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Chapter 26; In the Line of Duty
Ezio didn't think having his cast removed on June third would be anything to get excited over… Until the doctors actually cut the thing off and he realized he could actually scratch the limb that had been torturing him for the past month and a half. And then it was as if angels were singing in a heavenly choir and the earth moved beneath him.
He scratched until there were pink lines from his nails on his calf and ankle, then scratched some more.
Federico chuckled and asked if he had fleas.
The doctor told him to use the crutches for a few days and to gradually start putting his weight on the limb, that there might be some aching or soreness where the break was for a little while until he built the muscle back up.
And then Ezio was introduced to something he would later obsess over…
Clean socks and Vans.
The shoes were brown, a little bulky looking, but they fit, they had excellent arch support, and fantastic soles he could walk forever in and never wear down. The shoe would fall apart before that sole wore down! Unlike the shoes he'd worn before, these, he decided, were the one thing that made the reality of his freedom sink in.
He had shoes he could walk forever in! He could leave the house whenever he pleased, and go wherever he pleased!
"I have work at two, Ezio, so we've got just enough time to grab something to eat on our way."
He nodded, feeling oddly like a giraffe using his crutches like extra feet. "I don't really want to go home yet. What time do you get off work?"
"Not until after six."
"That sucks."
Federico rolled his eyes and gave him a playful shove. "I doubt you want to hang around for four hours… Claudia and Father work until six also, and Mama drives home with them… Petruccio is out with friends shopping for graduation Saturday and won't be back until late." He scratched his head. "And there isn't time to drive all the way to Uncle Mario's and back." Federico stopped dead in his tracks a hand to his forehead, drumming his fingers on his brow; "What about Desmond? I'm sure he'd enjoy spending some time with you."
Ezio nodded. A week of 'Change' had boosted his confidence a little. There were still moments that it was difficult, but it was getting better. And thoughts of seeing Desmond weren't as daunting as they had been before.
Federico fished in his pockets for his cell phone and dialed Desmond's number.
Five minutes later Ezio was climbing out of Federico's little car at the train station… Alone.
"Are you sure you'll be alright?" He looked wary.
Ezio nodded. "I'm going to have to do this sooner or later. Might as well be now."
"You have your phone? Your wallet?"
"Yeah… I'll call you when I get there."
"Okay… Have fun." He let out a low, wary whistle; "Wait until Mama hears about this!"
Ezio shut the door and stood there for a few minutes watching Federico merge back into traffic and drive slowly away.
The street was loud, people moving slowly, cars kicking up exhaust and honking intermittently. It all seemed overwhelming for a few minutes, and Ezio just stood there breathing deeply. Terribly aware that he was ALONE for the first time since he'd been reunited with his family. Fear of never seeing them again felt like a lead weight in his gut, but he forced himself onward anyway. He struck out up the stairs with his jaw set, thinking he must look ridiculous. He paid his train fare and stood on the platform staring up and down the tracks and out over the city. The birds swooping this way and that, pigeons fluttering in mottled black white and gray flocks. Cars and people shuttling back and forth like ants. The longer he watched, the more aware he became that there was a sort of rhythm to it. A beat.
Ezio closed his eyes and seemed to melt into it.
It was like a heartbeat. A pulse... Like music.
LIFE.
The train arrived a few minutes later and he dodged the rush of passengers as they filed on.
A man in a business suit gave Ezio his seat.
The crush of bodies seemed stifling. The smell, the proximity.
Ezio felt himself falling into habit, eyes seeking out faces in the crowd, his mind whirring. Noting posture, the angle of their gaze—
Stop it… he hissed at himself. The only reason you're doing this to yourself is because it's familiar, it's what you expect… People are not always what you expect.
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, resting his brow against his knuckles where they held his crutches up like a shield in front of him. He focused on that tingle beneath his skin. The ebb and flow of the world around him. That pulse and tried to ignore the fear.
He slowly became conscious of something within this sensation, this awareness of all life around him. He could feel the people in the train car with him. Like a river's current. Subtle, but undeniable. He could single out their voices in the crowd, and pick up on their emotions.
Hesitantly, afraid of what might happen, he honed in on one of the men he'd picked out in the car with him. Standing about half way to the second set of doors at the back of the car watching the city slip past.
The man felt tired… That lowering of his lids and the slow glance he'd thrown Ezio's way hadn't been desire, hadn't been the beginnings of lust… The man was just tired, harmless.
He opened his eyes slowly, glancing around through his lashes, the sensations flipping by as fast as his eyes moved over each face in the crowd.
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Pushing the fear down, breathing it out.
