Home

Luke nearly died, twice, Anders said. By the time the mage felt able to leave the young Warden's side he looked just as pale and he staggered a few steps away, slid down the outside wall of the farmhouse, said, "Don't move him," and passed out. He had no lyrium potions left at his belt and, though more lay in his pack at the camp, Leliana would not let him take another until he'd rested.

They had managed to get Luke's breast plate off and then the arrow needed to be extracted. Leliana had had to do it, to pull the arrow back through his flesh, knowing she caused further injury as she did so, while Anders channeled healing after its path. Had it entered from the left, it might have pierced his heart and he'd have died long before Anders made it out of the cellar. Instead it had entered from the right, carving a path through his lung and other vital organs, a path she widened when pulling it back out.

Lying there, with no shirt, so pale, and bruised, blood still smeared about the boards beneath him, Luke looked very young. Leliana wanted to hold him in her arms, cradle him to herself, but she could not move him until Anders woke and checked on him again. Aedan appeared at her side, a roll of blankets beneath his arm. They reeked of the taint, even she could smell it, but until Ben and Gerard returned from the camp, they'd have nothing better.

Leliana tried to stand and found she could not. The wound at her hip, the constant dull throb she'd pushed away while helping Anders, flared back into being and she nearly fell forward. A soft, pained grunt heralded Aedan's descent to the porch, his own face pale and tense with pain, and he arranged himself next to Luke, flung a blanket over his son and held his other arm out to her. She crawled to his side and sat gratefully again. They leaned against one another, watching Kyle walking back towards the house, a small child on either side of him, each holding one of his hands.

She felt defeated, despite the fact they all lived, and she felt fear, that it wasn't over, that another attack awaited them or would descend on them from the other side of the fields and they no longer had the strength to fight. Leliana had felt this way before, during the Blight, in the Deep Roads. This utter exhaustion and the press of wounds, the fear they would not have time to recover before having to do it all over again. She didn't realise she'd started to shake until Aedan whispered to her.

"Leli?" His arm tightened about her shoulders. "Are you cold?"

"No." She wasn't, she felt more numb than cold. "I'm... afraid." She'd meant to say exhausted.

"Oh, love." He pulled her a little closer, causing them both to wince. "I feel nothing, there are no more coming."

Taking comfort from the sureness of his tone, Leliana tried to relax. He'd removed his armour and she curled into his side and rested her head against his chest, heedless of the grime and the blood on his shirt. She breathed in the scent of him beneath the blood, the familiar smell of sweat and steel, and closed her eyes. He often told her she was his source of strength, that he could not do any of it without her, and she'd told him the same thing. She felt it now, the solidness of him, the presence of his will. Despite the wounds covering him and fact he sat between his unconscious son and exhausted wife, she felt the coil of tension within, the readiness. If he had to, he would continue to fight. He would do anything and everything to protect those he loved. With that in mind, she let go of a measure of her fear and, to her later surprise, fell asleep.

When she woke up, the farm lay quiet around her. Aedan still rested at her side, asleep she saw, and Luke lay beside him, breathing softly, perhaps not quite so pale. The rosier glow of his skin might have been the waning sunlight, however, and Leliana glanced towards the west where the fiery orb of the sun touched the tree tops, spreading red gold light over the fields. Something warm shifted on the other side of her and she looked over to see Grace lifting her golden head. Leliana smiled at the familiar sleepy, almost awake, expression on her daughter's face.

"Did you have a nice nap, Gracie?" The little girl nodded and proceeded to snuggle back beside her. Leliana slipped her arm about the girl and continued surveying the scene.

Soft voices caught her attention and she saw Ben and Gerard standing a short distance away from the house. Gerard leaned against a tree and Ben stood before him, talking earnestly. She was glad to see the pair of Wardens. A gentle snort had her glancing to the side she saw the wagon piled with their packs and gear and the ox they used to pull it. The Wardens had returned from their camp successfully.

Kyle stepped into view then and he had Rory with him still. The boy was holding a bundle of something she could not identify as the light slanted behind them, their shadows touching the porch well before they did. Rory held two rabbits, upside down, by their rear legs. He and Kyle had been hunting, apparently. The archer had two more rabbits.

