CITADEL 3021.02.05

DAVE

"Dave, won't you come by the penthouse sometime? I can't believe you are so busy you couldn't find another night."

"This is the night that worked for me."

As he gave this short reply, Dave walked slowly around his father's office, eyeing the framed diplomas, awards and decorative items. He kept his emotions in check; the depression that had come with Eleni's birthday had receded but being back at the office with all the corresponding memories made Dave wary. He ran the fingers of his left hand over a thick ring he now wore on his right and focused on the real reason he was there that night.

"I was hoping for a dinner. Sometime to really sit and talk," Robert wheedled. Dave just shook his head.

"Maybe another time, Dad. Anyway, let's see, school is going well. Classes are classes, and I'm passing."

"Passing with flying colors." Dave looked at his father, a question in his eye. "I took some time to get to know Dean Tsu. Fabulous work your first semester, Dave. Another reason to take you out to dinner."

Dave just hummed.

"Mom is good," he added, "at least, she was when we went to church for Christmas."

"Great." His father shifted awkwardly. With Dave reaching adulthood, his parents had far fewer reasons to interact with each other, something he knew his mother welcomed. He eyed his father, surprised to sense that the man was not adjusting as well to the change.

"You miss her?" he asked, not really thinking. His father gave him a look of exasperation.

"Of course, I do! Everyday! Both of them!" Dave realized his father had taken his question the wrong way. The man also took it as an opening for a conversation Dave in which had no desire to engage. "Dave, let's visit the stones together. They are sealed, but I haven't done a ceremony yet. I was hoping you would join me." That was not going to happen.

"Maybe after classes are done. Things are pretty busy."

"Too busy to memorialize your sister?" his father asked, pointedly. A second after the words had left his mouth the man blanched and his face went momentarily weak.

She wasn't my sister, and you know it, you bastard, Dave thought bitterly. Outwardly he glared at his father. In his life Dave had rarely been angry about the lies his father had raised him to believe, but in that moment the man held all the blame for the twisted situation in which Dave and Eleni had found themselves.

Taking a deep breath, he focused on the fact that he needed to get out of this without committing to some meaningless gesture. He was doing something far more valuable in Eleni's memory. Something that would actually make a difference, and that was the real reason he was here tonight.

His father tried to backtrack.

"I…I haven't put the names on yet, since I was hoping we'd go together. I was debating whether to include her middle name…it would be odd because it's not on any register…" Dave again rubbed the wide ring on his finger.

"I don't care," he said quietly. In that moment he found the stone that would hold her name was meaningless to him. Dave glanced at the clock. "You said you had a meeting. I'll get going."

His father just looked at him, and Dave knew the man suspected he had chosen this night because his father's time was limited. He wouldn't be wrong in that suspicion, but he wouldn't be quite right either.

"I do. I do have an important meeting. They could only make it tonight." It was the day before a Rest Day, and most people were out having a good time or home with their families. The office was empty save for the Kelly men.

"Well, I'll let you get to it. Good bye, Dad."

"Dave, wait." The younger man stopped but didn't turn. His father came over and around him to embrace him. "I'm here for you," Robert whispered fiercely into his son's ear.

"I know. I know, Dad," Dave said. "I'll see you…soon," he lied as he pulled away.

It was a relief to leave the office for the antechamber, and then out into the hall. But Dave did not make his way to the elevators as his father no doubt expected him to do. He walked instead to the men's restroom. After a brief stop there, he circled back to his father's office, bypassing the antechamber door to enter a utility closet found a short distance beyond.

There, and with the door securely closed, he knelt down and awkwardly maneuvered his head a low cabinet; the space above them held equipment that kept him from accessing the wall at a more comfortable level. Dave pressed his ear against the wall and was glad to find he had come back just in time.

"Kurt, if what you are telling me is true, it could be very dangerous. Talk in the Network about petitioning for mutant amnesty?" The voice of Robert Kelly was muffled, but the words and his disbelief were clear enough.

"I know. But no action has been taken so far. It may just peter out."

"Let's hope so." His father sighed, deeply. "How many people could actually support such a change?"

"Bobby, you know there is no way to know for sure, but you'd be hard pressed to find someone in this city who didn't have a relative, a grandparent or great-grandparent in many cases, yes, but someone who 'disappeared' or was a 'still birth'. There might just be enough support to tip the balance." A pause. "If there was, would you champion it?"

