, and Chase was gone. Along with Chase being gone was Henry and he was barely at the Sanctuary anymore. He was down in Jamaica with Chase. Occasionally the werewolf would come back and fix some sort of problem and then be right back down to the islands. Magnus acted like she didn't care. She went about business as usual in a haze. Most days she didn't pay attention and then there were some days that she pretended to care. His friend and boss was hurting deeply, but she wouldn't talk about it and Will was damned if he hadn't tried. Taking in a deep breath Will walked through the open office door and saw, where he expected her to be, Helen at her desk barely reading the paper work in front of her. This time Will decided that he would take a more aggressive approach to lure her out of the dark she had encased herself in.
Will took a deep breath and said, "Ok, Magnus it's time for you to get out of here," he placed both of his hands on her desk.
Magnus had a feeling that her protégé would try something like this. So, she gave him a look of utter indifference, "Will, I'm in no mood for you psychological attempts to pull me out of my doldrums. Please, leave me alone. This is the last time I'm ask nicely," Helen said and turned her back on him.
"You need to get out of this room. So what if John is gone, or if Ashley has isolated herself in South Africa, or if Chase is living up island life. You have a job to do here, maybe you should start doing it or…"
"Or what William, are you going to force me to step down?" Helen rose and leveled herself face to face with him.
"No, I was going to say go somewhere away from her yourself. It wouldn't kill you," Will muttered the last part as he stared her down.
Will shook his head and left her alone like she had asked. There was no talking to her like this, not when he was lost in her own mind and her own inner pain. He knew she was in pain and it was all because of Ashley, Chase and John Druitt. The same day Druitt had left her daughters had abandoned her. Now Helen was suffering and it was a miracle that the Sanctuary had suffered with her.
Helen waited until she was sure Will was far down the hall from her office before she turned to the top drawer of her desk and pulled out a picture. They had not meant to have the photograph taken but a local in Baja had decided to take their picture. In it Helen stood next to John with Ashley to her right and Chase to John's left. To the outside they looked like a happy family and for a while, down on the island, they believed it too. The smiles that had been captured were happy and full of warmth. Then reality came crashing back and now her family was torn asunder once more. Helen didn't even have the comfort of Ashley anymore. She put the picture back where it belonged and then turned to her computer to send and e-mail that she knew would be ignored.
So, once again Helen reclined in her desk chair to stare out her window and ponder how her life and her family could have taken a turn for the worse. She had gone half way down the rabbit hole in her mind when he friend walked in carrying a letter. Helen immediately recognized the paper as turn of the century Victorian style heavy white paper with a red wax seal. JM was molded into the wax in a stylized calligraphy. It was a style she had seen somewhere before but long memory was failing her. Helen took the letter her man servant offered and she thought he would leave, but he only walked around to stand in front of her desk to stare at her. "If you've come to talk me out of my office don't bother. William has tried and failed." Helen remarked and yet still he stood there.
"You seem sadder than usual."
"I can't imagine why, wait, yes I can." Helen snapped and then lowered her head. She hadn't meant to take her new found anger out on him. Her mood as of late made it impossible for anyone to be around her for any length of time because of her sarcasm and blatant anger. she knew how she was acting, but she couldn't seem to act any other way. Her children were gone and her lover had broken his word to stay with her. Helen remembered that she had told him that it was ok, but now it wasn't. She wanted him to be here with her and hold her at night. Now that she had gotten so used to it she hadn't figured out how she had managed to live without him. Then she remembered what had happened to him; John had lost his sanity and became a killer.
