Chapter 10 – Family Means Never Turning You Away
Kate yawned again and put her head against Henry's shoulder again. Her monsters had to be put away for the city bus ad she was dozing against his shouldre as soon as they were seated.
Henry kept alert for trouble and their next stop. Sometimes glancing at the top of her head while she napped.
Kate had a tendency to sleep far longer than seemed healthy. But the doctors he had taken her to had found nothing in her brain, her blood. Her mood or emotions. When she was alert, she was perfectly funtional and attentive. The sleep clinic had found that only some of her time asleep was actually REM sleep in a pattern that appeared to be normal, bokk ended by a light sleeping state that was quick to wake Kate from.
Other than sleeping 12 hours a day or more, if Henry let her, it seemed to more be a case of her taking after her monster than the other way around. Knowing that danger approached before there was any hint of trouble he could see, Kate took after Abra in many ways. Henry hoped she could continue avoiding the fate he had created for her and people like her.
Humans with gifts that resembled that of a particular type of monster. So what if it was the same type of power? Perhaps human and monsters had a common ancestry. Since they had so much in common, that the research to improve on monter's powers could affect those particular humans. Increase one, the other or both. Be able to control them.
The world wasa big place, with enough people that if something could happen to one person, it could happen to others. Henry did not believe that his superior would have entrusted him with Kate had he known of her potential. Or that the agent sent to take care of the boss' asset, while Henry was busy with work, would find out that Kate qualified for their search for particular people.
Henry was the one to make the connections and aggregate the data to show that it was possible. He had had no idea what his employers would be willing to do to the monsters, the people, the children. Despite the talents being rare, the people his employers had found were children, pre teens and teenagers. He had never seen an adult brain int he results. This was much worse.
"Allen Road."
Ten more stops, the driver said. Henry was not the only brilliant mind, in that research. There was a possibility that so many might have been hurt anyway, kidnapped, researched, if he had not figured it out. If so, he might never have figured out what was happening to Kate, or that he needed to get her out of there.
Henry could have come home one day and she would be gone forever and he never would have known where, or why. He had to continue. The police were no help, enough were being paid by people Henry worked for that it was a risk.
He had found the ressitance, people working against organized crime apart from the police. Fighting against them from the underground. If they had his information, they could rip open the organization, save the children and monsters they could then there would be no threats to Kate. The only way to guarantee they got what he had was if he couriered it to them himself. Lavender was still long enough away that he needed a stop in-between.
"Emma? Wake up." He touched her shoulder.
Kate stirred from his hand instead of the name. "Muh? Dad, what?"
"Our stop is coming up. Get up."
"Okay." She yawned and let Henry direct her to the door.
"Batenburg street."
"Here."
They both got off the bus, the sun about to set behind the city's buildings down one street. A patch of sky on the other side was starting to darken.
In a large city like Saffron that had skyscrapers and high rises everywhere, even more than Celadon, night fell a little sooner. The shadow of the setting sun was longer and deeper as it was cast by the buildings rising into the sky.
"Are we going to sleep in this one dad?"
"Hold on." Henry led Kate down the street, looking for the address he had written down right before dumping his cell phone. The street he was looking for was a cul de sac off of Batenburg. A couple of minutes of walking took him to the right street.
Being a dead end, it was not long to find the right high rise building. Providence presented a Growlithe walker leaving the front door as they arrived. Henry grabbed the door and held it open for the monster-walker as she left the building. Sharing a smile between each other, Henry went in and Kate followed behind.
"Who lives here, dad? Someone we know?" She covered her yawn as Henry skimmed through the door call list. Inside, locking, door in his other hand.
"In a minute." He found what he was looking for and went right for the elevator. Henry had been distant a while but was purposeful leading Kate onwards.
If Kate had felt they were in danger she did not doubt that her father would follow her, but here and now Henry knew what was going on so she followed him.
The elevator was large and they were the only two in it going up. Henry pressed the penthouse button and silently watched the numbers count upwards as they rose.
Kate pulled Abbie out of her pocket.