"I don't know, Kurt. Politics is also balancing act; if the timing is wrong…"

"And what if the time is right? The people of the Citadel are freer than they have been since the 21st century. They are more open minded. And then there is that trend my parents spoke of."

"Kurt, that is all conjecture—"

"And that is why I am working on expanding my data set, but I am starting to see evidence that what they surmised was true. Mutant births are increasing, and I think this has happened before-!"

"I believe you but that is not enough for action! We need concrete evidence—"

"And the military must be aware of it—"

"-and I am working on those relationships! It's difficult because it is with people I am normally working against. I don't know if they will let me have access to that data. Further, an increase in mutant births doesn't necessarily mean the population will support change. It might just cause chaos, and the Citadel cannot afford that!"

"But, it doesn't hurt to put the thought in people's heads." The conversation calmed after that spat of intensity, but Robert Kelly remained pessimistic.

"It doesn't? A few idle thoughts is one thing, an organized movement is another. You will keep your ear to the ground?"

"I always do, Bobby, you know that." A frustrated sigh punctuated the end of the discussion. "Do you have those documents you said you'd put together? Since I'm here there is no point in bothering Juana this time."

"Ah, yes, of course. Let me get them." There was a sound of a drawer being unlocked and opened, a shuffling of papers, followed by a muffled thanks and a whispered apology. Then there was a long pause. Dave idly twisted the thick ring on his finger as he waited to see if there would be more.

"Can you stay?" Dave barely heard the question and strained. He couldn't miss any of the conversation.

"With Katherine gone…the risk…,"

"You're already here, so if anyone has noticed, the damage is done…"

And then there was no more conversation, and no sound of a door closing indicating that one of the two men had left. Dave slowly and carefully maneuvered himself away from the wall.

He was satisfied with what he had heard. Word of the movement was of course getting around the community of families who had lost mutant children. His father was aware of that community, and Dave had known that the man would hear about it sooner or later.

His own name, however, had not been mentioned and that was the relief. There was a chance Kurt didn't know: as Dave no longer pestered him for contacts, the man may believe that the younger man had worked through his grief. Dave thought it more likely, however that Kurt knew and had shielded his father from that information, hoping that this all would come to naught. Dave's mouth slid into a lopsided smile that was closer to a smirk; that was a vain hope.

As other sounds started to filter through the wall, Dave moved quickly to the door though he was careful to unlatch it as silently as possible. As he left the cramped room he reflected on the last time he had set foot in there.

That had been the day he had learned that his father was in love with another man.

Ten-year-old Dave Kelly stood, restless, at the side of the conference room his sister and her mother were clearing. He had helped them for a bit, but now found himself wondering whether anything more interesting was happening elsewhere on the floor. So, he left the room and wandered.

It was a quiet night, however. Most of the people had gone home already since they had the following day off. Bored, Dave decided to listen in on his father's office. As Eleni's mom was still on the floor, his father must be in a meeting. Dave didn't understand a lot of what he heard when he eavesdropped on these meetings, but nonetheless found it an interesting pastime.

Making sure the hallway was clear, he quickly slipped into the utility closet. He opened the cabinet on the far side from the door, and with a little difficulty, he squeezed himself onto the lower shelf and pressed his ear against the wall.

It seemed the meeting had just begun.

"Bobby, I've missed you. It's been too long," a tenor voice spoke. Dave thought the tone was strange but guessed it must be a close associate of his father's.

"I know. I can't tell you what a relief it is to see you again. I've wanted you so badly." He recognized his father's voice. His stomach began to feel unpleasant. Something was wrong with this situation. He was frozen for a minute, not understanding the sounds coming from the room.

"Oh…my love..." That, he did understand, and feeling sick, he fled.

Back in the conference room, Eleni had started dancing. Her mother had disappeared, as she did, keeping up the appearance of an affair that Dave now knew was a lie. Sitting with his back to the tables, he for once did not watch Eleni dance, but stared into space, horrified and nauseated by what he had just heard.

When Eleni took a break and sat next to him, she picked up on his mood immediately.

"What's the matter, Dave?"

He shook his head.

"Come on. You know you can tell me."

He wasn't sure he should tell anyone, but found himself wanting to divulge the terrible experience he had just had, and he did trust Eleni. She was his sister, and they had grown up together. He had always been able to talk to her.

After swearing her to secrecy, he described what he had heard.