There was no reason to be afraid here. Nobody was going to hurt him. Even the three angry men at the front of the car were just angry, not sadists. They were just angry.
Ezio leaned back in his seat and let out an audible sigh. Blinking at the brightness of the sun through the windows. He cleared his throat and turned to a woman and her young daughter sitting two seats away. The little girl smiled at him and waved then announced she was four years old.
Ezio felt something warm building in his chest and wished her a happy birthday.
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Desmond was not alone when Ezio stepped off the train. He was standing beside the perturbed redhead he recognized from before. It was somehow a very proud feeling that he'd made it all the way across town on the train by himself. And when Desmond came up to him grinning brightly, he crushed the other young man in a hug.
"Have a nice trip?"
"Yeah, actually, I did."
They exited the station and almost as soon as their feet hit the pavement Desmond was talking, his hands moving as he spoke. Shaun made a disgusted noise in his throat and fished in his coat, pulling out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. He puffed irritably as they walked.
Ezio couldn't really understand a thing Desmond was saying. He picked out a few words; 'biography' 'writing' 'stairwell' 'hungry' 'hamburgers' 'stupid ginger' 'stop blowing smoke in my face' thrown willy-nilly among a fantastical patchwork of obscenities.
And all the while Shaun hissed sarcasms, thinly veiled innuendo and puffed smoke rings in Desmond's general direction.
Desmond growled at him and ducked into a coffee shop, showing Shaun his middle finger as he held the door for Ezio. He ordered three coffees and a cup of tea with extra honey. Rolling his eyes when Ezio blinked at him curiously; "We've got to put up with Shaun all day, this will at least shut him up for a few minutes." He paid and they were off again.
It wasn't until He poked his head into another shop and called out; "Hey, Malik!" to a rather stunned looking man with dark hair, a beardy patch on his chin and one arm, that Ezio realized they probably weren't going to the taller brunette's apartment.
Malik scrambled a little through the swinging gate of the workroom and darted from behind his counter, waving to regain Desmond's attention as he stepped back out onto the sidewalk and headed off again. "Hey! HEY!"
Shaun tugged Desmond's hood to stop him.
Malik pushed the door open and stuck his head out, jerking his chin at Ezio. "Who is this?"
Desmond grinned proudly; "This is Ezio!"
Malik blinked and looked him up and down. Then with a sigh and a downward curl of his eyebrows; "I don't want him falling down the stairs. Last thing I need is someone breaking their neck." His scowl increased, but Ezio felt it was probably just a ploy to mask his concern.
Shaun blinked curiously but they followed Malik anyway, back past the front counter of the print shop, through the workroom past complicated looking printing and binding machines and the smell of ink and adhesive.
A small boy in a little gray hooded sweatshirt and jeans over his diaper was standing in the door to the office, leaning his chin against a wooden safety gate looking bored. When he noticed the three young men he perked up, watching them curiously. He scowled severely and slapped the gate, leveling a tiny little finger at them. He shouted shrilly in Arabic at Malik and danced in place.
Malik spoke in agreement, grinning at him as he passed.
Desmond waved at him smiling.
The little boy squealed, his nose wrinkling up, front teeth shining and continued scowling at them.
Malik rolled his eyes and opened another door, waiting as they filed out of the workroom and into a rather bland, run-of-the-mill looking storage room. Concrete floors, brown walls, boxes of paper and card stock. A garbage can filled with empty toner and ink cartridges… And there was an elevator. An old thing with a wooden gate on the front instead of a door.
Malik sneezed into his shoulder and pushed it open ushering them inside with an agitated look on his face. "Keep your hands, feet, arms and heads inside the car at all times, unless you don't want them anymore, then by all means, go ahead." He grinned darkly when Shaun pulled his hands under his chin, obviously enjoying torturing him, then pulled the gate down again with a crash.
The elevator shuddered ominously and Shaun made a noise in his throat, crouching with his arms out to his sides.
Malik cackled and returned inside shaking his head.
Desmond jolted Shaun in the ribs with his elbow; "What's wrong with you? Calm down, this thing is old, it moves slow."
Shaun slowly composed himself; "I think I'll be taking the stairs from now on."
Ezio thought the ride was rather pleasant. "Where are we going?"
"Work."
Ezio felt his insides tremble a little… didn't Desmond work with Altair?
The elevator shuddered to a stop and Desmond pushed the gate up, holding it as Ezio walked off and pretending to drop it as Shaun darted off.
"You're such a pussy!" Desmond let the gate drop shut and shook his head, leading them down a thin hall like space butted on the end by a window and light bulbs in cages in the ceiling.