Another time she might have been perturbed by the sight of her four year old son holding a dead rabbit. Now her stomach only rumbled quietly at the thought of food.

Only Anders appeared to be missing and he solved his own mystery a few moments later by stepping out of the shed on the far side of the farmhouse, dusting his hands off on his robes.

"Mmphf." Aedan stirred beside her, opening his eyes and looking somewhat like Grace, half awake and half asleep.

"Hello, sleepy head," she said softly.

A smile appeared across his mouth, etching fine lines in his weary face. "And here we are, all alive still." He looked about. "I can apparently keep watch with my eyes closed."

Leliana chuckled and reached up to kiss his grimy cheek. "I'd expect nothing less."

Anders checked on Luke. Despite the young man's pallor, the mage said he did well. His pulse was strong and he slept rather than wandered the fade. "We can move him now. We'll spend the night in that shed over there. It is bare of grisly inhabitants."

The mage then began checking on everyone's health.

Luke was the most severely injured, but when Aedan finally pulled his shirt off for Anders to examine him, Leliana gasped at how many nicks, cuts, gashes and wounds he sported, the worst being over his left shoulder. Anders eased her hip for her and moved on to Kyle next, giving the archer some proper relief from his wounded shoulder. Ben had some bruises and Gerard seemed relatively unscathed, physically. But the look in his eyes haunted her; she'd seen it before, in Aedan. The Warden had seen something in the cellar he'd not soon forget. She did not have to wonder what it had been and she did not allow her thoughts to drift there. Instead she gathered her own, live, children to her and held them close, then whispered that they might want to go sit with the quiet Warden for a while.

Grace approached him immediately, that odd sensitivity of hers drawing her to his side, no doubt. She tapped on his shoulder and when he looked up, she sat in his lap and the Warden held her gently, breathed deeply and seemed to relax a little. Rory sat beside him.

The interior of the shed was just large enough to fit them all and they passed the night quietly, taking turns to eat and wash and sleep.

Luke woke in the morning.

Leliana felt more than saw him reach for consciousness and moved quickly to his side. His brown eyes focused on her and he smiled. "Leli," he said, as if he'd just woken up from a night of sleep.

"Oh, Luke." She touched his cheek. "How do you feel?"

"Hungry," he answered.

Smiling, she patted his cheek gently. "I will get you something."

By the time she returned with some broth he'd fallen asleep again.

"He'll be alright, Leliana."

Looking over at Anders, she nodded. "Thank you."

"Oh, I just did the magic thing; he fought the battle by himself." Anders lifted his chin towards Aedan whose shoulder was just visible outside the door where he stood watch. "They are much the same in that regard."

She could only agree. Luke and Aedan shared many traits. They were more father and son than many who shared the bond of blood.

They made South Reach that night and stayed two days at an Inn. By the time they left town everyone, including Luke, looked clean and relatively well rested. Their injuries had healed, but Luke still moved a little more slowly. He rode in the cart with the children quite often, which suited Rory and Grace, pleased them greatly.

Aedan walked at her side, holding her hand, and they talked quietly throughout the day. They did not talk of darkspawn or Orlais or of being a Warden. They exchanged stories, real and imagined. Aedan told her tales of himself as a child, the things he and Fergus used to do and she told him the same. They kept their conversation light and innocent and shared much laughter and many smiles.

When not in the cart with Luke, Grace seemed to have adopted Gerard. She sat with the Warden of an evening, lending him her quiet presence, and it seemed to help. The Warden delighted in the company of the young girl and Rory, when her brother joined them. In her sweet way she seemed to heal a wound in the man, or at least make it so he could live with it, and Leliana admired the selfless way in which it had been done. But the way the small girl clung to Luke told her much more. Grace had truly feared for him.

"What is she?" Aedan asked her quietly one evening.

"She is Grace," was all Leliana could answer.

...

A message awaited them at the next inn and Aedan grew pale as he read it. He passed it to her next and she passed it to Ben. Esmerelle had lost her head and Oghren had gone to Amaranthine to round up the rest of her coterie. The message gave them the name of a bann in the south, a man who had been part of the plot.

