I had prepared a feast all day, trying to get the house more festive, having close by houses helped with them coming by, but I wanted this to be perfect.
Angela was seemingly enjoying the evening, John was setting the table and my mother was fussing over the oven while my back was turned for one moment.
" hey!" My dad called out from the adjacent room.
" yeah!?" I replied.
" Your phone is going off" he replied.
In my holiday cooking stupor I must have misplaced my phone.
" Angel, you want to check?" I asked her, but no response.
" She's not in here, she would have noticed this" my dad said.
I sighed and plunked things onto the table unceremoniously.
" have you seen your mother?" I asked John who had big eyes.
" She went outside to get some snow for the table" he said.
" what?"
" I wanted to make a table snowman" John said.
" how long ago was that?" I asked.
" I don't know—" John said as I walked to the other room to get my phone.
' Max is gone, so is Reyes' Sojourn messaged. Alerts were all over my phone. My entire body was panicking.
" hey—- I need you all to uh— can you check on something in the basement, together?" I asked as I gave my father a look and he slowly nodded his head.
They scurried off to the basement while I pulled my pistol from the drawer.
I looked over the security cameras and could faintly see her hair behind the shed. That's a relief at least.
So I alerted Sojourn and cautiously went outside, probably against protocol, but it's my fucking wife out there.
I could see her little faded boot prints slowly getting covered by the snow.
" I'm doing this as a favor" I could hear my old ex friend say.
" like this?" She hissed in reply.
" what the hell is going on here?" I growled as I saw him standing in the snow next to her, she didn't look concerned just annoyed.
" I wanted to give you something, that's it" he said as he held out an envelope to me.
" before you question it— if I wanted you both dead, you'd already be dead" he added.
His skin was looking better, or maybe it's the dim lights, But he doesn't seem menacing, just hyper-vigilant.
" where's Max?" I questioned.
" no fucking clue, probably on his way here, but lucky for you—- I'm here" he replied with a shit eating grin.
" what ?" I grunted.
" Apparently the coded words are on that paper" Angela said as she glared at him.
" See, I owed her one favor and surprise, you get two for the price of one" Reyes said as he lightly tugged on a strand of Angela's hair.
The frost in the air showing her annoyed exhale as he smiled.
" are you leaving now?" I asked him.
" what? No festive spirit?" He asked.
" Look, if I wanted the ghost of Christmas past—"
" I knew I should have dressed up, oh well, working with what I've got. Long run from that mental institution you got me set up in" he said.
I looked over at Angela almost inquisitively.
" she didn't tell you?—- married for a few weeks and already keeping secrets?" He clicked his tongue and smirked.
" I actually didn't know, I signed off on his medical status for moving him, I didn't even look at where—- I figured you knew about it" Angela said as she glanced over at me. She's not lying, I made it clear that I wanted updates on his whereabouts. It wouldn't matter to her where he is, because she rightfully doesn't give a damn. I somehow missed it, how could I have missed that?!
" well, that's depressing, and I was under the impression that you both missed me THAT much"
I pulled out my phone, and Reyes immediately slapped it out of my hand.
" what? After I helped you—- you are just going to turn me in? Don't I get to see MY family for this holiday? Or is it just the two of you with your fairytale ending?" He spat out the words with bitterness etched throughout.
" what family?!" I asked.
" That's the problem with you, you never cared enough to know" he said as he scrunched his shoulders, shuddering slightly as the wind picked up.
" Alright, back porch" I said with a defeated sigh.
Angela handed my phone back to me so I didn't have to remove my gun from pointing at Reyes.
We made the short walk back to the covered porch, Angela brushed the snow off the chairs and motioned for him to sit.
" do I smell ham!?" Reyes asked.
My hand nearly smacked my face, I left it in the fucking oven.
" I'll get it out" Angela said with a grunt as she went for the door.
" won't it need some basting or whatever shit you like to do" Reyes said.
" last thing on my mind" I replied as Angela went inside, the screen rattled behind her. I tried to display no emotion. But internally I'm rattled. I know he's harmless now, but I still have my doubts.
" Well shit, helping you out seems like such a damn burden to you" he growled.
" kinda is, how is this helping?" I asked.
" I gave you the control switch for your wife and this is the thanks I get?"
" she isn't under some sort of control, she's fine" I grumbled.
" Yeah, is she still hearing voices? Clawing at her skin, not remembering?" His eyebrow raised.
" you mean how she already was before?" I asked.
" naw, she was fucked up, now she's really fucked up"
" that's not true, nobody could do anything to her in there, she's been checked, she's done runs of the dictionary while she sleeps even. There's nothing wrong with her" I said, stating each word directly.
" huh, impressive" was all he could say.
" she is" I replied, this was uncomfortable, familiar but entirely uncomfortable.
Angela came back out, holding a thermos in one hand, the other in her pocket.
She reluctantly handed it over to Reyes, which he immediately accepted. Nearly tearing the lid off of it before gulping the coffee, I'm assuming is inside.
" I like that you remembered how I take my coffee" he said after a moment.
" There's plenty of things I can't forget" Angela said.
" I know—- hell I know" he replied as he leaned back in the chair. The flakes drifted onto the porch and onto us.
I still haven't messaged Sojourn, I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I need to call this in, and yet—- I'm genuinely confused about his family. As far as I know they've been dead, or just unassociated with him for decades.
