Chapter Two

It had only been six months since Avon had come to work for Vila, but somehow he'd turned the whole organization upside down in that brief time. Now, all technical questions went to him first, not to Vila. He acted as a buffer between Vila and everyone else, except the core group, of course. His new innovations in computer security promised to revolutionize the business.

Through it all, while he worked long hours, he didn't socialize with anyone, not even the core group. After their initial shock at finding him alive, they all welcomed him back into the fold, as it were. But they couldn't manage to reintegrate him. He kept his distance from them all, no matter how they tried to include him in their lives. He remained an outsider, just as he appeared to want it. He went about his job very efficiently, then disappeared into his own private life at day's end.

Finally, Vila had had enough. He had to know where Avon went every night. Even though he knew Avon would view it as a severe invasion of his privacy, Vila felt it was worth the risk of Avon's ire.

Dressing down from his usual sartorial splendor, he loitered outside his own research facility, waiting for a certain dark head to appear.

When he did, Vila followed.

The trail led downscale economically, drastically. Eventually, Vila tailed Avon to a seedy area of residential buildings interspersed with a few businesses. Vila watched as Avon turned into a long low brick building labeled Greenhill Sanitarium. Vila frowned at the irony of the name---there was no greenery for miles around it.

It was over an hour before Avon reappeared, plodding, head bowed, sunk into himself.

Vila waited until Avon was almost upon him, then drifted out of his hiding place and fell into step at Avon's side. When he finally became aware of Vila, Avon jolted to a stop, grabbing Vila's arm and spinning him about, his whole body radiating fury.

"You followed me!" he spat out angrily. "Why?"

"I had to know what was driving you. You wouldn't talk to me. To us."

Abruptly, all the fight flowed out of Avon. Vila leaned toward him, but didn't dare touch him. There was something so fragile about Avon, Vila was sure he would break into more pieces than there were stars in the sky.

"You might as well talk to me now," Vila said softly, reasonably. "You know I can go in there and ask the authorities for the story. I'd rather hear it from you."

Avon sagged against the building with bowed head. His voice came low and dispirited.

"My wife is in there, Vila. Everything I earn goes toward keeping her there and treating her. She's…quite insane. We…met, fell in love, married. We…lost a child and it drove her over an edge she'd been skirting for years. She hasn't been sane since then. The doctors don't give me any hope that she will ever get better." He looked up at Vila with dark hooded eyes. Would Vila accept this much of his story, without probing for more? Without digging into the sanitarium for the truth?

He did. Righteous indignation filled the former thief.

"Avon, you're more of an idiot that you ever called me! You didn't have to hide this from us! We are your family. You can trust us to help you! I'll increase your salary to whatever you need for her care, just name a figure." Vila was affronted that Avon would try to carry this burden himself, and wanted to fix things. Right now!

Avon smiled to himself, though he was outwardly stone-faced. Vila had bought it whole cloth. That meant he wouldn't check up with the sanitarium, for which he was mightily thankful.

He admitted, "Vila, that's a load off my mind. Yes, of course I'll accept you offer. I…never came to you with my problem because I thought of it as MY responsibility to care for her. It didn't occur to me to ask for help." He looked down at the sidewalk again. "I guess that's one of my problems. I don't know when to ask for help. Thank you, Vila. Um, could you not tell the others? I'd rather they didn't know. It would just…make them feel sorry for me, and I couldn't stand that."

"Of course, Avon. I don't think they need to know either," Vila replied.

Avon sighed with relief. He'd gotten by with his half-truth. Maybe, just maybe, he'd never have to reveal his secret.

***

It was exactly a year since Avon had returned to the group and started working for Vila. In a perhaps misguided attempt to reintegrate him into their group, Dayna, Tarrant, and Vila had planned something special to celebrate the occasion. They'd set Vila to ambush the tech and bring him to the festivities.

That's why Vila was standing sentry outside Avon's lab that day, watching through the windows of the lab's double doors as Avon wrapped things up for the day. Thus, he saw Avon start and reach for his pager when it went off. They'd all wondered about the pager that never left his belt, but none of them had ever dared ask its purpose.

Vila was about to find out.