Title: Let's Be More Than This
Author: Mickey Sixx
Fandom: The Covenant
Pairing: Caleb Danvers/Pogue Parry/Reid Garwin/Tyler Simms (eventual), Reid Garwin/Tyler Simms (established),
Rating: FRAO/NC-17/M
Word Count:
Disclaimer: Characters are not mine. I do not own them!
Beta: Sam | Katy

Summary: The last of the old Covenant has died, leaving the new Generation to carry on the legacy, but Caleb soon discovers there is more to the Power than he'd previously thought. Friendships will be tested and secrets revealed as the Sons of Ipswich find out what it really means to be one of the Covenant.

AN: 'Things like this' are telepathy.


Chapter 10

Monday morning came like a punch to the stomach to Tyler, who almost felt cheated out of his weekend by the emotional roller coaster of Saturday. The youngest member of the Covenant groaned and reached out from beneath the warm covers to smack blindly at his alarm clock, eventually catching the snooze button on his fourth go. Blissful silence. A small, sleepy smile tugged at his lips, his eyes drooping once more. Just five more minutes...

The covers shifted, several limbs tightened around his body and a cold nose pressed against the back of his neck, hot breath stirring the short hair at his nape. For a few brief seconds, in his barely awake state, Tyler was able to pretend that nothing was wrong. Cocooned in the almost sacred hush of the early morning, Tyler allowed himself to think that it was just another Monday morning, where Reid was wrapped around him because they'd had amazing sex the night before and they were both completely happy and sated. Any minute now, Reid was going mumble his complaints into his skin and bemoan the fact they had to move out of bed while Tyler silently agreed by worming his hands under the covers and into all of the places that made Reid moan in a different way.

His mind, however, refused to keep up the illusion. Because they hadn't had amazing sex the night before. Because they hadn't even gone to sleep in the same bed. Tyler sighed softly, sleep finally falling away and leaving him to face harsh reality. Sunday had allowed them time to talk, Reid's empty house had allowed them the space and the privacy to deal with the situation at hand, but even after all the talking their emotions were still bruised and raw. It was too much to just forgive and forget. Taking things slow was the only option.

Apparently, Reid had ignored certain parts of their talk yesterday. He probably should have been more annoyed than he was, but his relief had swallowed it for now. One hand moved down below the blankets, searching out the arm that was banded around his waist and returning the hold for a few moments.

"'m sorry."

Lips brushed against his skin as they moved to form the words, and Tyler was surprised at the clarity in the blond's voice. He'd been awake for a while and the knowledge that he didn't try and sneak back out of bed, despite what they'd said yesterday, made his heart a little lighter.

"It's ok. Really."

All of their words had been exhausted. They didn't speak again until Tyler's alarm sounded once more and broke the hushed quiet between them. With a lost sigh, the blond reluctantly let Tyler go and rolled onto his back. He wobbled a bit, teetering on the edge of the narrow bed and nearly falling off, but Tyler automatically reached out to steady him as he slipped out the other side. They shared a soft, nearly embarrassed kind of smile before the youngest wandered off towards the showers to get ready.

Reid watched him until Tyler's bare back turned into dark solid wood, then he closed his eyes and rubbed both hands over his face. It wasn't unusual for him to want to roll over and go back to sleep on a Monday morning, to gripe about going to classes and generally annoy everyone who would listen to him. What was unusual was the feeling of dread that settled in the pit of his stomach at seeing Caleb and Pogue. Even when they butted heads (which was a lot for Caleb and Reid), he'd never dreaded seeing them.

Right now the thought of his two older 'brothers' was making him squirm. What went down with Caleb on Saturday still played on his mind; he could still feel the demanding tongue sweeping through his mouth, the hot hands that pinned him to the wall, that strong thigh between his legs that knew exactly where to press. A shiver passed over him. Damn.

With an explosive exhale, Reid flipped the covers back and slid out of Tyler's bed, casting tired eyes around the room in search of his uniform. A frown creased his brow; hiding in Tyler's bed like a coward wasn't Reid's style. Might as well face the music. 'Least then we'll know just how fucked we are.

He'd just managed to find his clean uniform as Tyler came back, blue towel wrapped around his waist but still slightly damp from his quick shower. The youngest's eyes immediately locked on to Reid's athletic form, his stomach flip-flopping when the other teen looked at him. Blue eyes held his for untold minutes.

"You dreading this as much as I am?" Reid asked eventually.

Tyler blew out a short breath and nodded, "Yeah." He ran nervous hands over his wet hair, slicking it back to his head, "It's like... this isn't just some petty argument between you and Caleb. It's something that changes us, changes our whole lives..."

"I know," Reid moved forward, reaching out as though to touch Tyler and then thinking better of it and letting his hand fall to his side again, "I know. But we'll deal." He shrugged at Tyler's skeptical look, "We managed Chase, didn't we?"