" what family do you have?" I asked.
" I had a family, but she's since moved on—- thank you for asking" he said.
" how do you know?"
" I've checked in on them, yearly" he replied.
" This better not be a damn joke" I said. He knows me too well, and knows what would trigger me into feeling sorry for him.
" it's not—- Krysta had a kid. I have a kid. I feel like that's some information I can share, seeing as I don't think you are targeting or scared of me anymore—"
" I wasn't scared of you, I was scared of who you turned into. But I wasn't scared of you, you changed and turned and joined—- "
" that's being scared of me" he said nodding his head.
" so what other 'news' did you have to share with us?" I asked, the veil of patience I was presenting was wearing thin.
" Max has multiple programmed versions of himself, you'll need to talk to Sombra about some of this shit—- she'll know better on how exactly to reprogram it—- if she didn't already, I don't know what kinda ' deal' she managed to get. But I'm assuming not good enough if she's still locked up"
" there's a lot more to it than the public knows, and more than I'm privy to disclosing to you"
Angela handed me the thermos and I took a sip, I didn't notice I was shaking until I held it. Her sparkling eyes looked at me while I looked back questioning her. Her eyes softened as they indicated the door.
Hell, no.
" it's time to get you out of here and wherever the hell you need to go, I'll give you a head start on. We have a busted old Jeep I was working on, but I can always get another" I said with a grunt.
" letting me go!?" Reyes said with a nod.
" yep, just get the hell off our property and don't you ever think about coming back" I said.
He nodded and I got up, leading him over to the tarp with the Jeep, it was a real piece of shit, but I like tinkering with stuff.
Angela was watching from the porch, her eyes focused on us.
"you sure you don't need me to stick around, in case he shows up?" he asked. I was a bit shocked by the offer. He shrugged and threw his hands up for a moment in equal disbelief.
" I think we can handle it," I replied.
"Considering i managed to get past your security-"
"Max is at the end of the day, just a businessman, he's nothing without his army" I replied.
" yeah, but if he starts-"
"what makes you think that if you both have the same reaction to orders, that you won't do the same as she would?"
"you have a point there" he replied, he genuinely looked conflicted.
" will you be okay?, i mean, if he manages to track you down will you be able-"
"i don't think so, i went through a lot of treatments... and Angela's serum seemed to help a lot- i've been doing the same thing, the speaker in my cell had words constantly playing in the background... enough to drive someone- " he paused and shook his head.
"I'll be fine" he stated more confidently.
He looked down at the wheel and stick shift. He reluctantly tried to hand over the thermos but I sighed.
"Take it" I said as I took some steps back from the vehicle as he started the engine.
He looked down again and back at me.
" This is a real piece of shit" he said.
" I know you are , but the Jeep is a classic" I said as I thumped my hand on the hood to make it stop clunking as loudly.
I heard a sound I hadn't heard in over a decade. His genuine laughter.
With that the car and he was gone. I stood there as the snow began to cloud over his trail, Angela leaned her head on my shoulder, I didn't even hear her approaching.
My hand fell into hers as we stood there silently.
" You might want to check on the ham" she said quietly.
" shit" I replied as I pulled her along in the snow before scooping her up and carrying her in.
It did smell slightly burnt, but that didn't matter, I put the envelope into my coat and went to try to salvage the food while calling the family back up from the basement safe room. I don't feel like spending the entire evening dedicated to Reyes and Max... whoever he got too—-
Fuck. I finished getting the food ready before leaving to call Sojourn. She wasn't thrilled with how long it took replying to her and even less thrilled when I mentioned Reyes.
" I need to get Sombra on the line too—- apparently there's a whole thing with Max—- cut her whatever deal she wants for this. It's a complicated situation" I said.
" Yeah, we figured as much with him. frustrating shit these Omnics do"
" yeah, well. Merry Christmas" I said as I hung up.
Angela was still drying out her hair from all the melted snow, but she had an almost mischievous smile on her face.
" did you get into the eggnog already?" I asked.
My father let out a chuckle and I knew the culprit.
" what ? We all just got through a stressful situation. A little alcohol won't hurt anyone—- except John" he said.
So we spent the night eating, relaxing and drinking. Angela was exhausted and got John to bed earlier than he would have liked, and helped my parents get settled in the guest room, the snow really was coming down and I'd feel better if they stayed.
Angela was lightly pressing her fingers into her temples as she walked towards our bedroom; when I remembered the paper.
Curiosity is getting the better of me as I went to grab some water for John.
On the page was " diablesse" which we knew, so that didn't surprise me.
So all of this for nothing? Literally nothing?
I grunted and held it to the light to see if anything else was there, for old times sake and sure enough there was.
' it only works if he says it, not that it worked well, but if it's said at the proper frequency it does cause her to experience hallucinations. '
So his entire visit? Was for his own sake. His own psyche.
I can't be mad, I can't afford to be mad anymore. I'm living my dreams out while he is suffering and that's not ideal, well. My dreams... yes. His suffering? Knowing what he's been through? I can't help but feel pity.
A/N: Apologies for the shortness of this chapter. I'm sorry.
Thank you to those of you who still read this. Extra shoutouts to: : ayumiiishinozakiii, Trokxy, robot584, dragontear365, jfm76,Chaosdynasty, CyborgNinja777, TheMdogs, Kirabeta,and L0rdOfThEMemes