Nothing like Isabela to wake people up! Thanks to all of you for reading and following along - constructive criticism and suggestions always welcomed. I love to hear what you think. Special thanks to Oleander's One for awesome beta-y goodness!

"So let me get this straight: that screwed-up elf gets it in his head that taking off is the best thing he can do for his family, so he disappears. And when you find out the love of your life has gone, you don't pull up your big girl smalls and go after him, you sit there and feel sorry for yourself?" Isabela shouted.

"Something like that," Hawke admitted.

Bianca sniffled against Bethany's shoulder, clinging more closely to her aunt. It had taken the entire walk from the docks to the estate to catch Isabela up on the current situation and for her to stop spluttering long enough to speak clearly. She had worked herself into a fine temper now, though. Bethany had yet to comment. She'd been watching everyone quietly, stroking Bianca's hair as the girl clung to her.

"That isn't the Hawke I knew," Isabela said, shaking her head in disappointment.

"Maybe I'm not the Hawke you knew. Have you considered that?" Evelyn stood up, turning her back on the room and walking to the window.

"What do you want her to do, just drop her whole life and go running after him, begging him to come home?" Bethany asked, steel underneath her soft voice. "My sister has more pride than that."

"Pride be damned!" Isabela shouted over the soft noise of protest Bianca had made at her aunt's words. "Pride doesn't keep the bed hot."

"Izzy!" Bethany said, scandalized. Evelyn didn't need to turn around to know her sister had glanced pointedly at Bianca before looking back at her lover.

"She'll know all about that soon enough, if she doesn't already. Eh, sugarplum?"

Bianca was silent, and Hawke felt a pang. Her daughter was growing up, on the brink of learning all about men and women. What sort of example was Hawke setting? No doubt a poor one. Fenris would have come after her, had she been foolish enough to do what he had done. There was no question about that. But she would never have left him of her own volition, she reminded herself fiercely. Why should she go after him when he'd made his choice willingly?

Evelyn became aware of the harsh whispers behind her and turned to see Bethany and Isabela facing each other down.

"Why should my sister go through any more for him? Hasn't she suffered enough?"

"Oh, yes, because spending your life with the person you love is suffering. You've never liked him!"

Bethany didn't bother to deny it. "He's never given me any reason to trust him."

"He's had her back for twenty years!"

"Which apparently didn't mean much, since he took off running at the first provocation," Bethany snapped. She and Isabela were glaring at each other.

Evelyn looked at them, standing there in mid-argument, and all the emotions of the past week solidified inside her. Without Fenris, who was there who would argue with her? Who would face her down, toe-to-toe, forcing her to consider other points of view? Varric and Aveline were too protective—they would assert their positions, but they did it softly, and with care. Bianca would soon be determined to be free, to stand on her own—she would want to charge forward, whatever the situation, and would view Evelyn's arguments as standing in her way. Fenris had been Evelyn's sparring partner in the ring and out, and she missed that particular combination of support and challenge. The idea that she might never have it again was untenable. So much so that she wondered how she had ever brought herself to consider such a thing.

"He had his reasons, Bethany," she said evenly, bringing the argument to a halt. There must have been something new in her voice, because all the heads in the room turned immediately toward her. Bianca drew her sleeve across her eyes to dry them, Bethany looked worried, and Isabela smiled.

"That's my girl. You're going after him, aren't you, Hawke?"

Evelyn nodded. "I have to. I was a fool to let it go this long."

"How can you have so little pride? He doesn't deserve you, sister. He never has. Anyone who could leave you twice—"

"I don't care about that, Bethany. I don't care about my pride." Having made the decision made Hawke feel more like herself. She straightened her spine. "Without him ... what's the point?" She gestured around at the room. "None of this matters. A hut made of sticks on the plains of the Anderfels with him is better than anywhere else without him. I only wish I had known that before I made him bring me here. I got so ... lost in the running and the memories of what it was like for our family when we were little that I never thought of the consequences, not until it was too late."

Isabela, never comfortable with emotional scenes, cleared her throat. "The Temptress is yours, whenever you need her."

"But we don't even know where he went!" Bianca stood up, looking from Isabela to her mother and back with desperate eyes. "We could chase him all over Thedas and never find him!"

Hawke crossed the room to her daughter and put her arm around the girl's shoulders. "Have a little faith. Remember, Varric admitted he never even looked for Papa, because Papa asked him not to. Between Varric and Isabela and me, we'll figure it out."

"You know where I'd look, sweet thing. Once he was in a self-sacrificing mood ..." Isabela said.

"Agreed. We need to find out who's in power in Tevinter."

"You think he turned himself in?"

"Think about it," Isabela said. "It's just the kind of dramatic gesture lanky and smouldering would think of, it's one place he'd think Hawke here would hesitate to follow him into, and it's familiar territory. Where else would he go?"

Hawke nodded slowly. "I hadn't thought of it that way. I hadn't really thought of anything at all, except—the obvious."