JOHANESBURG:
SOUTH AFRICA
Ashley walked the streets much in the same way as she had done everyday for two months. With all that had happened she had had no real chance to stop and examine her life for what it was. She, Ashley Magnus, was a hunter. Her main mission in life was to protect humans and hide the existence of the Abnormal world. But right now she contented herself with just being Ashley. After she had left she had contemplated going back for Jax and she had, but he had turned her away and told her to do what she had to do to heal her pain while he healed himself. Everyone was using that word lately; heal. It was like they were all sick and in need of some good meds to function again. When the truth was they were all damaged people who only made life worse for those around them. As much as she loved her mother, her sister, and as much as she was starting to love her father; Ashley was tired of causing pain to her family. Leaving may not have been the prudent thing, not the best, but it was something that had to be done. If she could have stayed she would of. Yeah, she knew it hurt her mother for her to be gone, but Ashley knew without a doubt that it was something she had to do. She needed time to think, to plan, and to learn to be herself again. Too long had she been a captive of the Cabal, then she was fighting them again. After that she met Jax and was tossed into another battle with an uncle she never knew existed; but he was dead now so what did that family tie matter?
Ashley had started to sit down in a café when she spotted someone watching her. She had seen his reflection in the glass but made sure she didn't tip him off that she knew he was watching her. It was nothing knew to be watched; it happened to her all the time. Ashley knew how she looked, the fare skin and the light blue eyes, she was beautiful but if she had the choice she would be in a pit somewhere battling it out the Abnormal of the day. But as it stood she was sitting in a café waiting for her coffee and being watched with more than casual interest. As the staring continued Ashley tried to ignore it or risk the police hauling her in on an aggravated assault charge. When she had had enough Ashley turned to tell the guy to stare at something else when the server appeared with her coffee and a sealed envelope that reminded her of her mother, only the wax seal bore the letters JM. She sat puzzled for a few minutes and then put it out of her mind for later. When she was out of the view of the normal people Ashley would jog back to her loft and read the letter from the mysterious man who had been staring at her. Her life was one mystery after the other and it would continue till the day she died; when she died. Ashley left the money for her coffee and a sizable tip before she teleported back to the Sanctuary and her home. Ashley had a feeling that this was the catalyst to bring her family back together.
JAMAICA:
CHASE COVE
Chase stared out at the crystal clear blue water and, not for the first time, thought about home. For two months that was all Chase did; she did nothing but think and think and think and think. She wondered what her mother was doing, where her father was, and what Ashley was doing. Just like her father, Chase had decided to leave to heal a part of her soul she had had no idea was broken. That was a lie, Chase knew she was broken, they were all broken. The question was, was she broken beyond repair. When she had been at home she thought that her life had been finally whole. She had her parents and her sister. But now her father was MIA, Ashley was MIA and her mother was in a deep dark pit of pain at the loss of all three of them. The one good thing about her mother's obliviousness was that Chase could sneak in and out of the Sanctuary to see Henry. Unlike her sister Chase hadn't been able to stay away for long, but two weeks ago she had gone to see Henry and he had just come back with her.
Right now as she looked out at the water she could see her werewolf lover on a banana boat enjoying the sun. He waved to her and Chase returned the wave half heartedly, but Henry couldn't tell. She was good at hiding her pain; at least she thought she was. As she continued to watch Chase heard the foot steps of someone coming to the front door of her sprawling bungalow hideaway. Only a handful of people knew that someone lived in this cove and they were all trusted friends of her mothers. So, if someone was coming to see her then it must be important. Leaving Henry to the sun Chase hurried to the front door. But when she opened it there was no one there. 'How odd,' She thought, 'I could have sworn I heard foot steps.' Turning to go back inside that was when chase saw the envelope tacked to her front door by a dagger. The wax seal held the letter J and M. This was bound to turn out bad as it was sure to fling her family back together. Chase wasn't sure she was ready for that yet.
"Hey babe what'd you get?" Henry asked from behind Chase and made her jump about two feet in the air. He hadn't meant to scare her. Henry honestly thought she had heard him come up behind her. She always had better senses than he had even when he was in his wolf form.
Chase turned to Henry and smiled slightly, "Sorry, but someone sent me a mysterious letter. It looks like we'll be heading home shortly." She announced and walked back inside with Henry on her heals.
"How come you don't sound happier about that?" Henry shut the door and then leaned against it. He had come back here with Chase to try and coax her home. but so far two weeks later she hadn't budged and he had lost himself in island life. The surfing was choice and he wasn't expected to repair servers or monitor power glitches constantly. It was a nice vacation, and even better he was spending it with Chase, despite the fact that she seemed so sad all the time.