Henry looked down at the movement and waved her to put it away, "Not now. I don't want to disturb the people that live here."
"But the lady had a growlithe out."
"She lives here. Just wait, please?"
Kate stifled a yawn and put Abbie back in her pocket. "I guess."
"Good." He said nothing else as the elevator kept rising.
Kate impatiently waited for the silence to end. The elevator dinged the thirty-fifth floor penthouse before she lost her patience. She stepped into the hallway, Henry right behind, the door shutting behind them and the hum of the elevator disappeared as it was called to a lower floor.
There was a hall way with only two doors in it. So it dd not take Henry more than a few moments to decide which door to knock on. "Emma-Kate. Kate, stay here, okay?" He nudged her to stand behind him. "Let me do the talking, okay?"
Kate nodded as went behind him. Practising her shield, waiting for when she could release Abbie and Charlie.
No one answered the first knock so Henry waited, he seemed to be counting in his head before knocking again.
"Hold-on." Muffled by the door and distance.
A man answered the door, grey hair that was stubornly holding on to the last of the black. Laugh lines on his face. Not elderly but old enough to be Henry's father.
"Yes?" the man asked.
"Who is it Peter?"
The man turned back inside, "I'm trying to find that out. Go back to dinner, dear."
"I"m hungry." Answered back from deeper in the apartment.
When the other voice, a woman's voice, did not continue, the man turned back to Henry. "Are you a solicitor? Because I don't want any." His eyes glanced to the folder Henry was holding.
"No. Mr. Gaines? Peter Gaines?"
Kate cocked her head. Gaines?
"Yes, what do you want?"
Henry licked his lips, "We have never met, sir. But I know someone you might like to meet." He side stepped and brought Kate to the front. "This is your grand-daughter."
Kate looked up at the man, he looked down at her. Both surprised. Kate was thinking about the name. Gaines is my mother's name.
Henry was sitting in the kitchen with Peter while Kate, Charlie, Abbie and her grand-mother Harriet sat on the balcony to watch the sunset.
"Were you there? At Ammelia's funeral?"
"There was never really a funeral. Kate was given in to my care soon after."
"That's too bad."
Henry, right away, decided against speaking of Kate seeing memories of her mother and the grave in his mind. Henry would only look unstable to Peter, who was already unsteady taking care of a sick wife. "Do you want to know where she is buried?"
"Oh, I know. It's one of the last things he said to me. Her husband, before he cut us off. I have her Funeral Tablet here. But I've never seen Kate. Only Jocelyn."
"Kate has, never met her."
"Really? Did her father even try to keep the rest of the family together after Amelia died?" Peter was taking awkward pains to not mention his name. His ire came through on the word he was using.
"No. I'm afraid that he blamed everything on Kate and neglected her for it. I don't know why Jocelyn was exempt from this. He made sure she was in the care of someone he could trust with his own daughter. Paid for her, provided, but I think signing some cheques was easier than being her father."
Peter made to rub the tear in his eye look like he was just scratching, "my Amy, she bled from the birth but I am man enough not to blame Kate for it. I wish there were things we could do for other humans like we can for our monsters. Maybe it could turn out differently for someone else's daughter."
"Maybe one day." Henry stifled the wince. Not today, but maybe one day when no one gets hurt.
"Well, she's here now. We can make up for time lost. Before Harriet needs better care."
"How is she? No, wait. It's your business. I don't want to pry."
"No, it's one of the hazards of getting old. The weird thing is, I'm the young one."
"She looks like she's doing well here." Henry saw the absentmindedness of senility in Harriet when he had entered.
"It's only beginning. A year ago, we had more milk than a whole car. She doesn't go wandering out on her own, but she doesn't remember Emma's passing."
Henry waited for Peter to have a moment. Men were not much for consoling each other, just waiting for the other to remember strength and move on.
Peter did not wait long, "She still knits. I just give her wool and she makes little bits of clothing for Jocelyn and her monsters. Or Amelia's Dratini. She does not want to listen that you can't get clothes on something shaped like an Ekans."