After dinner that evening, Aedan excused himself from the common room of the tavern, saying he wanted to take a walk. Leliana considered letting him go alone, she would have in the past – knowing her husband's need for solitude at times – but this time she elected to follow him. She caught him just outside the inn.

He turned at her step and smiled.

"Did you want to walk alone?" she asked carefully.

"No, I waited for you."

Leliana smiled. "What would you have done if I had not come?"

"Waited." He held out a hand and she took it and they stepped into the night.

Instead of idle chatter he wanted to talk about Gwaren.

"I feel unprepared somewhat, Leli. I knew it would not be easy to arrive there and suddenly announce my interest in being a proper teyrn instead of an absent one, but..." he trailed off, shaking his head.

"All of Ferelden has pockets of dissent, here and there. Gwaren is not so different."

He nodded, then turned to face her. "I will want to do my best for them, Leliana. I don't know how to do it any other way." He squeezed her hand gently. "I will need you to..."

"I will be there, Aedan. Always."

"I know. What I am asking is different."

"Oh?" Concern coloured her tone and her brows pulled together, mirroring his.

"If I become... obsessed, Leli, if I drive too hard, stop me." He paused and took in a quick breath. "I need you to keep me balanced."

She understood. This was the core of him, her husband, and he finally seemed to realise it. That relentless drive, that endless purpose. Dropping his hand, she stepped into his arms and hugged him close. "I will keep you here, with me," she whispered softly. She would be his anchor.

...

Zevran caught up with them in the Pass. Leliana felt him before she saw him and smiled at the familiar presence of the rogue. When he fell into step beside her, she said, "Good afternoon, Zevran."

He dipped his head. "And to you, Leliana."

Aedan stopped, gaped at his friend a moment, then pulled him into one of his fierce hugs which the Antivan endured with as much grace as an elf can when being crushed by a six foot something warrior.

Letting him go, Aedan said, "Once again I owe you a debt, Zevran, one I will probably not live long enough to repay."

Shaking his head, the former assassin said, "There is no debt amongst family."

Leliana thought she might weep at his words. He had heard her; the elf had heard her words in Denerim and taken them to heart. Blinking quickly, she pushed her tears away, sniffed as quietly as possible and turned her attention elsewhere until she felt less emotional. Zevran fell into step beside Luke and soon afterwards she heard the young man laughing.

Camp that night took on an almost festive air, as if Zevran joining them once again had turned the final page and closed a chapter. Everyone let out a breath of relief. Their journey had been uneventful and after the message from Denerim, they expected it would remain so. But to have all their number together again seemed to lift everyone's spirits.

Leliana pulled out her harp and everyone sang and danced. The children stayed up far too late and as she looked at their tired but happy faces she simply shrugged. They could sleep on the wagon the next day.

After the music Gerard told a story, an amusing tale of a brother and a sister in search of the gold at the end of a rainbow. Grace and Rory hung off of every word.

Before the story had finished, at weight landed on her shoulder and Leliana looked to see Luke asleep against her side. He'd walked nearly all that day, beside Zevran, and appeared a little pale. His breath did not sound labored though, and so she tried not to worry for him. She tried to look upon him as exactly what he was – an extremely tired eighteen year old boy. With that in mind she slipped an arm about him and let him sleep against her shoulder.

When the party broke up and people moved towards tents, she shook him gently awake.

"Can I sleep with all of you tonight?" he asked quietly. He had been sharing a tent with Anders before and after the ambush.

"Of course."

Giving her a self conscious look, he lowered his voice. "It's not a silly thing to ask, is it?"

"No, Luke. Rory and Grace will probably lie on you though, which will please Aedan as they have been using him as a pillow these past two nights."

He grinned. "That's kind of what I was hoping for."

She hugged him again and kissed his forehead and he didn't even flinch.

...

Two days later they reached Gwaren.

Leliana had had many homes in her life, more than she could count on both hands. The road beneath her feet probably counted as the most constant. Gwaren was the first place she properly considered hers. She knew Aedan had not properly claimed it as his yet, but he had Highever and she understood that. A childhood home ranked strongly in the list of precious places. She, too, had fond memories of the house where she'd lived with Lady Cecilie.