There was a door at the end of the hall, and through it, Ezio found himself in a room, one wall was all windows, looking out over the back alley and a rooftop toward the lake. Vines hung from baskets set at equal intervals along the top ledge of the window, and little tables sat around covered in flowering plants, bigger pots in the corners, full of tall ferns.
It was very beautiful. He wanted the little roof box he had at home to look like this in the summer.
The interior of the place looked natural, off white walls with dark wood trim. Hardwood floors and rugs with intricate patterns of dark red, black and white. There were paintings on the walls, enlarged photographs. He recognized a few of the newer looking ones, a lump forming in his throat. Black and whites of Ceuta and Chefchaouen, street corners, the market place. The old fort wall in Ceuta.
And then Desmond had thrown open a door and insinuated himself into an office space. Announcing in a rather formal sounding voice that he'd brought coffee and Altair had better be grateful because it was the expensive kind, not that shit from the diner on the corner—
Altair was sitting behind a wooden desk, hunched over a stack of paperwork. He looked up with a tired, but focused look on his face; "Thank you for the coffee, but you're still fifteen minutes late." He took his cup and pulled back the tab, lifting it toward his mouth, and his eyes flicked to Ezio.
He gave a little twitch, but was otherwise unfazed, taking a long drink of the coffee, eyebrows raising. He sat the cup down and stood, eyes widening.
Desmond grinned and motioned Ezio into the room; "Come on, he won't bite!"
Altair wiped a hand over his mouth; "I wasn't expecting company."
"His family's all out today and he didn't want to go home alone."
The older man nodded and stepped backward, motioning to his chair. "You can –uh—You can sit down if you want."
There was a certain thickness to the air as Ezio giraffed his way over and sat down, mumbling a quiet thank you.
Shaun was already setting his laptop up on Desmond's desk, usurping the workspace since the younger male was occupied and couldn't object. "I fail to see how this is supposed to work, since we were told there would be heavy footwork today." Shaun squared his shoulders. "I even borrowed a pair of 'good shoes' as you so delicately put it." He stared at Desmond from the corner of his eye and motioned to the shoes he was wearing.
Ezio recognized them as a pair of Eli's, black and gray with a thin red stripe on the sides.
Altair cut in before they could start arguing again. "Actually this could work. I don't have to petition the FBI to work with Leo if he's here." He walked quickly around the desk to his filing cabinet and pulled open the top drawer. He glanced at Ezio warily; "I don't want to ask you to do this if it'll make you uncomfortable."
Ezio had discovered the massaging feature in the chair and was slumped down with his eyes heavily lidded. His voice came out almost robotic because of the vibrations; "What do I have to do?"
Altair scratched his head; "I can't divulge much about the cases, but I'd be showing you age progression photos of people, and you'd be telling me if you'd ever seen them before. And if you had, where… if you're not sure, you can think about it, or even call your parents to talk if you—"
"I don't mind… If it could help then I'll do it."
Altair was still a moment, then sighed and spoke in a low, but calm voice; "Let's say I show you a picture of someone you have seen… And it was in a not-so-good place, would you still be able to tell me, or would it make you uncomfortable. The last thing I want to do is make you uncomfortable, or put your health in jeopardy."
He thought about it for a few seconds, gnawing gently at his lip. Altair made a valid point. "I'll call my father and see what he thinks." He sat up and rifled through his bag for his phone, manipulating the buttons like Claudia had shown him.
Altair turned back to the files, shutting the drawer for the moment and looking at something Shaun was showing him on his computer. Desmond dropped into his chair and pretended not to be listening to what Ezio said.
Giovanni answered on the third ring and Ezio could hear easy chatter from his father's end of the line. Claudia was talking, rattling off a list of numbers.
"Ezio, how are you? The doctor's appointment went well I hope."
Claudia paused in her recitation and called out a hello making an exaggerated kissing noise at him.
"I'm fine, tell Claudia I said hello back… The cast came off, I didn't know my leg itched so much… But I-I've got a serious question—Federico called you, yes?"
"Yes, he did. How was the train?"
"Good, and that's why I'm calling. I'm with Desmond at work now and… Well…" He sighed; "Altair thinks I might be able to do what Leo is doing. Helping to find people who were taken like we were. He wants me to help them."
Giovanni was quiet for a few seconds then; "May I speak to him?"
His brow wrinkled curiously, but he held the phone out to Altair; "He wants to talk to you." He slumped back down into the chair with a quiet hum.
Altair took the phone and exchanged quick greetings with Giovanni then his eyebrows scrunched together and he became all business. "Yes, I did ask if he would like to help… I can't get into too much detail about the cases, but I'm investigating a few disappearances similar to Ezio's."
