Madison
Garret, after last night I only thought of him as Garret, kissed my temple and turned to go with Riley leaving me to return to the hotel with my parents. There was no time in the morning for anything else, but a quick breakfast after we both slept in, but my dad sent Garret murderous glares, ever since he kissed me after joining us in the breakfast area.
We drove in silence and I went straight to my room to pack. I tried not to hear my father's raised voice through the wall and my mother's calm replies. Why was I afraid?
Shortly after a soft knock sounded and I found my mom standing behind the door. "May I come in?" She closed the doors behind her and laid her hands on my arms rubbing them gently. "Do you want to tell me?" She asked with this loving smile she only had for me. Mom was a good nurse, and she had many smiles that she used in treatment as proficiently as medications and instruments, but this smile was only for me. I felt some knot unravel in my chest, a knot that has been there ever since Garret went to the bathroom and left me alone to fully comprehend what I have done. So I told her, and she listened with encouraging smile and when I was finished she rubbed my arm again and then hugged me. "I am glad it was so pleasant for you." She said. "Is dad angry?" I asked even though I knew he was. "Yes." Again the nurse, never lie about facts. "But don't worry about your dad, I will handle him." She smiled again. "Lets get you packed and grab some food before your boy is back."

But Garret was back shortly, though he did not approach me. We drove to the airport, ate a quick meal there in silence, that was beginning to gnaw at my nerves. When we boarded our flight it turned out we got our tickets upgraded to first class but my parents sat at the front and me and Garret at the back of the first class compartment. I looked at him and he smiled sadly. Something told me not to start conversation, so the first hour of our flight passed in tense atmosphere. Then all of the sudden Garret turned to me and said. "Tell me about the trove Madison." My world made a salto, and I did not know what to answer. "Riley told me you are looking for it, it belongs to the Order and would make you rich. He also told me about your father's plans of getting rid of me including staging an accident." He continued and a huge weight settled upon my chest. He looked at me with hurt expression and I felt as if he hit me with every calm word. I wanted the look from last night, but I felt that no matter what I chose to do, this look was gone forever. So I decided to be honest. "There is a collection of documentation and access to all of the Order's assets called the trove. It has been encrypted and fragmented, when you exposed the Patriarch and taken to several chapterhouses. To be kept safe until the next Patriarch got unanimously elected. We are looking to retrieve it." I said. "To keep it." This wasn't a question and Garret looked disgusted. "Have you rearranged our seats to interrogate me?" I asked close to tears. "I did it this morning for completely different purposes." He said with so much bitterness, that I wanted to scream at him, tell him that I... Well nothing I could tell him would help. "Show me." He said. "What?" I didn't follow. "Show me your father's strategies for seizing the power from my hands." He explained calmly, as if it was nothing out of the ordinary. "Garret." He flinched hearing his name. "They were only given to me for safekeeping, I encrypted them and placed them behind my protection, I never even looked at them..." It was true, he had to believe me. "Show me." He said and sent me an impassive look. I nodded and opened my laptop. The rest of the flight passed on him studying my father's plans and what I have discovered about the trove, asking me dispassionate questions now and then. I was so devastated by this turn of events, that I developed horrible headache. Garret ignored the tears streaming down my face as I turned my face to the window and tried to sleep.

***
The drive to the western chapterhouse was ridiculous, the tension between all of us could be cut with a knife. When we've arrived it was late evening and Garret headed to the quarters he shared with St Anthony with a curt "goodnight".
I could not sleep and after a while mom emerged from the bedroom. "What is it honey?" She asked me worried by the change in me. She smoothed my hair and I started to weep. "There, there." She hugged me. "It cannot be that bad. We shall figure this out love." And I just couldn't stop weeping the ache in my chest too strong to leave place for anything else, even her goodness and love. When I cried enough I told her everything. About getting caught by Talon's IT security, by how Garret found out about certain contents of my computer and now hated me. "Oh, baby. He doesn't hate you, nobody can hate you Madison." Mom murmured as she patted my back. "I thought that we would become... something mom. What am I going to do now?" I started crying again and she smiled. "How about talking to him?" She said as if it was wisdom from an expert. "It didn't help today." I said. "You didn't talk to him, he interrogated you. Go to him and tell him your part of the story. You are innocent in this Madison. If he has feelings for you he will come to see it. Maybe not right away, but you could give him a chance." I felt calmer now, this was some comprehensive course of action. Tomorrow I will talk to Garret and fix everything. "Go to bed sweetheart. I'll tuck you in like in the old days, when you were afraid of a dragon under your bed."

Mom decided not to tell dad, until I talked to Garret. I slept until noon, ate small lunch, even though my appetite was close to non existent. Then I picked my way to the armory. Garret was talking to St Anthony when I entered, but they stopped before I could hear anything. "Madison." St Anthony said with cold politeness. "I need to talk to you." I said to Garret who pointed me to a chair across from him. "Give us twenty minutes Tristan, I will find you." And the Lieutenant left closing the doors behind him. Garret looked at me but kept silent. He was not going to make this easier for me.
"My father learned about the trove accidentally when eavesdropping on some high ranked official and the teacher in Order's school. He has through many years of service collected some snippets, but not much. When the Order got destroyed I was about to start college. My parents had some savings that could take me through my first year as they would earn more. My schools have been expensive, you see and even with Commander's salary and extra missions my parents hardly made ends meet. But then the Order got destroyed, there would be no more salary or missions. And after talking together we decided we could not throw all their money on my first year in college. Then my father remembered the trove and we started systematically looking for it in chapterhouses and safe houses here in the US. It should be enormous, and we meant to use some of it on my tuition but not all of it. My father is a good man Garret, he wants the Order to continue on giving structure and purpose to children without family. He would invest the money in reviewing the Order." I stopped as Garret snapped at attention. "Children without family?" He asked me with narrowed eyes. "Yes. Most of the Order's soldiers are orphans or other children entrusted to the church for upbringing. And the Order is not a bad place considering other options. The church likes money and children almost only make money to evil people." Garret rubbed his face and groaned. "It's a pity that this good man wants to kill me." He said. "What would you do if he decided to do this Madison?" He asked. "Garret he wouldn't, he is a strategist, he ponders all possible courses of action..." Garret looked at me and I barely recognised him, his eyes were dead his face a mask. "I don't know Madison. We are soldiers your dad and me, that's what we do. We kill people." He said. "He would never tell me, I would never know." I whispered feeling defeated, but not ready to give up. "Garret I am sorry we kept this from you. I just followed the orders and I didn't know you. Please." I was not sure what I was begging him for. "But you didn't just hold it from me Madison. You held it a secret from all the other soldiers too, from Chris." He was angry. "We don't know if we can retrieve it, we don't even know if it still exists. What point in making Chris hope for something, that might never be? We don't believe it enough to send me to college Garret. We are good people, we would have done the right thing." I said annoyed with the things he implied about my parents. "What now?" I asked quietly. "What about us?" He looked at me and for a second some warmth in his gaze made me hope. "I don't know Madison. I need to deal with your dad first." He stood up and opened the doors letting me out before he went to look for St Anthony.

That went well, now on to dad...