She barely reacted at all, other than being silent for a minute.

"My mom says its normal. For people to be like that. She doesn't agree with what they think here." Dave's stomach fell, and he realized he had hoped she would tell him he must have been mistaken or share in his horror. Now he felt like he had to accept a truth he found repugnant.

"It's wrong!"

"They are not hurting anyone."

"But it hurts me! And my mother if she knew!" At that, Eleni pinned him with one of her full-on looks. The one that told him she thought he was being an idiot.

"And it didn't when you thought it was my mom?" He struggled with that for a moment.

"But it is wrong!" he said again, "It's filth to…to be like that! Everyone knows that!" He wasn't able to repeat that his father was with another man.

Eleni's eyes shifted to the floor. After a minute she spoke softly, her tone hollow.

"Then so am I." She got up and returned to her dancing.

Dave, shaken to his core, left the room after a minute, and was unable to talk to her again that day, or for many days after. Later, her words would echo in his mind, but in the immediate, he just wanted to distance himself from it all.

"Dad," he asked as he walked home with his father, keeping as large a distance as he could between himself and the man. "I want to live with mom for a while."

"What? Why would you do that? You know how busy she is, and it is more difficult for her to keep track of you with her schedule." Dave shrugged it off. His mom would just get someone to watch him or encourage him to do another afterschool activity. That's why he had asked to live with his father full-time a couple years back: the man let him hang around his office when he was not engaged in school activities. Dave enjoyed the unstructured time, and Eleni was almost always there as well. It had been the more appealing option at the time.

"I want to. I'd like to spend more time with her." He ignored his father's asking if something was wrong, called his mother the next day, and was sleeping at her townhouse that night.

Over the weeks that followed, his feelings about the event simmered and evolved. He first tried to forget about it entirely. He told himself he could continue to live with his mother, but his freedom took a substantial hit as his mother indeed insisted he join more activities.

Moreover, he missed Eleni. While she was only his half-sister, she was fun and he liked talking to her. When he thought of seeing her again, however her words haunted him. 'Then so am I.' Did he really think she was filth, that she should never have been born, as everyone around them believed? He slowly started to confront that question.

"I'm glad to have you with me, Dave," his mother said over dinner one night. Her secretary, Raymond, was eating with them as well. He sometimes did that.

The comment warmed Dave and helped him forget his worries for a moment.

"It's nice to be here, too, Mom."

"You know your mom is very busy," Raymond inserted, "and school is coming to an end in a couple of months. I was thinking you could join a summer sport to fill your time once school's out. Maybe swim team? It will be much so more fun than hanging out at the arcades…or at your father's office." Raymond tried to give him a conspiratorial smile. It didn't work.

"It wasn't so bad," Dave muttered.

"The former, perhaps. The latter…," his mother took a sip of water, then seemed to steel herself. "Does he really keep his bastard there all the time, Dave?"

"Sometimes she's there," Dave whispered, feeling like he was betraying Eleni. His mother made a noise of disgust.

"There are districts for them so that we don't need to be reminded of their existence. Why doesn't he just put them up in one of those? And enrolling her at a preparatory school!" Raymond reached over to cover the woman's hand with his own in an effort to calm her distress.

Dave, head down, squeezed his eyes shut. He didn't like his mother's tone, or the idea of Eleni being 'put' somewhere he couldn't see her. Throughout his life, she had been his one constant companion. He finished his dinner as quickly as he could and excused himself.

Through comments like this made by his mother and others around him, he agonized, and finally came to the conclusion that he didn't think Eleni was filth. She was no different from him, just another kid, and she was important to him. In order to see her however, he would have to see his father. He wasn't ready to confront that issue yet, so, he continued to stay away.

The weeks drifted by and five more had passed when his father insisted on speaking to him over the phone late one afternoon. Dave expected his father to ask him what was wrong again. He did it every time he managed to talk to Dave. However, following one question as to Dave's general wellbeing, his father changed the subject.

"Eleni is in the hospital."

"What? She's hurt?"

"Her arm is broken. You should visit her. She is very sad." Dave wanted to visit her.

"What happened?"

"Ask your mother to bring you over." His father told him the name of the hospital where Eleni was staying, then told him again to come.

"Mom, Eleni's hurt. We have to go to the hospital," Dave said as soon as he hung up the phone.

"I know. Your father mentioned it to me, though I have no idea why. We are not going."

