"Don't fight," says the person—a man, Cal can tell now that he's opened his mouth—holding onto Cal's arm.

"Who are you?" Cal demands. "Why shouldn't I fight?"

"Who am I?" the man asks. He sounds upset. "Who are you, kid? You're stumbling into the middle of something you cannot possibly understand."

"What do you mean?" Cal knows he can break out of this at any second—it's a tight grip, but at this point he still has his other arm and both legs. He can tell exactly where the man is just from his voice, and it wouldn't be that hard to fight his way out. But he pauses, because the man hasn't hurt him yet. There's no reason to think he'll start. Maybe Cal can risk hearing him out first.

"Chambers," the man growls. "I've watched you and your friend keeping an eye on him. You're getting in my way."

"You're the one that killed him," Cal says. "Right?"

"Well you were taking your sweet time, weren't you? Chambers was dangerous. We're Assassins. He needed to be taken out before he could hurt anyone else."

A sudden flicker of doubt and shame comes to life in Cal's mind. Is he… maybe he's not as good an Assassin as he thinks he is. If this man could just come in and kill the target that Cal and Ezio have been looking at for ages… is that what they should have done?

The man sighs, and Cal feels him reach over to the light. It clicks on, and Cal is face to face with a man, who looks to be in his early thirties, wearing a dark hoodie and jeans. He looks… more normal than Cal had expected. "Are you going to let go of me now?" he asks, and the man drops his wrist.

They study each other for a second, and then the man says, "What's your name, then?"

"A—" He doesn't want to say Aguilar. If this man is an Assassin, there's a chance he'll recognize the name. Aguilar lived centuries ago, but—honestly, he and Arno loom so large in Cal's life, he has a hard time remembering that other people might not recognize him. The false name Cal uses at work is Joseph. His father's name, which is sort of uncomfortable, but… his dad at least deserves to be remembered, doesn't he? "Joseph."

"A Joseph," the man repeats. He doesn't sound particularly inclined to believe Cal, which is fair enough. "Do you want to try that again?"

"Not really," Cal says quietly, feeling a bit like a child.

"Maybe you could try a real name."

Cal's mouth narrows into a thin line.

"No? Well, fine." He opens the door for Cal, who only stares at him blankly. "Well, come on, whoever you are. I think we're going to need to have a good long talk about this, and we're not doing it here."

"Why not?" Cal asks, a little defensively. He knows his apartment isn't much, but he knows how to keep it safe and he does. He's ready to fight the idea of leaving the apartment, but—

"Because my wife is making pot roast tonight," the man said, as if that explained everything.

"Are you…" Cal hesitates. "Inviting me to dinner?"

"Keep up," the man calls over his shoulder and Cal… follows. Or starts to.

"Wait," Aguilar calls softly, as the man retreats farther down the hallway. "Cal, don't be stupid. You don't know anything about this man. Please tell me you're not going to be lured into a trap by food?"

Cal shakes his head. "Listen," he says, speaking quickly and keeping his eyes on the man's retreating form. "We need to know who he is and—look, he knows where I live." His gaze slides sideways, toward Ezio's door. Ezio hasn't come home yet. He was supposed to be here right after work, they were going to get together and make plans. What if something's happened? Cal's gotten used to worrying about Ezio (he's younger, and until Cal dragged him away from his home, he'd never been anywhere else. But now, with Ezio missing and this stranger breaking into Cal's apartment…

"I'm going," Cal decides, and steps out after the stranger. He locks the door behind him as he leaves, more out of habit than anything else. There almost doesn't seem to be a point. Now that he's been surprised in his own apartment once, Cal can't imagine he'll ever feel safe coming home again.

-/-

The Assassin—he says his name is Parker, which Cal thinks is probably a lie—brings Cal to a surprisingly ordinary house on the outskirts of the city. There's a yard out back, and Cal catches a glimpse of a child's swingset before he's ushered inside.

"You have a kid?" he asks Parker.

"A little girl," Parker says, tone implying that Cal really shouldn't ask any more questions. He decides not to push the issue, because the man has a right to keep his kid out of this if he wants to.

