Not a very happy chapter unfortunately, but it builds up main plotlines for the rest of the story so it's kind of necessary!

Please leave reviews.

Chapter 3

Lucien, dressed in sweatpants and topless, padded barefoot into his kitchen. His first task was to fill up the kettle and get the water boiling. A nice cup of tea was always just what he needed to wake up. He couldn't stomach coffee, so tea it was.

Looking out of the window, he watched the morning traffic pass by below his third-floor flat. He lived close to the Denver city centre so his street tended to be pretty busy the majority of the time. It didn't bother Lucien though. He had grown up in New York before his mom moved him and his brother here when he was thirteen, and he found that these busy streets reminded him of his old home. Of how happy his family had been then compared to what they were like now.

After making his cup of tea, he sat down at the small two-seater table he had. Last night had been a wild one, he thought to himself. After a long week at work, working as a learner support staff at Wrickenridge High School, he had decided to go for a night out. He'd deserved it, he'd decided. He supported a deaf girl the first three days of the week, and a boy with various health and behavioural problems the last two days – he truly did love his job, but it could be challenging and he was always exhausted by the end of the week.

Going out solo wasn't an issue for him. He figured that after a few drinks he'd get the kind of confidence a drunk person got and wouldn't feel too awkward dancing with strangers. That's what usually happened. Last night had been different though because last night he saw him.

The guy at the bar had been tall and had a rugby build, making him look big and powerful. His dark hair had been ruffled, light stubble shaping his face. Lucien had noticed him as soon as he had reached the bar and couldn't take his eyes off him. God, he'd been lovely to look at. After finally looking away for a short minute, he'd looked back over at the guy. Who was looking straight at him too. His gaze had oozed sexuality that had shot straight to Lucien's crotch.

The guy had walked over to Lucien and kissed him, just like that. The next hour had been spent drinking and dancing, prolonging the inevitable. There had been such tension between them and they'd barely looked away from each other, totally oblivious to everybody else surrounding them.

As the kitchen door opened, Lucien looked up and met the light brown eyes of the guy from the club. When they couldn't handle it anymore last night, they'd come back here and had the best sex of their lives. Well, he wasn't sure how it'd been for the other guy but for him it had been the best.

"Hey," the guy said in a deep voice. He ran a hand through his already messy hair, having that awkward air around him that one did after a one night stand. "Um, you got any coffee?"

"No, sorry. Don't buy the stuff. There's tea," Lucien offered, gesturing towards the tea bags left out on the counter.

The guy grimaced as if even the thought of drinking tea disgusted him. Guess they were complete opposites there then, Lucien mused. "Listen..."

"Lucien," he provided his name as he realized that throughout all of last night they hadn't even told each other their names. How the hell had they managed that? "And you are…?"

"Will," the guy replied. "Will Benedict." Lucien raised his eyebrows at the famous surname but made no further comments. "Lucien," Will continued. "I should really go. I have a cat. That needs feeding. So, yeah." He spoke in short sentences, knowing that they both knew he was clearly just looking for any old excuse to leave.

This didn't really bother Lucien. It was all part of having a one night stand, right? At least he presumed it was. Last night had been the first time he'd done that with some random guy. The previous three guys he'd had sex with he'd been in a relationship with, even if it had only been brief and never lasted more than four months. He'd felt something with Will last night though, something he'd never felt before.

Had it been sexual tension? Or something more? It wasn't like he was in love with the guy already, he thought silently. He just felt drawn to him, that was all. Still though, he wouldn't care when Will Benedict left here and they never saw each other again. Even if Will was unbelievably hot and good in bed.

"What's this?" Will's voice brought Lucien out of his thoughts and he looked back up at the guy. Will was pointing to an invitation that was stuck to the fridge. "It's an invitation to a savant fundraiser event," he answered his own question. His eyes met Lucien's, surprised. "Are you a savant?"

Lucien had always been told to never reveal what he was to anybody that wasn't of his kind, but clearly that wasn't the case here like he had thought. He nodded his head. "Yeah. And I'm guessing with the name Benedict, you are too?"

Will closed his eyes and took a breath before looking at Lucien again. He smiled bitterly. "Why can't I ever just meet someone who doesn't judge me by my family?"