"What?! I have to go."

"No, Dave, you don't. It is not good for you to be associating with her." He wouldn't accept that. His sister was hurt, and he wanted to see her.

"I know what you think, and I don't care!" he yelled.

"David Anthony Kelly, don't you yell at me!" His mother came towards him.

"I need to see her!" he screamed even louder. He dodged his mother's reaching arms, then ran from the room and from the townhouse.

It was still light out, and he knew his way to the hospital, even though it was in another Bloc. Ignoring the calls from his mother as the townhouse fell away behind him, he ran as fast as he could the entire ten blocks of distance. Gasping for breath, he spoke Eleni's name at the reception. In response to the odd look he received, he said his father was upstairs and that he had just been dropped off. The receptionist insisted on calling up to confirm the presence of his father, but soon Dave was on the elevator to the floor where Eleni's room was located.

When the elevator doors opened, he found his father waiting for him. Robert Kelly's face was stern. Dave had been either rude or cold to the man the past few weeks.

"I've missed you, Dave." The boy didn't answer. His father sighed. "This way."

They walked halfway around the floor. A doctor emerged from Eleni's room just as they reached it.

"Senator Kelly, I was looking for you. The tests all came back negative. Some of her mineral levels are high, but they can quickly be brought down with an infusion. I think she's mainly suffering from shock from the attack." Dave froze as he recognized the tenor voice. He looked up at his father and the man he was apparently in love with. They looked like two normal people. Uncomfortable, he turned away and went into the hospital room.

Eleni sat on her bed, staring at her right arm which was enclosed in a cast. She didn't seem to notice him approaching.

"Elle?" he said quietly. She looked up. There were circles under her eyes, she was pale and her face had a distant look to it. She didn't speak.

"Elle! Are you ok?" Distressed by her appearance, the words came out more urgently. Dave pushed himself up to sit on the edge of her bed. He looked at her arm.

"Does it hurt?" She just stared at the cast again.

"Elle. Eleni!" She had never not spoken to him before.

"Go away," it was barely a whisper.

He gaped, and tears flooded his eyes. For the first time, he realized that his staying away all these weeks had hurt her. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry about what I said."

She looked up.

"But maybe it's true. Maybe I'm evil," she seemed exhausted and distant.

"No! You're not evil! I don't believe that! I'm so sorry!" he said desperately. "You're not bad! You're fun, and ten times better than everyone I know, Elle! You're not filth! You're not. You're not."

Her face crumpled, and he put his arms around her as she started to cry.

"You're not, Elle. You're not," he mumbled the words, his own tears dripping down his face. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Dave's father found them like that, embracing but no longer crying, and seemed relieved, but it was short lived. Even after the embrace, Eleni remained reticent.

"Elle, I thought you'd be glad to see Dave."

She looked up at the man, then back down at her cast. "I'm just tired, Senator Kelly." She never called him father.

"OK. Dave, Katherine just stepped out to get some food. When she gets back, I'll walk you back to your mother's."

"I'm not going back there. I'll stay here." He had to make Eleni see that he was telling the truth. He didn't think she believed him yet. His father looked at him, nonplussed.

"You can't stay here. You'll come home with me, then."

"And we'll come back tomorrow!" he called after his father as the man pulled out his phone and walked away.

"We'll see," came the vague reply. "Angela? He's going to stay with me tonight. I—" His father's voice cut off, apparently interrupted by his wife. He exited the room.

"I'm coming back tomorrow, Elle," Dave said definitively. He was heartened when she nodded.

He did, after school, and he brought cards. Eleni played halfheartedly, but he kept on, determined to engage her. Dave had learned what had happened to her two days ago now, the gang attack that had resulted in her broken arm, and that she was still in the hospital because of her subdued state. He was determined to raise her spirits.

She didn't start acting like herself, however, until she was back home, which happened a few days later. Then they were meeting at the office again. Her mother and his father decided she would stay there during the days until her arm had fully healed, so she spent her days on the 22nd floor doing homework so that she wouldn't fall too far behind in school.

When Dave asked if this was because they were afraid the gangs would target her again, his father answered in the negative.

"I'm making sure they never bother her again, Dave. So, don't you worry about that, ok?" He was relieved by his father's confidence. The man no longer asked him what was wrong and seemed happy to write the entire event off as pre-teen drama.