"He's always thrown you off your game, sister," Bethany said, still not ready to give up her objections. "You never did think as clearly when it came to him." Or you wouldn't be in this mess, was the message left unsaid that nevertheless hung in the air.

"What are we waiting for?" Bianca asked, squirming out from under Hawke's arm. "Let's hurry, please!"

"Patience, dumpling," Isabela said. "He's got this much of a head start on us, we won't be able to save him from himself just yet. Besides, good planning equals success, or some such platitude."

"Where'd you get that one?" Hawke asked.

"Little bird I know, likes to give the men pep talks."

Bethany laughed. "Glad to see someone was listening."

"To you, sugarplum? Always." The two women exchanged a look that made Hawke happy for them and sorrowful for herself. Clearly their disagreement over Fenris was forgotten.

She let them have their moment, then cleared her throat. "We should go see the others, figure out who we're taking and start to make a plan."

"I'm going," Bianca announced.

Hawke glanced sharply at her daughter, then away. This was not the time for that argument. "We'll see."

"I am, Mother!"

Before Hawke could rise to the sharp tone, another voice cut in from behind them. "I'm going with you, as well, Mistress."

She turned to see Orana standing there, looking determined. "Orana, that's lovely, but—"

"None of you knows Tevinter the way I do. And none of you can blend in there the way I can. You need me, Mistress, and I am going to help you. I owe it to you."

"You don't owe me anything—you never did, and even if you had, that debt would have been made up for long ago," Hawke protested, but Orana merely folded her arms and stayed silent.

"She's got you there, Hawke," Isabela said.

She did. "Thank you, Orana." Hawke felt the words were inadequate, but she didn't know how to properly express how she felt. Kirkwall had taken a great many people from her ... but it had replaced that lost family with another one, and the sacrifices they were willing to make for her made Hawke feel incredibly humbled. "We—" She took a deep breath, reaching inside herself for a plan. Once she had known how to make decisions and had made them with firmness and alacrity. That person was there inside her still, but it had been so long since she had been in touch with that firmness and confidence. Exhaling, she took herself in hand, shutting down the questions and doubts that rose in her mind. "We need to gather the others, to get some confirmation that Fenris actually went to Tevinter, and to make a plan for when to set sail." She glanced at Bethany. "Would you stay here with Bianca?"

"Of course, sis—"

"No, Mother! I am going. You can't make me sit here and twiddle my thumbs and wait while the rest of you are out there looking for Papa." Bianca's green eyes flashed. She looked so much like her father, Hawke thought. "I have skills; I can help."

Hawke exchanged concerned glances with the other women. At last, Isabela shrugged. "I can train her on the voyage, Hawke, and if she's not ready, we can leave her on the ship."

"I could watch her just as easily on the Temptress." Bethany smiled, her eyes twinkling as she looked at Bianca. "More easily, maybe—there are a lot fewer ways to sneak off a ship."

Bianca blushed, but didn't deny the implication.

"Would you accept that, then?" Hawke asked her daughter. "We bring you along, but if Isabela feels you'd be a liability on the mission, you stay on the ship? It doesn't help anyone if we find him and then a rescue attempt falls apart because we couldn't count on you to do your job."

"But I—" Bianca stopped herself in mid-protest, standing a bit straighter. She nodded briskly. "I understand. You're right, Mother."

"Will wonders never cease," Hawke said.

"Hawke, I can't help but think this may be a bad idea," Varric said, shaking his head.

"You, too? What's wrong with you people? I thought better of you, Varric." Isabela frowned at him.

"The man asked me to watch out for his family. I hardly think letting Hawke waltz into the middle of the Imperium, knock on a few magisters' doors, and ask if they've seen her escaped slave lyrium-enriched husband would be considered 'watching out', Rivaini."

"Not to mention that he's the one who made the decision," Aveline put in. "He should be the one to come home, and beg Hawke's forgiveness on bended knee."

"Oh, yes, because the Tevinters will be so anxious to let him go."

"Not my problem." Aveline put her hands on her hips. "And I didn't ask you to come into my city and start stirring up trouble."

Isabela grinned at her. "I always do—I don't know why you don't ask. You know you love it."

"Like I love the plague," Aveline said, sighing, but there was a twinkle in her eye, and she slung an arm around Isabela's shoulders.

"So, we're decided, then? We're going to Tevinter?" Bethany looked across at her sister, her eyes dark with concern.

Hawke knew she was being too quiet, letting them all wrangle about each decision. She couldn't help it; now that she was sure she knew what she wanted to do, she wanted just to do it—to go down to the docks, get on the ship, sail to Tevinter, and ... find him. Somehow. Something in her was sure that once she set foot in the Imperium she would feel Fenris, but she'd been around enough to know she couldn't count on such a romantic notion. So she let the others talk, sifting their thoughts while turning her own over in her mind. It wasn't the way she used to do things, but the stakes were higher now, and they were all a lot older. They'd only be getting one shot at this, she suspected, and she couldn't afford to make a mistake.