"So she hasn't forgtton her skills. How is her speech?"
"Her diction and pronounciation works. But sometime she forgets what she is saying in the middle of a conversation. No strokes, just forgetful."
"So her current memory goes back to before the last ten years?"
"It's spotty, but the major events go back that far. She's not the same person, I'm just glad that I can go to sleep and trust that she'll be there. I'm too old to go chasing her around the city. Just in case, security already knows to call me if she makes it down to the lobby."
"You have things planned out then."
"I've have a lot of time to do so. And not enough time with my grandchildren."
"Things have been going fast. I'm not sure how long we can stay. I made mistakes too, less recently. But until a short while ago, she thought I was her father."
"Well, if you were her father, then we weren't her grandparents."
"I'm sorry, I made mistakes. I've never raised children before. It was a job, at first. Then when Kate learned how to talk, we grew into each other. She's like a daughter to me and even after finding out I wasn't her father she still treats me like one. And now we're on the road and we watch out for each other. We're a family. And I'm glad she could meet you. But she's never met Jocelyn."
"Does she even know she has a sister? Her father excommunicated her, I mean estranged her, didn't they play as children? She should be sixteen now."
"He kept Kate away at first, not wanting her to grow-up in the shadow his business cast. But when he kept Jocelyn close, his excuses did not hold up. The man put a chasm through his family with him and Jocelyn on one side and everyone else on the other. They never had the chance to grow-up as sisters, only strangers."
The door to the balcony opened and Harriet came in from the balcony. "It's getting cold, can we have some hot chocolate for my little Emma and her grandmother?"
"Sure dear, come into the kitchen and we'll make some for our little girl." Peter gave Henry a meaningful look before going into the kitchen with his wife.
Kate tugged on Henry's sleeve, talking softly, "Dad, it's nice here, but she keeps calling me Emma and asking where Dratini is."
Henry matched her volume, "She's not well. She thinks you are your mother. I, Dratini?"
Kate nodded.
"I think that was her monster."
"Did she only have one?"
"For most people, one is enough. Especially if they don't train them, like you. How is the latest doing? Charlie." He smiled at Abbie, even her monsters had grown on him.
"He's all pent up. Charlie hasn't gotten into any trouble but I want to get him out there walking and exploring. And training."
"Soon Kate, soon. Is there any trouble around? Do you think we need to leave?"
She shook her head.
Something clanked in the kitchen, Peter and Harriet kept up a hubbub in the kitchen.
Kate picked up again, "Not since the bus." She glanced towards the kitchen and dropped to a whisper, "I don't think They know we're here." enunciating the they with a capital T.
"Let me know if that changes. And let's not worry your grandparents, okay?"
Kate nodded again.
"How about some hot chocolate?"
The next day, Henry got up and stretched from sitting in the padded chair. He and Peter had been talking the morning away. Reminiscing about Emma. Both men had known her in different ways and times, so they had a mountain of things they could share without repeating the other.
"It's nice. I never had a chance to talk about Emma like this with Angelo." Peter seemed to have mellowed, talking about his daughter for so long. She had been compassionate and kind as a child and even more so as a mother. It seemed that even after her death, remembering her had an affect on the people who missed her.
"Things seem to be calming down. Maybe Kate and I will stay a little longer."
"Please, stay as long as you like. Won't you tell me what burdens you?"
"It's enough that Kate and I could get the sleep." Henry stretched his legs.
The balcony wrapped around most of the floor. It saw into most of the apartment, but not all at once. Henry did a circut after sitting so long but noticed something going on inside.
It was anough that there was nothing going on inside. No people.
"Hold on, Peter. Kate?"
"Is there something wrong?" Peter followed Henry inside.
"KATE?"
"Where did they go? Harriet was just here. Harriet? Kate?" They both made it to different rooms that were blocked from the balcony. Like the bedrooms and the bathrooms.
"KATE? Where are you?" Henry was getting frantic. She was just here. She was just here!
Henry was interrupted on his search but a sharp knock on the door. "Kate..."
-end of Chapter 10