Arriving in Seacouver Adam pulled up to the Dojo that Duncan had owned since first buying it the year Tessa died and Richie was newly immortal. They all discovered that when Mac died he left Joe everything, which surprised the Watcher.
Deciding to keep it open, as it would be a good place for his immortal friends to come and practise when they were in town he hired a manager and left it to run itself with explicit instructions that there was to be no one there after hours.
Adam had called him and let him know about Duncan been reincarnated like Richie and Joe had agreed to let Adam, Saxton and David stay in the loft until their new house was finished been decorated and fitted out.
It was just turning midnight as Adam pulled his car behind the Dojo and nudged the sleeping Saxton to wake her up.
"What? Oh we're here?" Saxton asked sleepily as she rubbed her eyes. "I'll get David, you go unlock the loft and I'll be there in a minute."
"Ok." Adam got out of the car and walked towards the stairs leading up to the back door of the loft.
Saxton retrieved the sleeping David out of the child car seat successful in not waking him up and quickly locked the car and followed where Adam had headed up towards the loft moments before.
She entered the loft finding it was more or less the same as when she had last seen it through Richie's eyes. The only difference was, now there was a small child's size bed, which had been squeezed into the space between the sofa and the king size bed.
She thought Joe must have been looking after the place, as there was not one speck of dust or cobweb to be seen. She placed David in the child's bed and removed his shoes and socks then tucked him in, making a mental note to go shopping for clothes for him in the morning.
Once she was sure David was comfortable where he was she turned and tried hard not to laugh at the sight before her. Joe obviously remembered Adam's addiction to beer and had stocked the fridge with beer and food, but mostly beer. Adam was leaned up against the kitchen counter, his eyes closed in pleasure as he leisurely drank from a brown bottle.
"What food did Joe leave us?" Saxton asked as she walked over to Adam and took the beer bottle from his hand and placing it on the counter as she pressed herself to his firm body.
"You hungry?" Adam asked as he kissed her, his lips still held the taste of the bitter beer.
"Not really." A smile played across her lips as she kissed Adam back.
"Let's go to bed."
"Oh, great minds definitely think alike!"
David awake to the smell of cooking bacon and someone talking quietly in the background, he knew though without waking up fully there was no way of making out what they were saying. Opening his eyes he found himself in an unfamiliar yet very familiar place. He sat up and saw Saxton and Adam in the kitchen area where Adam was cooking and Saxton had her arms rapped around him talking quietly into his ear.
He pushed the covers off himself and walked over to the kitchen area and climbed onto one of the stools.
"Good morning David. How are you feeling today?" Saxton asked as she turned around at hearing a noise, slightly shocked to see that he had managed to climb up onto one of those stools.
"I'm hungry." David quietly replied.
"Do you want a bacon sandwich?"
David nodded his head positive he wanted a sandwich and moments later Adam turned around, plate in hand and put the plate in front of David. "Careful it may still be slightly warm for you."
"Ok!" David smiled as he poked the sandwich testing to see if it was too hot for him. Finding it wasn't too hot after all he picked up one half of the sandwich and started taking small bits.
"Once you're finished with that go get cleaned up, I'm taking you shopping for some new clothes."
"And some blue paint?" David asked hopefully momentarily forgetting about his sandwich.
"Yes and some blue paint, well even stop by at the house so that you can see what your new room looks like."
"So this isn't where we're going to live?"
"No there just finishing a few things off but it should be ready by the end of the week then we'll move in. This is just a loft that a friend has let us stay in while the house gets finished off."
"Oh!"
"What's wrong?" Adam asked seeing the disappointment on David's face.
"I like it here."
"But it's not big enough here. In the new house you'll have your own room."
David turned his attention back to his sandwich and almost whispered his reply. "Ok!"
Just then the lift started to rise from the Dojo and David looked towards it expectedly. The gate lifted and Joe walked into the loft followed closely by Conner. On seeing Conner, Saxton noticed the colour drained from David's face as he looked at him in horror.
Climbing down off the stool David walked over to where Saxton was still standing and whispered that he was going to get cleaned up and then quickly left for the bathroom the sandwich forgotten completely.
"What wrong with the kid?" Joe asked when he saw the bathroom door close.
"He seems to remember a few things. I think he's afraid of Conner. He was fine until he came into the loft and the colour just drained from his face. I think he remembers that Conner killed Duncan." Saxton admitted as everybody took a seat on the two sofas.
They sat silently thinking for a few moments about what that meant for the group of friends. Each drifting into their own thoughts they didn't notice the bathroom door open and David come back into the room until he was pulling himself up onto the sofa and holding tightly on to Saxton.
"Can we go shopping now?" David whispered only loud enough for Saxton to hear what he was saying.
"We'll go in a minute; I just want you to meet some friends of Adam and mine. This is Joe, the person who's letting us stay in the loft until the house is ready." Saxton pointed to Joe who smiled at David who couldn't help but smile back.
"You play music?" David asked as an image of Joe playing his guitar flash before his eyes.
"Yeah kid, I do." Joe smiled thinking he was going to like this kid.
"My name is David, Mr Joe can you teach me to play?" David asked causing Joe to laugh.
"Sure I can."
Once the laughter had once again died, Saxton continued by pointing at Conner. "This is Conner."
David gripped tighter to Saxton's arm then whispered. "He is a bad man."
"Why do you say that?"
"I saw what he did to the man with the long dark hair."
"He's not a bad man David, he's a good person. Are you going to say hello to him?"
"Ok. Hello Mr Conner." He said as he clung to Saxton's arm for protection.
"Hello David." Conner said sadly noticing the fear clearly showing in the boy's eyes.
"Go get your shoes on then and we'll get going." Saxton said as she lifted David off of her knee. He ran to his bed and quickly slid his shoes and socks on his feet then ran back to Saxton and pulled her to her feet and they were in the lift and gone moments later.
"I'm sorry Conner. I guess Hestia was wrong when she said that he wouldn't remember until he was ready." Adam said slouching back into the sofa.
"It's not your fault. If it's anybody's it's mine, I was the one that killed Duncan." The guilt in Conner voice was almost heartbreaking for Adam and Joe to hear, but they couldn't help but feel like he was right. He should suffer for what he did to Duncan. That was not the case though as there was another voice at the back of their minds stating that he was been controlled and he could not stop what he did not want to do.
"Come on Conner you know as well as anyone that you weren't to blame. Did you blame Duncan for what happened with Richie?" Adam asked.
"Of course not."
"Then why are you beating yourself up for doing the same thing as what happened to Duncan? Why do you have to feel the guilt when he didn't?"
"Because I should have been able to stop myself. Duncan was like a brother to me and I killed him unarmed. I killed him and I know deep down if I truly wanted to stop myself I could have. I didn't fight hard enough. When Duncan killed Richie he was seeing illusions everywhere and he believed that Richie was just another of Ahriman's tricks, I had no such excuse. I was been pulled to Paris. First I didn't know where, but when I found out where I was going and what I had to do I could have fought it. I could have turned around and headed back home, but I didn't. I killed Duncan and there is nothing I can do to bring him back. I can only hope for his forgiveness."