"Yeah, not without nearly losing Caleb and Pogue."

"We'll deal," Reid said firmly, finally moving closer and taking his chance, curling his hand around the back of Tyler's neck, pressing their foreheads together. The other teen's mouth twitched into a small smile, a hand settling on Reid's bare hip.

"I thought I was supposed to be the practical one."

He snorted softly, keeping the connection with his boyfriend, "Consider it a blip. I'm sure I'll get over it."

Tyler pinched him lightly, smirking when Reid hissed and jerked away, "You better shower or we're gonna be late."

"Yes mother," he replied dryly, making a face before leaving the room. Tyler snorted and shook his head. Once dried and dressed, he gathered his books and Reid's, the domesticity of the routine soothing him and settling some of the unease he felt at the thought of seeing Pogue and Caleb again. Dropping both their bags, packed and ready onto the bed, he sighed. Today was going to be... interesting.


They went their separate ways for first period, Tyler heading towards the English block while Reid made his way towards his Geometry class. He took his usual seat near the back and pulled out the relevant books, intending to lose himself to the work so that he didn't have to think about seeing the oldest members of the coven. But even as Professor Nolan started to read from her copy of the poetry text book they'd been told to study, Tyler found he just couldn't concentrate on the work. Nolan's animated voice washed over him, even the words in the text book blurred together. He slumped down in his seat and tried to ignore the nervous butterflies in his stomach.

No matter how hard he'd tried, he just couldn't stop thinking about Caleb. He replayed the scenes over and over and over again in his mind; Caleb and Reid, himself and Caleb. He'd never thought of him like that before. Ok, sure, he'd noticed that he was hot. Everyone noticed he was hot. But Caleb was the oldest, the 'big brother' that took his job too seriously sometimes. He wasn't supposed to be the guy he fantasized about being with, and he damn sure wasn't supposed to think about him screwing his boyfriend.

"Mr Simms!" Tyler jumped as Nolan's sharp voice broke his train of thought, "If you would kindly pay attention..." Blushing furiously as the girls behind him giggled into their hands, Tyler sat up straighter and forced himself to concentrate on his class.

Second period arrived quicker than expected and Tyler caught up to Reid just as he was filing into the auditorium for Lit. They took their seats, communicating silently with passing looks and barely there touches, reassuring each other as much as they could. Lit was one of the few classes the four of them had together, and the first time they would see each other since Saturday.

It was crunch time.

Two sets of eyes locked onto a familiar figure as he walked through the doors, brown hair loose around his face, hiding him from the rest of the world. As if he sensed their gaze, Pogue looked up, freezing for a second on the steps. In that second of connection he knew that they were just as nervous as he was and strangely it made him feel better. He swallowed roughly, hand tightening around the strap of his rucksack, and nodded slightly at them before turning into his row.

The three fidgeted in their seats, surreptitiously stealing glances at the doors and trying not to make it look obvious that they were waiting for the last member of their group to arrive and throw their world into chaos once more.

Only... he didn't.

The auditorium filled up with students, the low hum of general chatter carried around the large room until the Professor called for quiet, and then class started. But still no sign of Caleb. The seat beside Pogue was empty, no familiar dark head bent over his notebook or slouched into the bench.

'Guess he's still hiding from us.'

Tyler's eyebrow lifted slightly at the hint of bitterness in Pogue's mental voice. He glanced over to the older teen.

'I don't think he'd be able to keep to himself if he was here right now, do you?' he told Pogue.

'Does this mean you're not completely disgusted by us?' Reid put in, unable not to throw his words back in his face, mostly out of spite, but partly with a need to know if Pogue approved or not. He hated himself for caring but the thought alone was enough to make Reid's stomach clench in fear. He didn't want to lose him over this. Reid ignored Tyler's quick glare, eyes fixed on Pogue as the older teen half turned in his seat to send him a glare of his own.

'I've never been disgusted by you, idiot. I was just-'

"Mr Parry, Mr Garwin, could you please refrain from making eyes at each other and concentrate on the text?"

Quiet giggles and snorts rippled through the class and broke the three out of their link. Reid smirked and settled back in his seat, letting the comment slide over him with his usual cockiness while Pogue flushed slightly and slid down in his seat to avoid the looks shot his way. Tyler waited until the Prof had returned to his lecture to roll his eyes.

'Lunch,' he sent to both of them, 'We need to talk.'

To say it was awkward was an understatement. The three met in the library, way way back in the stacks of old books where they knew they wouldn't be disturbed. Reid and Tyler had taken residence at the table that had been conveniently placed there, and Pogue joined them a couple of minutes later, dropping his bag with a muted thump on the floor before taking one of the free seats around the table. Silence reigned; words stuck in throats and mouths unwilling to work, each waiting for the other to make the first move. Reid and Pogue glanced at each other a few times and then averted their eyes again, and Tyler watched both of them with rising agitation.

