Chapter 3: On Either Side of the Sea
Weeks had passed, Anna and Elsa had spent the majority of that time, searching the archives, where Elsa had originally learned about their long-lost brother, from an old diary their mother had kept around the time she gave him up for adoption. They were busy looking for a clue as to exactly where he'd been taken, the archives had revealed that the people he'd been entrusted to, had been friends of their mother's. The archives were a collection of dungeon-like rooms beneath the palace…with stone walls and floors. Each room was small, with bookshelves lining the walls on three sides, and a wooden table and chairs in the center. There were many of these little rooms lining the long dark hallway stretching from the foyer to the very back of the palace above.
"Hey Elsa, look at this!" Anna called, holding up one of their mother's old journals. "It says here that the woman they gave him to was a professor of literature at an American University, and came to Arendelle years ago, to read the myths, legends, and fairy tales that formed the foundations of Arendellian literature in the original Gaelic"
"That's interesting…" Elsa replied happily. After her original apprehension, and despite the fact that she still wasn't sure if turning his world upside-down was the right thing to do, she was getting excited about the prospect of finally meeting him again.
"She'd met our mother and Aunt Ingrid in the royal library and the three of them bonded over the books they were reading. When the time came, our parents chose her and her husband to raise our brother, because she knew and respected our culture, and better yet, aside from their friendship, which doesn't seem to have been public knowledge, she had no connections to the royal family. Which means that no one without access to the archives, would ever have suspected anything, according to the royal records, they lived in Las Vegas Nevada..." Anna explained.
"Well that tells us where he grew up, but that doesn't tell us where he is now…America is a huge country Anna…Arendelle could literally fit inside some their larger provinces…"
"Well…I'm pretty sure they call them 'states' instead of provinces…but I get what you're saying…even this only gets us so far…"
"He could be anywhere by now…literally anywhere in that vast land…we need more current information…this doesn't help much in terms of finding him." Elsa replied, setting the record book on the table behind her in frustration.
"Hey…Elsa…I think I found something!" Anna called from the next room over. It occurred to Elsa that she'd been so disappointed she hadn't seen or heard Anna leave. At her sister's call, she followed her.
"What have you found?" Elsa asked.
Anna held up a five page letter written on lined notebook paper and stapled together.
"Elsa…this is from Dianna…his adoptive mother, she and Mama kept in contact…!"
"Well what does she say?"
Anna turned to the first page of the letter, and began to read aloud. "My dear Gerta…you'll be very proud, as I am, to know that Spencer is about to graduate from the FBI Academy, amongst all the things he could have done with the choice you gave him, he's chosen to help people…" she paused, and smiled at Elsa, Elsa smiled back. "The only potential downside that I can see, is that the unit he has been selected to work for is based in Quantico Virginia, which is a long way away from the home he and I shared in Las Vegas. So it would seem, that even I, won't get to see him nearly as often anymore. Oh well, they all grow up eventually, soon they're living their own lives, making their own decisions and mistakes, and isn't that really what we wanted for him all along? For him to grow up and decide for himself what he wanted? Anyway, I'm rambling now, but I thought you would like to know, that he's doing exactly that. Your Friend and Confidant, Dianna…"
"He settled in Virginia…and built the life Mamma and Papa wanted him to have, the life he wanted…" Elsa remarked, using her fingers to dap tears out of the corners of her eyes.
"Elsa…don't you see what this means? We know where he lives now! Well…sort of, we know which state and which town to be looking in… do we have a map of the US down here anywhere?" Anna asked excitedly.
Elsa was already searching almost frantically for one. Anna, who had spent considerably more time down in the archives than Elsa had, was already headed for the room that housed the geography section. Instead of shelves, this section had what appeared to square wine racks lining the walls, but instead of bottles of wine, they held maps from all over the world.
Finally, she found a map of the United States, and brought it back to Elsa and spread it out on the table in the room where their mother's diaries and correspondence were kept.
"There it is…" Elsa said, touching the spot on the map that marked Quantico Virginia. "That's where he is…"
One week later on a jet bound for Quantico…
Over a month had passed since Garcia had helped Reid uncover the fact that he had been born in Arendelle, brought to Las Vegas and adopted by the people he'd always known as his parents. He now knew that he had two sisters named Anna and Elsa, but he still wasn't sure what he wanted to do with the information. So far, the only person besides Garcia who knew what he had discovered, was his fiancé, Maeve… When he'd asked for her advice, she'd suggested trying to find a more exact address and writing to them, to open up a line of communication and see what they knew and felt about it. But his mind was still reeling from the fact that his mom had kept the truth a secret for so long, and he couldn't help but wonder why it was that his biological parents had given him up but kept his sisters. As he stared out the jet window at the night sky, he wondered what they were like…
His private thoughts were broken into, when Blake sat down across from him.
"Hey…" she said.
"Hi…" he replied, trying to hide the fact that he'd almost been startled by her sudden appearance.
"You ok?" she asked.
"I'm fine…" he reassured her.
"Can't sleep again huh?" she asked, trying not to sound concerned.
"Guess not…" he admitted. "You either?" he asked.
"Not tonight for some reason…" she replied. "Hey Reid…" she began cautiously. "What's going on with you lately…?"
"Nothing…" He told her, then went back to staring out the window.
"Reid…you know I can tell when you're evading me right? There's something up, what is it?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." He told her.
"Reid…we both know that you know exactly what I mean, and we also both know, that the name you asked me about a few weeks ago had nothing to do with a book…just tell me what's going on…please…"
"Blake…" He began. "There's really not much to tell…"
"Not much to tell? Really? 'Not much to tell' is keeping you up at night?" She asked.
"I'm an insomniac…that doesn't exactly take much…besides, you're not sleeping either…"
"Well if there's really not much to tell, then just tell me…"
"I wish I could…but I'm still processing it myself, so I'm not sure how to explain it."
"O-ok…well, when you're ready…"
"Thank you…"
"You're welcome…"
A few hours later, Reid was sitting in his armchair, somewhere between waking and sleeping, in a kind of dream-like haze. He now knew his sisters' names and had spent the time since his original discovery, researching the culture they had grown up in and he had been born into. He had also investigated the possible ways in which he might make contact with them. So in his sleep-like stupor, he imagined what it would be like if he ever made the trip to Arendelle and saw his sisters in person.
Meanwhile in Arendelle, Elsa was looking for Anna… she had assumed that her sister was spending a few days with Kristoff as she so often did…but the fact that Anna hadn't told her she was going to, and she and Kristoff hadn't, at least in front of her, discussed their plans…was starting to make her think there was something else going on.
As a result, Elsa now found herself at Kristoff's barn, where she found him feeding Sven.
"Kristoff, have you seen Anna?" Elsa asked.
"Not in a past couple of days, why?"
"Where is she…?"
"Isn't she at the palace?"
"If she were would I be here?"
"touché…"
"Speak Reindeer Man" Elsa commanded.
"Ok…she asked me to take her to the airport on the other side of the north valley, Sven and I took her there and she got in a plane roughly nine hours ago bound for Richmond with a bag of American coins which she's planning on using for a bus ticket to Quantico so she can go meet your brother…"
"She went to do what?"
"She left to go meet your brother in Virginia…"
"But we agreed that we would simply find out his address and write to him in English before we did anything else…"
"Actually Elsa, you said that…Anna didn't agree…she just didn't object…" Kristoff told her.