The two of them head inside, where his wife took one look at the pair of them and gave an extremely exasperated sigh. "Not another stray, Parker," she says.

"This one's not a stray," Parker says. "This one an Assassin. Says he is, anyway."

"I'm an Assassin," Cal insists, starting to feel really irritated. This man isn't much better than the people he'd met at the Farm where he'd met Desmond.

"He's teasing you," Parker's wife says flatly. "Don't take anything he says seriously."

"What…?"

"Hmm," Parker says, and the next thing Cal knows, Parker is pushing him down into a seat at the kitchen table, and his wife is dropping a plate of—admittedly really good smelling—food down in front of him. "Here's the thing." He reaches for his own plate as his wife hands it over to him, and points a fork in Cal's direction. "We both know there are Templars here, we've seen them. And since you were… trying to take down Chambers, the same as I was, you must realize that they're a real threat."

Cal nods. "Why wouldn't they be?"

"Well," Parker says. "There are a lot of Templars, and not a lot of Assassins. Sad, but true. It's been a long time since this war was a fair fight, Joseph. The Templar's reach gets longer every year, but the Assassins are barely treading water. We can't keep up with all the potential threats, and most of the Brotherhood doesn't seem to think this is a good use of our time."

"But there are Templars here," Cal says.

Parker smiles over at him. "Do you know what?" he asks. "I think I like you, kid."

"I'm not sure I like you," Cal says, but Parker only laughs and waves him off. "I have a proposal for you," he says. "I may have gotten to Chambers before you could, but honestly, that was just luck. You were doing a good job, staking him out, making a plan before you went after him. I just happened to get there a little faster." He shakes his head. "But the point is, I'm an Assassin, you're an Assassin, we both have the same goals and there's plenty of Templars left."

"You want to work together?"

"I know you already have a friend you're working with," Parker says. "But the Assassins are a Brotherhood, Joseph. You need people around you. We all do."

"I'll… think about it," Cal says. "I'll—"

"Daddy! Daddy come play!"

Cal starts as he hears the sudden shriek, and when he looks down, there's a little girl running past him, toward Parker.

"Lara," Parker says fondly, lifting her up and onto his lap. She can't be any older than two, and she might even be younger. "Aren't you supposed to be with your mother right now?"

"Don't wanna bath," Lara says, curling up against his chest. "Wanna play."

"This is—uh…" Cal feels totally off balance, suddenly. He hadn't been expecting to see a little girl. Children just don't fit, do they? Not in the life of an Assassin.

"Who that?" Lara whispers, voice carrying easily across the table to Cal.

"We're still working that out," Parker whispers back, leaning in close and giving her a tight squeeze. "But I'm hoping he'll be a new friend."

"Be Daddy's friend," Lara orders him, and Cal can't quite stop himself from grinning. She's a cute kid, curled up there on her father's lap, not a care in the world. It makes Cal wonder if he'd ever been that carefree, back when his parents were still alive. They'd definitely never had a house like this. Just trailers and things, temporary places. But… that hadn't made them any less home, had they?

"Joseph?" Parker says, and Cal realizes he's been lost in thought for a while now. His eyes dart back upward, and he can't quite hide a sigh. Sometimes he thinks that using his father's name as an alias was a mistake. Sure, it's common, and that's nice. No one remembers a Joseph. But there are times when it just… makes him feel homesick, hearing that name.

"Sorry," he says. "What?"

"You will come back," won't you?" Parker asks. "You'll think about my offer?"

"I will," Cal mutters, standing up. He's already turning to go when he hears Parker call after him.

"You know… I knew a Joseph."

"Everyone's known a Joseph," Cal says, pausing but not turning around.

"An Assassin," Parker specifies. "Joseph Lynch."

Cal's suddenly glad he's not facing Parker. He knows his face must be showing his surprise clearly on it right now—he's never… he hasn't spoken to anyone that knew his parents since the day his father killed his mother.

"It's funny, actually," Parker says. "You look a little like him."

"Do I?" Cal asks, voice faint.

"A little."

Cal considers this for a moment. Then he nods, just a fraction. "I'll be back," he promises. "I think we should talk some more."

-/-

No Desmond in this chapter, because Cal kind of got away from me. xD