"I'm just worried about causing mom more pain." Chase gave words to her early thoughts. Maybe it was time to leave and never come back. She had done it before when she was fifteen; only that had been because her abnormal abilities were growing out of control and she feared hurting someone. But could she honestly disappear with a clean conscience? Chase doubted she could; she could only think about it and know that it was a good idea in theory, but in practice it wasn't so sound and it would cause more harm than good.
"It would cause Magnus more pain if you didn't come home." Henry moved away from the door and brought Chase into the circle of his arms. He knew that she suffered as much as Magnus, and probably as much as Ashley was suffering to.
"I know, so we go home." Chase whispered and without another thought she took them back to the only place where they would be truly safe from the world. As much as she loved island life Chase did want to go home; she was just too proud to admit it sometimes.
ABNORMAL MONASTERY:
TIBETENMOUNTAINS
John had been in the monastery for two months and he had come to the conclusion that monastery was not the right word for this place. This was more along the lines of a hide away for dangerous abnormals who had the conscience to take themselves out of society but not be studied as lab rats. And the sad thing was that was the only cosmic conclusion he had drawn from his time here. He felt no different from when he left his family then he did now; only right now he was bored. John had sat in quiet contemplation for about a week and all he did was count his breaths. Or he would mix it up and count the cracks in the stones in front of him. John was starting to wonder if this was such a good idea about a week after he had gotten here.
John scrubbed his hands over his face and then ran his finger through the cap of dark auburn hair that had begun to grow back almost upon his arrival. He would have kept shaving his head but every time he lifted the razor something stopped him and John was never sure what it was. Even back in Victorian London his hair hadn't been this long. So, here he sat with his tousled shoulder length hair wondering what to do next when Jeremy walked in.
"Are you finished for the day?"
"I haven't even started." Once again John ran his hands through his hair and mildly wished he had a hair tie. Instead all he had was a leather cord in which to wrangle his hair into some semblance of order while keeping it out of his face.
"Then perhaps you should leave?" Jeremy suggested. Day in and day out he had watched as his 'friend', for want of a better word, roamed the grounds in restlessness trying to find some semblance of peace. The others of this secluded hide away had all managed to find that peace and the will to control themselves, but John had just grown weary and his internal pain had not lessened.
"It's almost comical to know that I came here to heal when all I needed to do was learn to let Helen into my life more completely than I had." John would laugh if the knowledge wasn't so depressing. He had broken his word to stay until it was her will that he leave. But he thought it was in the best interest of their family. John made a frustrated sound and laid back down on the cool stone floor. He wanted to return to Helen's side with a fierce passion that he had to reign himself in these past two months. John was constantly reminding himself that he was doing this for her, for them. They needed a healthy relationship that didn't revolve around some sort of personal crisis.
"It is time you go home," Jeremy stood next to John.
"Of course, then the next time you see me, you'll be staring at my headstone." John shot back. The truth was he wasn't sure how Helen would react, though, he was sure that her throwing things would be in the mix or she might simply decide to shoot him. He wasn't sure if he just preferred to be shot. It might make things easier for Helen though, he wasn't sure what would and wouldn't be easier for his lover anymore.
Jeremy started to walk away and then remembered the reason he had come in search of the Ripper in the first place, "Here, this came for you," Jeremy tossed the wax sealed letter so that it landed on John's stretched out body. He didn't wait around to see the Ripper's reaction.
John watched Jeremy go before he reacted to the Victorian styled paper that now lay on his chest. At one time he had used the same style paper to taunt Scotland Yard and James with. Sitting up very slowly John took the paper between his left thumb and index finger. He flipped it over to see the red wax seal with the letter JM on it. It was a puzzle as to who he knew with the initial JM. Everyone from his former life was dead in the ground. That settled that he would have to return and face Helen, face Ashley, and face Chase. He wasted no time in returning to the Sanctuary.