As usual, it was Tyler that caved.

"Stubborn assholes," he muttered to himself before saying in a louder voice, "Ok, we're here to figure this shit out. So... let's figure."

Reid snorted, eyebrow raised as he settled back into his chair, arms crossed over his chest, "What, you mean the shit with Caleb wanting to screw us all? Shouldn't said horny fucker be in the room when we discuss?"

It was all Tyler could do to keep himself from reaching over and hitting the blond sat next to him. Instead he glared.

"Right now we come first," he said, flicking a hard gaze between his two brothers. Pogue's eyes resolutely stayed on the scratched table top, but the youngest knew that he was listening, that he was involved even if it didn't seem like it, "This affects all of us and we gotta sort out how we feel about this before trying Caleb again. With the way he is at the moment, we'd be making things worse for him, not better." He paused, "So. How do we feel?"

His question was met with silence. Tyler resisted the urge to bang his head off the table.

"I was never disgusted by you."

Two pairs of eyes focused on Pogue after his quiet words filtered through. He still wasn't looking at them, sat back in his own chair and unconsciously mirroring Reid's position, shoulders tense.

"You're my brothers. It doesn't matter to me, ok?" Finally he looked at them, determination and a myriad of other emotions shifting in the hazel depths. "I opened my mouth before my brain kicked in so whatever I said... I didn't mean it how it sounded."

Something inside Reid unwound, his worry over Pogue's reaction defusing. Dealing with the current situation was enough right now without the fear of Pogue rejecting them. He managed to acknowledge him with a nod, the knot in his chest loosening a little.

"But this... this isn't easy for me, ok?" He seemed to lose his stoic facade and he leaned forward, arms unfolding and resting on the surface in front of him. He stared down at his hands as he picked at a split in the skin around his thumb nail, "You can't expect me to switch teams over night."

"But you'd be willing to switch teams," Tyler said slowly, trying to pick up on what Pogue wasn't saying, "You'd be willing to go along with it."

Pogue snorted, "I don't think I have a choice."

"If this thing is connected to the Power then probably not," Reid threw in, eyes steady on the eldest of the three, "But this is Caleb. He thinks he's responsible for us, that he should protect us at all times." The blond snorted, lips curling slightly, "And while it annoys the hell out of me most of the time, it's just the way he is. Caleb wouldn't want us to do this because 'we have no choice'. You know how guilty he'd feel if that were the case."

"But that's the point, we don't have a choice."

"No, the point is that it doesn't matter if we have a choice or not," Tyler said, looking between the other two boys, "This is Caleb, the guy who's been there for all of us no matter what. He's an asshole sometimes and he has the world's biggest guilt complex, but he's our brother. Always has been and always will be. This doesn't change that."

"Doesn't it?" And there it was, clear as day in Pogue's voice. That fear. That desperation. That underlying feeling of apprehension, of anxiety, because how could this not change everything? "What if this breaks us? What if we do this and it pushes us further away?"

"What if we do nothing and it does the same thing?" Tyler countered, shaking his head and finally realizing their part in this, "It's a chance we have to take, Pogue."

"Because if we don't, we'll never know," the blond cut in, "It'll be something that we'll look back on and wonder why we didn't do it. It'll be that one thing in life above all else that we regret. We spend our lives worrying about the 'what ifs' but are too shit scared to take the risk."

"You're seriously saying you'd share Tyler with us? Willingly?"

Reid's gaze drifted from Pogue to Tyler, meeting blue eyes unflinchingly. Would he? He thought back to the weekend, back to the words exchanged between them. They hadn't been dating for long, but Reid had known Tyler his whole life. They used to joke when they were kids that they were twins, even though a blind person could have told them otherwise. It didn't matter to them. Even as they got older and other wonders were revealed to them, Tyler had always been there with him to experience it, to share it.

But Caleb had been there too. When Joey Lee pushed him down in third grade and tried to take his lunch money, Caleb helped him up and pushed Joey back. He got detention from the teacher who caught them fighting, but Caleb said later that he didn't mind, that Joey was a bully and no-one picked on his little brother. Throughout his life, Reid could pick up on a number of occasions where Caleb had been there to help him, and even though it grated on his nerves that the bastard still thought he needed protecting like a kid, a part of Reid would always appreciate him just being there for him. For them.

But did that mean he would be ok with sharing Tyler? Sharing himself?

"Yeah."

The answer surprised Tyler and Pogue. The former, who hadn't backed down from his boyfriend's intense gaze, blinked and searched familiar blue eyes for the truth, for what he was really feeling. Reid's lips curved upwards a little and he nodded slowly, transferring his gaze to Pogue, who stared hard at him, wondering if this was a joke.