However, while life was outwardly back to normal, inwardly Dave still struggled. The resumption of the relationship between himself and Eleni also meant a return to the topic that he had successfully been avoiding.

"So, what do you think of your father?"

"I don't know."

"He's the same person he was before." Dave didn't answer and focused on the game of checkers they were playing.

The weeks passed slowly. Eleni's arm healed enough to remove the cast, but she didn't return to school or to her dancing. She continued to occasionally bring up the subject Dave would have rather avoided.

"If they love each other, why not?"

"He's cheating on my mom! With a man!" Dave hissed in return. Again, the flat look, and Dave bit his tongue. He changed the subject to something else that had started to bother him.

"Elle?" he began, hesitant.

"Mmm?"

"If my dad is not with…your mom. Then…are you really my sister?" Eleni stared at him, trepidation in her eyes. She shook her head, unable to speak the words. Dave looked down, unsure what that meant.

He continued to come, but things felt different. His connection to Eleni had been lost. He couldn't accept his father as things stood. He felt unmoored.

They stopped talking about those subjects. They stopped talking about most everything.

"Dave, you can stop coming," Eleni finally said a week or so later. "It's clear you don't want to, now that you know." He looked up from their game of checkers and stared at her.

He stopped coming.

"Hey, Dave. Coming to the movies tonight? We're going to see the latest action flick," Zach Kaldwell grimaced. "My sister will be there, too." There was always some sort of adult there.

"Uh, sure!" Dave smiled at the dark-haired boy and got a grin in return. Dave found a phone to call his dad and let him know where he'd be. After Eleni's stint in the hospital, he hadn't been able to stomach the thought of living with his mother any longer, so he had continued staying at the penthouse. He remained distant towards his father, however, and these last two weeks he had spent away from the office had helped in that effort.

Nonetheless, as he tagged along with the group going to the theater, he found himself looking down the broad avenue that led to his father's office building, the place where Eleni spent nearly all of her waking hours outside of school.

He glanced over at Zach who was walking next to him.

"Did you hear what Mr. Abara did to Tiat?" Zach nodded, and grimaced.

"Nasty bastard." Dave agreed.

"I mean, Tiat's just nervous. Sure, it's not cool, but embarrassing him like that…?" His companion looked at him a bit dubiously.

"I don't know. Tiat's an idiot. He brings it on himself."

Dave looked away, discontent with how the conversation was going, and knowing it was unwise to push further.

So it was with his friends; there was always a subtle sense of competition, and he was starting to understand that most of them felt that was justified. Cruelty was a tool used to determine whether another was a fit friend or foe; those who didn't keep up were left behind and subject to abuse when their existence was recalled. You always had to watch what you said and did if you wanted to avoid that fate.

In this way, he missed Eleni. He could talk to her about anything; she was openminded in a way that differed starkly from his friends. And while she let him know her opinion, she didn't immediately judge him if he thought differently. They could sound things off each other safely. He was starting to understand that that was important to him.

He finally asked himself what had really changed. Some lies in his life were now exposed, as were the corresponding truths, but was anything different? He came to the conclusion that nothing really had changed. Nothing except for him.

He went back to his father's office building the next week. Eleni was sitting alone, her head pillowed in her arms, in the conference room on the far side from the one in which she danced. It was evening and he wondered why she still wasn't dancing.

"Elle," he said tentatively, remembering what had happened at the hospital. "I know I hurt your feelings again. I'm sorry. I had to think it all through." She stayed as she was. He went over and sat next to her so she could see him. He was afraid she would turn her head the other way, but she didn't.

"I don't understand it. It made everything feel different, what I found out about my dad. About you. But I missed spending time with my dad. And I missed spending time with you. And that made me realize that who you, and he, are, that's the same as always." He looked at her, and she stared into nothing. But she was listening. "You're not my sister, but you're still my best friend. At least, I hope so."

Her eyes shifted and focused on him. She sniffed slightly, then blinked, then nodded. He breathed out in relief, then laid his head down on his arms beside her. They sat, silent, and looked at each other.

Dave walked by the entry to the room where they had sat that day and stopped, his thumb absently pressing against the new ring on his hand. He thought he wouldn't go in, but then turned in as if someone else were directing him. Walking slowly around the table, he sat in the same place that he had all those years ago, now alone. He pillowed his head on his arms and turned his face to the place where Eleni had sat. He stared into the emptiness as tears started to fall.

"Elle, I miss you so much."