Rebecca's the one that takes the call from Connor.
When he vanishes, their entire group descends into an amazingly organized kind of chaos. They scour the city and the surrounding area, looking for any sign of where he could have gone. But there's nothing, not so much as a single lead. Even Haytham goes, calling in sick and abandoning his work at Abstergo to search for Connor.
But he doesn't find anything, either. He stays out until long after dark, leaving Rebecca alone to wait and worry inside his too quiet apartment, alone apart from Minerva. With the others busy looking for Connor, she's been assigned the task of looking after the girl. So far that's been easy- Rebecca's spent barely any time at all with her, but Minerva is an easy charge. She spends most of the day staring out the window with an absentminded expression, and Rebecca doesn't have the energy to worry about whether that's good or bad.
She's worried about Connor for disappearing, about Haytham for the look on his face when he went out that morning. She's just worried in general, and worry is the kind of emotion that sucks and drains energy. It leaves her listless all day, until finally the landline- because Haytham is the kind of old fashioned guy that actually has one of those, by choice- rings.
Minerva looks up from her place at the window. "Phone," she says (her first word since Ezio dropped her off that morning), but Rebecca is already running for it.
"Got it," she says, grabbing the phone off the cradle. "Hello?"
"Rebecca?" Connor's voice sounds scratchy through the speaker, like he's somewhere without great reception. "I wasn't expecting- I'm looking for Haytham."
"He's out," Rebecca says. "Looking for you. Where are you?"
"Doesn't matter," Connor says.
"But-"
"I'm not coming back," Connor tells her, and only the absolute certainty in his voice keeps Rebecca from arguing. "I'm sorry, I just can't… Look, Juno's already dead, everyone's alive and relatively human, there's no loose ends left up there you need my help to tie up. I just need to leave for a while. I need to go and be by myself and figure things out."
"But…" Rebecca gropes for an argument that will mean something to him. "What about Haytham?" she asks. "You didn't- oh." She frowns. "You called to say goodbye."
"Yea," Connor says. "But listen, you can pass a message along, right?"
"Sure," says Rebecca. "I think it would be better if you did that yourself, though."
Connor ignores her. "Tell him…" but he hesitates. "I don't know. Tell him goodbye, I guess."
"Connor-"
"And… listen, don't leave him, okay?"
"I wasn't planning to," Rebecca says, barely resisting the urge to point out that Connor is walking out at that very moment.
"You're good for him," Connor says. "And he's got Edward back now, too. He'll be fine."
"Connor!" Rebecca makes a strangled noise of frustration. "If you're so worried about him, don't leave!"
The click in her ear is the only goodbye Rebecca gets. She swears colorfully and hits redial, but the phone goes straight to voicemail. She throws it across the room, onto the bed, and starts thinking about how she's going to spin this to the others- Connor can be rash when he wants to but this is a new level.
"Rebecca?"
She feels a twinge of guilt at the sound of Minerva's voice behind her, and winces at some of the less appropriate words she'd just used. It's hard getting used to having a kid around. "Don't ever repeat that around Ezio," she says. "He will kick my ass for teaching you."
Minerva nods solemnly, and then (to Rebecca's total horror) bursts into tears. "Whoa!" she says, making vague gestures that are meant to be comforting but mostly look like flapping bird wings. "Don't… don't cry? Please."
But Minerva barely seems to be listening, just goes on crying in the way only children can- quietly, but with a passion that suggests nothing will ever be right again. Rebecca waits out the worst of the tears, then picks Minerva up and sits her on Haytham's bed. She's not particularly strong, but Minerva is feather light and doesn't put up a fight when Rebecca plants herself next to her.
"What's the matter?" Rebecca asks. "Huh?"
"Connor-" Minerva sniffs, and rubs a hand across her nose. Rebecca passes her a tissue without saying anything, and after an enthusiastic blow, Minerva goes on. "He left because I'm here, didn't he?"
"What?" Rebecca shakes her head. "No. Why would you think that?"
"Ezio told me he's tired of weird," Minerva says. "I'm weird, I'm a- a freak, aren't I? I shouldn't even be here. I shouldn't even be alive and I definitely shouldn't be alive like this." She gestures to her child's body with one hand, while the other one clenches into a fist. "Ever since I showed up, he's been sad. And now he's gone."