"I would."

"But... why?"

The blond shrugged a little and finally unfolded his own arms to lean forward on the table, "Because it's Caleb. It's like... we don't have the best track record lately, and yeah he still pisses me off with all the 'I'm oldest, I know what's best for you' crap. But I still love him, you know? He's still my brother and as much as I hate to admit it, I'd do anything for him."

"Even if it means being pulled into this big 'fucked-up orgy'?"

A half embarrassed, half amused grin stretched Reid's mouth and he glanced at the youngest, the knot inside of him loosening some more at the tender smile he graced him with. At least he knew that Tyler was ok with his conclusion. The question was, was Pogue?

The long-haired teen stared at them, hazel eyes full of his turbulent feelings. He'd battled with himself yesterday, had tried to figure out where he stood and if he could agree to what Caleb was asking. It hadn't helped. Now, faced with his brothers, his mind was screaming at him to run. To run as fast and as far away as possible, because he was scared that whatever this was, it was going to ruin them.

Maybe it's time I stop running

After a long silence, Pogue finally spoke, "I can't jump into this. I still need some time. But Caleb is my brother too, and if this was the way it was meant to be, then so be it."

Reid and Tyler glanced at each other again and nodded slowly, the three of them feeling the weight of the situation rest a little easier on their shoulders. The distant ringing of the school bell cut in before they could speak again and the blond sighed and grabbed his bag.

"This little heart-to-heart has been fun, ladies, but I got a class to sleep through."

Pogue snorted and cuffed the back of his head as the three of them stood from the table. Tyler snickered, following them as they made their way out of the library. They'd just got out into the corridor when Pogue turned slightly and levelled them both with a serious look.

"What about Caleb?"

"Yeah, we need to discuss with His Horniness too," Reid answered, both of them now looking at Tyler.

"Tonight. We'll see him tonight." The other two nodded and went their separate ways towards class. Tyler stood by the library doors for a moment longer, eyes glazed over slightly as he lost himself to the thought of seeing Caleb for the first time since his big revelation. "And let's pray we don't fuck this up more than it already is."


He sighed and sat back into the stiff leather sofa, dropping the ballpoint to the notepad in his lap to rub at his face. His eyes were gritty and tired, stinging a little as he roughly rubbed his fingers into them. Since he'd started reading the journal, he hadn't been able to stop. Words, letters, thoughts and feelings from long ago consumed him, pulled him deeper and deeper into his father's head. He read long into the night, through till Sunday morning, and only stopped when exhaustion claimed him.

Not long after he'd started, he'd decided to note down certain passages from the journal; thoughts and feelings, the way William thought the bond worked, the way the Power shifted and changed around them as each of the Sons from the previous generation Ascended. Caleb looked down at the leather bound journal balanced precariously on his knee. It was so strange to read about them from his father's eyes, to see the traits his brother's shared with their fathers. Tyler had definitely inherited his dad's sensibility, Pogue had Wayne Parry's skittishness when emotions were involved, and there was no doubt where Reid's attitude had come from. But it was harder to see what he himself had gained from William Danvers. Probably his protectiveness, he thought, fingers deftly marking his place and then flicking back to an entry near the front.

June 4

Sometimes I wonder why we have all this Power. The more we Use, the more it drains our life. It doesn't protect us, doesn't keep us safe. It can't prevent us from getting sick, it can't help when one of us is landed in hospital with a damn burst appendix!

Glenn had to drag me home from the hospital last night because I wouldn't leave. I couldn't leave. He didn't see how bad Joe was, he didn't see how much pain he was in. I did. It scared me half to death seeing him cry and hurtlike that, and not being able to do jack about it. The Power just made him scream in agony when I tried.

They say I worry too much, but I know they were just as scared last night. I felt it in the way Glenn held on, his arms like vices around me. Wayne did his usual disappearing act. He came back though. He always comes back.

If the tables were turned, and it was Tyler who was sick, Caleb knew without a doubt that they'd react in exactly the same way. Reid wouldn't leave his side without a fight, Pogue would take himself out of the situation, and he would try his best to keep them calm whilst silently fretting about the youngest of their Coven. The memory of Pogue lying in the hospital bed haunted him; they'd all wanted a piece of Chase for that. Caleb knew that Reid and Tyler hadn't wanted him to go alone to face the wayward Son, but it had to be the way it was. He just didn't know why yet.

Untold minutes passed him by and Caleb didn't know how long he sat there, staring at the journal without really seeing it, lost in his own head. Familiar tingles drifted down his spine, raising goosebumps on his flesh, and he glanced up with wide eyes at the clock. Five thirty. The Power prickled lightly under his skin and he sighed, rubbing his arm absently. They were here.