"Hey, no judging over here," Lucien held his hands up as if in surrender. "I don't tell people about my family either. We don't have a very good track record of being on the net's side, people often just expect me to be like that too. Which I'm not, for the record."

Will cracked a real smile this time, a half-smile instead of a full one. Now that Lucien thought about it, it was only those little crooked smiles he had seen all of last night too. Was the guy even capable of a real, proper smile?

"Good," Will answered, finally taking the seat across from Lucien. "You know, I've got to admit. This isn't the first one-night stand I've had, but it's the only one I've had with another savant. That I know of anyway."

"You're not the only one," Lucien replied telepathically, amused.

If Will had been starting to open up and like Lucien, that all changed now. Will quickly jumped out of the chair, almost tripping up as he took a few steps backwards, stopping only when his back hit the fridge. His eyes were wide, his face frozen in shock. No, not shock. Horror.

"What?" Lucien stood up, looking around. Had Will noticed something that he hadn't? Desperately he repeated, "what? What's going on?"

Will looked at him, mouth opening and closing as if his mouth couldn't frame the words he wanted to say. He wasn't blinking. His entire body was tense, fists clenched by his side. The look on his face was really starting to scare Lucien and he was going to ask again what was wrong, but then he got his answer.

Instead of speaking out loud, Will spoke telepathically. Just one word. "Soulfinder."

Lucien felt it straight away. With straight couples, only the guy felt it; with same-sex couples, both involved felt it. Lucien's mind buzzed, an electric current running through it and spreading throughout his whole body. His eyes widened as his chest warmed, his heart beating faster and faster. He'd never experienced such a sensation before but somehow he just knew what it meant. It was instinctual, in the nature of a savant.

He and Will Benedict were soulfinders.

His mouth was doing the same fish impression that Will's had been. Finally he got his shit together and managed to say, "I don't believe this."

"Yeah I'm a little surprised here too," Will choked out, sarcasm in his tone over having to point out the obvious.

Lucien thought back to everything his dear mom had told him about soulfinders. She believed that people were reincarnated after death, starting entire new lives. But in each of those lives, the soulfinders found each other. Their souls were linked, not whole until they were together. He had always wanted to find his soulfinder despite knowing the unlikely odds of doing so, had thought it would make his life so perfect.

Well, wasn't he just utterly lucky to have Will Benedict as a soulfinder. Thinking of waking up to that face and body every morning was certainly not disappointing. Hope for a new relationship filled him up.

"This is brilliant," he smiled at Will across the table. "I've been waiting for this day for so long. I've been waiting for you for so long. I guess we have a lot of talking to do, eh?"

Finally, Will seemed to come out of shock. But instead of looking as thrilled as Lucien did, he looked angry. "Brilliant?!" He exclaimed, almost a shout. "This is not brilliant! You don't even have any idea what this means for me. I didn't want this," he gestured between the two of them. "I wanted a female soulfinder. I don't want you."

"You sure as hell wanted me last night," Lucien pointed out with a cheeky smile. He was remaining as calm as he could, determined to not let himself get overcome with fury. That never did any good.

"That was different, I thought I'd never see you again!" Will paused for a moment before shaking his head. "That's the way it should be. I gotta get out of here."

Lucien followed Will as he left the kitchen of the flat and walked through the living room. Will opened the front door and paused for a moment. When he didn't turn around or say anything, Lucien spoke instead. "We're soulfinders, Will. That's not just something you can run away from and forget." He could hear the pain in his own voice at his soulfinder walking out on him, so he knew that Will must have heard it too.

When Will replied, he sounded exhausted. "I can try," he said.

He slammed the door shut behind him.

Trace Benedict was in a god awful mood when he got home from the station Monday evening. His tired brain didn't even register the fact that his apartment door was already unlocked when he tried the handle. Or it if did register it, he sure didn't care.

Closing the front door behind him, he looked around the open space that was his living room and kitchen.

Mom and dad were on the sofa. Victor and Will leaning against the breakfast counter. Yves and Uriel behind their parents, arms folded across their chest. Xav was sat on the arm of the chair. Zed was sat in the chair, with Scarlett perched on his knees.

The whole family were here. Fucking A.

He dropped his keys on the small table next to the door and heaved a sigh. "Okay, I'll bite. What are you all doing here?"