Desmond and Shaun were watching him intently by this point.
"I can't legally tell you that, Mr. Auditore… I know I'm being vague and I'm sorry… All I would ask of him is to look at some photographs, nothing of a graphic nature, and see if he can identify the people in them— No, I wouldn't do that… Yes, but, speaking as his son not as a Private Investigator, my father is an asshole and I'm sorry he did that… Yes, Ezio said he wanted to help, but I still feel better knowing that you know and he's been properly informed of what he's doing and what could— Well, if he should recognize someone, it might make him uncomfortable, and I don't want to compromise his health—What? No, I wasn't implying th—" Altair turned the color of fresh brick; "Yes, sir. Sorry, sir."
Desmond's eyebrows shot up and he whistled low in his throat, spinning slowly in his chair and passing Ezio a surprised look.
Ezio suddenly wanted to know what his father had said to Altair.
Altair passed the phone back to Ezio and slunk out of the room for a few minutes like a dog with its tail between its legs.
Claudia was giggling in the background; "I always wondered where I'd gotten it!"
Giovanni cleared his throat; "Ezio?"
"Yeah… What'd you say to him?"
"It doesn't matter, what matters is that you understand what he's asking you to do."
Ezio sighed deeply and turned the chair around in slow circles out of nervousness; "I understand that it won't be easy. That if I should come across someone I know I'll have to tell how I know them, from where and what kind of condition they were in… I'll have to tell him, tell them about what I've been through. I know that… But if it means I can help bring someone home then I'll do it." He lowered his voice, whispering in Italian and hoping neither of the two other young men in the room could hear him; "Having a bad day isn't so awful… I've lived through quite a few of them. I'll have bad days in the future as well, but I'm working through it. I'm learning how to live with this… I was able to spend the entire morning with Federico and didn't once get scared. I rode the train today by myself! Yes, it was scary at first, but I did it! And it was fun! This is worth it and if pushing my boundaries a little more means I can bring those people home to a safe place, give them the chance to overcome what they've been through then you had better believe I'll do it!"
Giovanni was quiet, then let his breath out in a low sound; "Alright… Alright. I'm sorry, you're a lot stronger than I gave you credit."
"I would hope so! I'm an Auditore! We can do anything! My baby brother beat cancer for God's sake! If only I could be as strong!"
Giovanni chuckled; "Speaking of Petruccio, I'm having trouble finding a Graduation present for him. Any ideas?"
"Plenty. I'll make a list."
Claudia made a surprised little noise in her throat; "Dad, the time! We've got to have this done like, five minutes ago!"
Giovanni cursed under his breath and his chair squeaked; "Ezio, I'm sorry, I have to go, we'll come by and get you on the way to pick up your mother this evening."
They shared quick goodbyes and Ezio hid his phone away in his bag again, automatically looking for a package of chips or candy because his stomach was starting to feel empty.
Altair came back a few minutes later pulling on a hooded jacket and leaning against the doorframe to shove his feet into his shoes; "Guys, come on… It's two-thirty, I'm hungry."
Desmond was on his feet; "Burgers!"
Shaun bowed his head; "Have you not eaten enough meat this week? I swear I think you've gone through two cows already!"
"I'm a carnivore!"
"Human beings are OMNIVORES… You're supposed to have balanced meals. Where's your meat and two vedge?"
Desmond scowled, his lower lip poked out; "If that was another gay joke, it was seriously not funny."
Altair swatted the back of his head, letting out a sigh of discontent. He jerked his thumb into the hallway and turned his eyes to Ezio; "You can come too if you want, or you can hang out here."
He climbed to his feet, limping a few steps picking up his bag—
"You can leave that here, nobody will bother it. Promise."
His stomach did a cold little jolt… His bag hadn't been out of his sight since Petruccio had given it to him. It had all his food in it, what if something happened and he had to fend for himself for days, weeks, maybe even the rest of his life and he didn't have his bag?
Shaun and Desmond were arguing loudly as they stomped toward the elevator and Altair was still standing there in the doorway looking calm and patient.
"There's a restaurant just down the street, we'll be back in an hour."
Nine years ago, walking to school he'd given a homeless woman the lunch his mother had packed, believing he would be home in a mere eight hours and his life would continue on as it had for the past eleven years of his life…
Altair's head tilted slightly to the right and his left hand lifted, the gap of his missing finger looking somehow odd. Ezio remembered the crunch the hammer had made when that finger had been lost.
"I'll be right there beside you the whole time."
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He stepped forward, ignoring his crutches where they were leaned against a bookcase, and closed his hand over Altair's.
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