A/N: This is my first fic, and it's a song fic. I'm also working on another one, but with a concert on Thursday, I doubt I'll have time to get it ready until this weekend. Let me know what you think, but please be gentle!
Disclaimer: I, sadly, do not own the Covenant or anything that you recognize.
Gorman was pacing the room, giving off agitated vibes. William sat in his chair without even turning to face the old caretaker, his source of life for the last few years. "It's Caleb's birthday." The elderly caretaker, who looked younger than his charge, but in reality was years older, mused as he paced in front of the window, glowing with the fire of the setting sun behind him.
Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side
The summer's gone, and all the flowers are dying
'Tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide.
William turned to face his old friend, but said nothing. Gorman had, unbeknownst to Caleb, told the elder Danvers everything that was to happen tonight. Caleb hadn't exactly been straightforward with Gorman either. Most of what the caretaker knew he had learned from Evelyn on one of her rare visits to the colony house to drop off some supplies to keep her husband hanging by the thread of life he clung to for a little while longer. That's how both men standing before the fireplace knew that today was the day that Caleb would not only ascend, but do so while taking on a member of the long thought dead fifth bloodline.
Watching as the light slowly faded, seeming to be swallowed up by the horizon, Gorman kept a careful watch on the time. "He'll be here in a few hours," William rasped, assuring the graying man that his son would do as was custom in the coven and come to see his father, if said man were still alive, immediately following his ascension. None of the worry he was feeling deep down inside showed through, though Gorman knew it was there. Having known William since he was a child, Gorman knew how he hid his emotions, even hiding them from his own family. Gorman also knew that William loved his wife and son more than life itself and hated what he'd put them through in the last few years.
But come ye back when summer's in the meadow
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow
'Tis I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow
Oh Danny boy, oh Danny boy, I love you so.
The seconds ticked by like minutes, the minutes like hours, and the hours like years, and still Caleb had not come. The time for his ascension had come and passed and rain leaked from the sky in buckets, lightening streaking the sky and thunder shattering the delicate silence that had fallen. William hadn't said a word, still trying to hide his worry for his son but to little avail. Though his body was aged beyond the point of being able to use his powers, he could still feel when others used them. He felt two strengths of power being used this night, one strong, aided by the powers of those he'd taken, the other weaker, though not by much. He knew which surges of power belonged to the fifth bloodline and which to Caleb; he also knew what he must do to protect the coven and his son. He was prepared to do just that when the door downstairs creaked open, but William could tell it was not his only child coming to greet him.
And if you come, when all the flowers are dying
And I am dead, as dead I well may be
You'll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an "Ave" there for me.
All it took was the look on Evelyn's face when she came tearing up the stairs of the old Danvers colony house and he knew why she'd come. The fact that she'd asked Gorman to give them some privacy only confirmed what he thought. Once Gorman was gone, she knelt in front of him, giving him a full view of her pleading dark eyes. Caleb's eyes, he thought ruefully. He may have been a power-aged man, but that didn't mean he didn't remember his family. Or what he'd put them through. She began to plead with him, begging him to do the right thing now. Little did she know he'd been about to do just that before she entered.
And I shall hear, tho' soft you tread above me
And all my dreams will warm and sweeter be
If you'll not fail to tell me that you love me
I'll simply sleep in peace until you come to me.
Thinking only of the family he would leave behind, William Danvers III rasped out his final words. "I…Will…You…My…Powers…" His final thought was of his son, hoping against hope that his powers would be enough, when added to the ones Caleb already possessed, to help the boy defeat Chase. Then, it was as if all cares and burdens were lifted from his shoulders as his body relaxed completely; his head lolled to his shoulder and his eyes drifted closed as William Danvers III entered into eternal sleep.
Evelyn sat a moment longer at her husband's feet. She couldn't be sure but she thought she had seem something akin to love and adoration flash in his eyes as they were drifting closed. As she stood and turned to leave, she let her hand fall to caress the face of the man that she once loved more than life itself. "I'll tell Caleb that you love him."