"I think the state of your apartment may explain that, son."

At Saul's response, Trace automatically looked around the place even though he knew exactly what state it was in. Takeaway boxes littered the floor and coffee table, dirty clothes strewn about the place. Empty beer bottles were on every surface available, some even on the floor.

He looked up at the breakfast counter where an unopened pack of six was stood. Trace had already known it was there, of course. It was all he had been thinking about at work today, just waiting for the moment he could home and relieve himself of his sorrows.

Victor put a hand on top of the beer bottles. "These," he said, "are coming home with me."

Trace narrowed his eyes, shaking his head. "I don't think so. They're mine, Vick. I paid for them out of my own money, they are mine."

"Please, Trace." Karla's voice drew his eyes over to her. There were tears in her eyes and she was clutching her husband's hand tightly. "This has been going on for months now. It needs to stop."

"Your boss called me when you were on your way back," Victor spoke in a rough, strict voice. "He said you've been suspended."

Trace shrugged. Honestly, he hadn't cared all that much when his Chief had called him into his office and broken the news to him. The Chief had said that Trace wasn't focusing on his work, was making mistakes and disturbing his colleagues. Trace had walked out of there without speaking a word for his own defence. What was the point? It wouldn't have made a difference. "So what?" He asked. "Is this an intervention or something?"

"If that's what you want to call it." It was Xav that spoke up. Beside him, Zed's hands were all over the place as he interpreted the conversation for Scarlett to make it easier for her to follow. Xav continued speaking. "We're here because we're you're family and we care about you. I can see the damage you're doing to your body with all this drinking and it's not good, Trace. If you continue, you could end up killing yourself."

He rolled his eyes. "Don't be so dramatic, Xav."

When he heard a clap for his attention, he looked at Scarlett. "He's not being dramatic," she signed. Trace could understand her of course. Over the years of her being in their family, all of them had learned ASL just out of respect for her – some of the family were better at it than others, but they all knew enough to communicate with her. "We know that you're having a tough time," she continued. "You don't talk to us though, Trace. I wish you did, maybe we could help you."

"There's nothing anyone can say that can help me," he said quietly.

The truth was, he was lonely and full of anger. His family wasn't enough to keep him happy anymore. After she left and broke his heart, things had just been getting worse for him. She hadn't been his soulfinder but neither of them had cared. He'd loved her. Two happy years they'd spent together, even talked about getting married… And then she found her soulfinder and chose him over Trace. It'd fucking killed him to stand there and watch her leave, knowing there was nothing he could do to change her mind.

His job didn't help with his depression much either. Years of seeing dead bodies and cruel murderers had taken its toll on him. He was plagued with nightmares of the victims, especially those from the unsolved cases.

The only way he'd found of not having the nightmares and not thinking of her had been by drinking alcohol. He'd turned to it quickly and it hadn't taken long for him to become reliant on it either. He drank in the morning, then went to work. Came home from work, spent the night drinking. It was the new normal for him.

"Trace." He looked over at his dad. Saul looked sad and so disappointed in his eldest son but still, Trace couldn't bring himself to care. He didn't care about anything anymore, he was so numb. "We know that it's got to the stage now where even we can't help you. We should have acted sooner but we thought you'd knock yourself out of it like you always have done before. We can't help you but we think someone else might be able to."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"We've managed to book you into a rehabilitation centre," Saul answered in a straight-forward voice. "They have a three-month programme there where they'll help you get over your addiction to the alcohol and help you figure out how to not go back to it. The manager is a savant and he's arranged for a savant therapist to travel over to help you. You'll be able to be more honest with her than a normal therapist."

"You really think sending me away is the answer?" He scoffed. This was ridiculous. Nothing could help him, let alone rehab. "You can't force me to go, I'm a twenty-seven year old man. I make my own decisions."

"And we're hoping you'll make the right decision," Saul replied. He didn't look surprised about Trace arguing with him. "As your family, we are begging you to take this chance for help. Don't throw the offer away, son. At least try it out."

Karla stood up and faced her son. "It's time for some tough love. If you don't do this Trace, that's it. I don't want a jobless drunk for a son. Refuse to go and you are out of the family. It's your choice."

A hint about the next chapter: Another soulfinder is introduced.