Over the past five years, on each visit, she had redone a room of the estate. It was not so large as Castle Cousland – the smaller size suited her – and the task was nearly complete. Two rooms still awaited her touch and one other she had left for Aedan. He had asked her to furnish the study for him, but she had told him he should do it.

"I have no flair for decorating, love," he'd responded.

They had been in his office at Vigil's Keep at the time and she had looked around at the bare room, the serviceable furniture, the scarred desk, the stuffed bookshelves and unadorned window and responded, "I know."

He'd laughed, sharing the joke.

"Every man should have a place all his own, Aedan. I do not care if you decide you want an earthen floor and want to keep a goat in the corner. It will be your room; it should reflect you, not my impression of you."

He regarded her carefully for a short while as if he tried to decide if she was amusing or strange. "Alright."

Looking at the estate now, a wave of something almost indefinable swept through her. It felt like homesickness, except she stood within a mile of her home, she could see the stone house from the rise, the forest surrounding it on three sides and the town of Gwaren on the other. Home. She was home. Aedan slipped an arm about her shoulder and kissed her cheek. "Nearly there," he whispered softly.

A group of men soon filled the road before the estate and Leliana felt Aedan tense beside her. Fear slipped down her spine and tickled her belly and she wanted to stand still in the road and refuse to move. No, not again, she thought, but Aedan's tension quickly turned into something more like excitement and his step quickened.

"They are Wardens," he said. He must have felt the taint from them, vaguely, at this distance.

His arm slipped from her shoulders and he strode forward, everyone in their small caravan moving faster to keep up as the anticipation swept through all of them. The Wardens advanced and their identities became clear, Philippe, Erick, Taren, Darat, Kayley, Sigrun and Kael.

Aedan hugged Philippe as if he thought the man might disappear if he let go. Leliana saw tears on both men's faces and she gave in to hers as she hugged and was hugged by everyone else. Philippe found her and kissed her cheeks, each one twice. Zevran and Kayley melted together into an embrace that only lovers could share, as if their bodies had joined on the road. Luke submitted to his hugs and the children were passed around like trophies. And eventually tears turned to laughter and they all stopped hugging and walked back down to the large house together.

"We are your guests, by the way, Aedan," Philippe said.

Aedan laughed. "I see, making yourself at home while the teyrn is away."

"I heard he was sympathetic to Wardens, I did not think he would mind."

Martha knew of their arrival and had been cooking for days. She'd been feeding Wardens for days also, apparently, and Leliana laughed as the matronly woman told her she'd already had to order more supplies. Then the minstrel rolled up her sleeves and helped with the cooking. Kayley joined her soon after and between the four them, Martha's daughter had come up from town to help out, they put together a feast.

Later that night Leliana looked around the large dining room at the collection of familiar faces and felt the ache of her cheeks. She had not stopped smiling for hours. It would not always be like this, with so many voices and stories, so much warmth and noise, so much laughter and love, but she relished it while she could. It felt like a proper homecoming. She also looked forward to the quieter family dinners, knowing that one would lead to the next, that she would not have to count the days, the meals or the hours until Aedan left her once more.

When she decided to retire, fatigue pulling at her not long after the children had been settled, Aedan rose with her and took her hand.

"You don't want to stay and catch up with Philippe?"

"No," he murmured softly, tugging her from the room to a chorus of goodnights from everyone.

He led her upstairs and paused outside their room where he took her into his arms and kissed her sweetly. "Tonight I want to spend with you," he said. "This is a new beginning and we're to do everything together now, remember?"

Giggling softly, she teased, "I am not going to decorate your study for you."

He shrugged. "I doubt I'll brush Gracie's hair."

"I will not be molesting Martha for your pancakes every morning."

"I will not be subjecting Luke to kisses that make him flinch."

"He does not flinch," she said, laughing now.

"He does, sometimes. It makes me laugh." He smiled widely. "I remember my mother doing the same thing."

"Are we going to stand outside our door all night and tell each other what we will not be doing?"

He kissed her again and tugged at her hand, pushing the door open. "No, I'd much rather show you what we will be doing."

And he did.