"No, sweetie, no…" Rebecca shakes her head. "First of all, you're not a freak. Don't say that. Just don't. There's nothing wrong with not remembering who you were, and there's nothing wrong with being a kid. Life is strange, and you have to live with what you have. And with whom you are."
"But-"
"And Connor absolutely did not leave because you're here," Rebecca adds. "He left because of an entire lifetime of weird. Even if you were the straw that broke the camel's back- and I'm not saying you were- it has more to do with everything that happened before you came than anything you did."
Minerva looks doubtful, so Rebecca goes on. "All people are complicated," she says. "Connor included. Maybe Connor especially. We just need to give him some time."
"Okay," Minerva mumbles, nodding a little. She doesn't look entirely convinced, but Rebecca takes it as a good sign that she announces she's hungry a few minutes later. That only leaves the problem of telling Haytham about Connor's phone call when he comes back.
-/-
"He called last night."
"What?" It's just after dawn, and Haytham is dragging himself through the apartment door, wearing a dejected expression, like someone's just run over his dog. At her words, though, something like cautious hope lights up his face. That makes Rebecca's next words far more difficult.
"He's not coming back," she says. "Not for a while, anyway." She quickly summarizes what Connor had said, leaving out only what Connor had said about her. When she finishes, Haytham sighs. She's expecting a stream of questions, but Haytham only asks one.
"How did he sound?"
Rebecca considers this for a moment before answering. "Certain," she says. "He's decided what to do and he's not going to change his mind."
"Good," Haytham says, and that seems to be it. He pulls off a jacket and tosses his key onto the table by the door, like he's coming home from any normal day at work. Rebecca turns away so he won't see her smiling. In hindsight, she doesn't know why she's surprised by this apparent lack of interest- Haytham has never been concerned with dramatics, so as long as Connor is satisfied with his choice, there's no reason for Haytham to be concerned.
"Did you eat already?" he asks.
"Ages ago," Rebecca says. "We got hungry so I ordered a pizza."
"'We'," Haytham repeats, blankly, and Rebecca gestures at where Minerva has fallen asleep, curled into a tight ball on Haytham's bed. She's small enough to barely make a lump under the blankets, and Rebecca's not surprised that Haytham hadn't seen her on his way in. "Oh. Shaun and Ezio haven't come to pick her up yet?"
"Shaun called at eleven," Rebecca says. "But she was already asleep so I told him to come back in the morning."
"Good," Haytham says, and after a minute of apparent thought he goes on in a more considering tone. "You know, if we're talking about people that should get out of the city, I'd think she should."
"Minerva?"
He nods. "I mean, forget her past, right now she's a normal kid stuck in a pretty terrible situation. She'd be happier away from all this."
"I agree," Rebecca says. "But that would mean pulling Ezio and Shaun out of the city too."
"They'd do it for her," Haytham says.
They don't talk much for the rest of that night- Minerva takes up so little space that Haytham is able to squeeze into bed next to her and fall asleep. Rebecca hasn't slept much either, but she's been stuck in the apartment all day and she's used to going all night without sleep. She makes herself a coffee- if she's not going to get any sleep she at least needs the caffeine- and turns to look out the window.
What Haytham had said about giving Minerva a chance at a normal life has her thinking. There's really no reason any of them need to stay in Montreal any longer. After all, when Rebecca had first met Desmond she'd thought he was one of the most normal guys in school. The fact that his entire family was made up of winged time travelers that moonlighted as assassins had only come up years later, and honestly hadn't seemed to interfere with his childhood in any way.
They could do that. All of them. Juno's dead and gone, they can work out of anywhere in the world. Rebecca can imagine that life. She can imagine having a house somewhere, waking up every morning in the bed next to Haytham. Maybe they could get a dog (she's always wanted a dog). The others would live nearby, Minerva would be able to be a normal kid with friends and without stressors like the ones she has here.
