Orphans

"Who is he?" Emma asks.

"Who?"

"This one, here." She points to the picture on the window sill near the bookshelf. "The short one."

Gand, smiles, slowly and picks up the frame. "I'd almost forgotten," he says softly. "I remember this day. It was a few years ago, when Gabby was a baby."

"Is he one of your brothers too?" Emma asks.

Gand shakes his head. "No, see, there are the twins, Val and Nav." They're tawny haired and tawny eyed, grinning like they just invented breathing – the third man in the picture is older, but looks a great deal like them…

"Oh," Emma says quietly. Gand smiles again.

"Yes," he says, "that is our father."

"Gabby's named after him, right?"

"Yes." His smile is rueful now. "I think Hellie was always his favourite. He liked to look after her more, thought she needed it since she was the only girl. She liked proving him wrong, of course."

Emma scans the other family pictures, silently picking out Hellie and Fen and their brothers; Gand, with his enormous snake tattoo, and Slee who is so pale and soft-spoken, and Val and Nav who travel so far and so fast with the…

With the goddess.

"Gand."

"Mmm?"

"Will she come back for me?"

Gand looks down at her with sad brown eyes. "It depends who you mean," he says gently. "One I can say for sure, the other…we cannot know, kjæreste.

"We can only wait."


AN: kjæreste is Norwegian for 'sweetheart'. Fen's siblings are Hellie, Gand, Slee, Nav and Val. Scottie and Hayden are Fen's twin sons, Gabby is Hellie's daughter.

Now, guess who their dad is, given the clues above. I can't wait to see who gets it.