Varric appeared at her elbow, looking up at her. "Hawke?"

She put her hand on his shoulder, squeezing, and smiled at him. "We're going to Tevinter. But not immediately."

"Mother!"

"Let me finish, Bianca. Information is key, and we need more of it. You and I are going to go see Tomwise and find out what he and Fenris talked about. Isabela and Bethany are going to get passenger lists from ships that left here the day he did."

"Ships bound for Tevinter?" Aveline asked.

"No, I think all of them. He might have taken a ship to somewhere else, thinking to throw us off the trail if we went looking."

"Good thinking," Isabela said.

Hawke nodded in acknowledgement. "Aveline and Varric, check with the gate guards and see if any of them remember Fenris."

"Serah Hawke, what can we do?" Freddy had been quiet through all of the discussion, sitting on the arm of the chair his mother had been reclining in until she got angry with Isabela. His question startled Hawke, who had almost forgotten he was there. Kethali, as well, who stood next to Freddy, his eyes on her.

"Thank you, boys. Er, Freddy, I understand you know a few things about Darktown." Hawke tried to phrase it delicately to avoid getting the boy in trouble with Aveline, if she didn't already know.

Clearly she shouldn't have worried. Freddy grinned, and his mother shook her head, frowning good-naturedly. "I know a few people," he said. "You want me to ask around and see if anyone saw him?"

"I do. Kethali, you can go with him, and maybe take a sweep through the Alienage? Fenris was never much for the company of other elves, but to throw off the scent, maybe ..."

"Of course. My pleasure, Serah."

She'd have to do something about their formality at some point. But for now she'd let it stand.

"You don't leave me much to do, Hawke."

"On the contrary." She smiled at Donnic, but it faded quickly. "There's one possibility we haven't discussed, but we can't just assume it's not possible, no matter how unlikely it is ... and we need our calmest, most diplomatic people on it. I think that's you and Benoit."

Donnic swallowed visibly. "You want me to go to the Gallows and make sure the Templars don't have him."

The silence in the room full of normally garrulous people spoke volumes. Hawke met Bianca's stricken eyes. They hadn't talked about this idea, because Hawke hadn't wanted to give it any credence—but she couldn't afford to ignore it completely.

"Yes," she said in response to Donnic's question. "Will you do it? Can you?"

"They'll answer me," he responded grimly. "I'll make sure that they do." Benoit, standing behind his father's chair, nodded in agreement.

Isabela broke the silence. "So the only thing left, sweet thing, is to decide who's going to Tevinter, once we get started."

"Hawke, I—" Aveline broke off what she was going to say, looking uncomfortable.

Hawke smiled at her forgivingly. "I know, you can't leave. Neither can Donnic. So I'll go with Bethany and Isabela and Orana and Bianca and ... Varric?" She looked imploringly at her friend. Without Fenris, she needed him at her side more than ever.

"You even need to ask?"

"You hate leaving Kirkwall."

"Well, you know what they say, you have to leave a place in order to truly appreciate it."

"Hawke, if you can get him out of the Hanged Man, don't let him go back," Donnic said.

"Right. Because if Varric doesn't live there, I can close it down for health codes violations," Aveline added, her eyes gleaming. "I've been wanting to do that for twenty years."

"Aveline, if I get back and every ale stain and cockroach aren't where I left them, I'm rereleasing 'Hard in Hightown', and I'm changing the characters' names back to the originals."

"You wouldn't."

"Try me."

Dwarf and Viscountess stared each other down, before Aveline threw up her hands. "Fine! I'll leave it be. Can I at least have it fumigated?"

"Aveline ..."

"Okay, okay, okay. You win."

"Thought you might see it my way." He grinned smugly up at Hawke, who shook her head.

There was a soft noise as Kethali cleared his throat. "Serah, my mother sent me to help you. I'm sure this is the kind of situation in which she thought you might find my talents useful. I would be honored if you would allow me to come along."

"He's a pretty talker, Hawke, but a good mage, too," Varric said. "I'd give him a chance."

Hawke nodded. "Kethali, well said. Welcome aboard." Her eyes fell on Freddy's crestfallen face, and she considered the situation. Thrown together in a crisis, two young people? She was almost certainly sealing Bianca's fate without ever giving the girl the chance to choose. "If your parents can spare you, Freddy, I think we could use you, too."

"Serah, you mean it?" He was on his feet, his face lighting up.

Donnic and Aveline exchanged a few meaningful glances, and at last Aveline grinned. "If you think my scapegrace here can help you, it'll be the best news Kirkwall's had in almost seventeen years."

"Thank you!" Freddy put his arms around his mother's neck, and Aveline returned the embrace, fiercely.

"You take good care of Hawke, and make sure she comes back to Kirkwall. The place hasn't been the same without her."

"All right, then," Hawke said. "We all have our assignments ... let's get this show on the road."