It's a pipe dream. It's obviously ridiculous and fed by her sleep starved brain and the cheap coffee, but somehow Rebecca ends up on her laptop, looking at real estate listings anyway. She knows it's ridiculous, but it's not until ages later, when she realizes Haytham has woken up and is looking over her shoulder, that she figures out that this can be both ridiculous and something she really wants at the same time.
She starts to explain. "We could-"
Haytham puts his hand on hers, and she lets her fingers curl around his palm. "We should."
-/-
Somehow that idle thought turns into an actual plan. No one really wants to stay in this city any longer than they have to, and over the next few weeks they start to leave, headed back to the middle of nowhere town where all this had started, where both Rebecca and Desmond had grown up.
Shaun and Ezio go first, with Minerva. Rebecca's there the day they leave, watching as Minerva swings back and forth between excitement and nerves. She's clearly happy to be leaving the city, but just as obviously worried about the voices she still hears in her head. But Rebecca isn't worried, because if there's any group of people that can make the impossible happen, it's this one right here. Minerva will get better. She will.
After that, Altair, Desmond, and Edward disappear. They have plans- big plans, from what Rebecca understands. Altair had been a shockingly successful author at one point in his life, and as much as he pretends to be embarrassed every time Shaun goes borderline fanboy on him, he obviously enjoyed it and wouldn't mind going back. Desmond had been about half an hour away from a degree in animal sciences before getting sucked into assassin business, and Edward- well, as far as Rebecca can tell, he's mostly interested in experiencing everything the twenty first century has to offer.
That leaves Haytham and Rebecca.
Their plans take longer to finalize, because they're not just relocating, they're also trying to figure out where they are as a couple. Until now, they've been sort of casually sharing Haytham's apartment, Rebecca coming and going as she needs to, neither of them willing to make that next step. Getting a place together would be… big.
But after days of dancing around the subject, Haytham comes home with a dog. It's a basset hound, barely out of puppyhood, adorable and perfect and it comes straight to Rebecca when she calls. She looks up at Haytham and she's smiling. "I've always wanted a dog," she says. "But my dad's allergic, he never let me have one. Then I was at college and there were rules and then I was an assassin and it seemed like a terrible idea-"
"Well, he's all yours," Haytham says. "I thought… you might want some company when you move out of the city."
And suddenly the smile is gone. Rebecca is already crouched on the floor, looking over the dog. But now she looks up at Haytham, noticing for the first time that he looks as grim as she's ever seen him. "You're not coming with," she says.
"Becca…" he crouches down so that they're on the same level, with only the dog between them. "I would if I could. I want to. But the thing about Abstergo is they don't let people go. And maybe we should have seen this coming when I went undercover, but we didn't. As soon as I started making noises like I wanted to leave, they clamped down. I'm under surveillance almost all the time now, there's no way I can leave without leading them straight to the others. It's better that you go alone."
"You-" she wants to laugh, almost. "You're breaking up with me, aren't you?" she asks. "That's why you brought the dog."
"Yes," Haytham admits. "I can't leave, and I can't ask you to wait."
"How long are you going to stay?" she asks. "I can wait, I can-"
"It might be months," Haytham says. "Years. If I'm not careful about the way I leave, it might kill us all."
"Then I will wait months," Rebecca says. She's thinking about what it means to have someone there when she need him, about how right things feel with Haytham, about what Connor had said about her being good for him. Or maybe she's not thinking at all, because it's very difficult to think clearly over the rising pit in her stomach. "Or years."
She leans over the dog and catches Haytham before he can move away. The kiss that follows is intense, desperate and breathless, and long enough for Rebecca to come up with a half-baked plan. When Haytham eventually pulls away, she starts talking before he has a chance to say a word. "I will wait," she says. "I promise. And if- if you're willing, I'll prove it to you."
"How?"
She grins, trying to ignore the way she's shaking with nerves. "By doing something incredibly stupid," she says. "Let's get married."
-/-
I was hoping to have a holiday themed chapter up for today, but in the past week I've turned twenty one, gotten sick, and been roped into doing the gift wrapping for half my family. Things happened. I got busy (which probably explains the quality of the past couple chapters). So I guess the best I can do is 'Merry Christmas' for those of you that celebrate.