Haytham hasn't dreamed once since the day he and Connor switched bodies, but the night after they bury the key, he has one. It's another one about his father, but there are two differences between this dream and the last one. The first one is that this time, he's not on a ship. He's somewhere he's been before- the house where he lived the first ten years of his life, until his father died. And the second difference is that he's not here as a visitor. This could be one of his own memories.

In his dream, he is himself again. Ten years old, sitting in his father's study, working his lessons or just watching Edward work. He can remember dozens of days like that, and this memory could have been any of them, or all of them together. He feels safe in a way he hasn't since he was a very small child, even with the by now familiar golden glow of the apple surrounding everything.

He feels like he's supposed to do something, or say something. But he doesn't know what it should be, so he stays quiet and still. This strategy works well enough until Edward looks down at him and says, "Haytham?"

Haytham jumps, opens his mouth to answer, and then closes it again. This is his dream, and he should be the one to decide what happens in it. He doesn't want to talk to his father right now- he's completely wrung out from working with Connor, from trying to make amends with Ziio, from dealing with the other assassins. He's not sure if he can take a reunion with his father on top of all that.

And maybe that's why the next words out of his mouth are so awful.

"Why couldn't you just stay dead?" he asks, and his voice sounds high and thin to his own ears. "Things were so much easier when you were dead and buried."

He looks down at his knees, studying them for a very long time. When he finally looks back up, Edward is studying him in silence. "This is your first time, isn't it?"

"First time..?"

"With the apple," Edward says. "Meeting me."

"How do you know about that?" Haytham asks. Then he sighs, because honestly, it's obvious. If he's one of Desmond's ancestors, that means his father must be, too. And that means Desmond can get inside his memories with the animus. He doesn't know why he would want to, but if that particular animus trip is still in his future, he can only assume he'll find out eventually. "Don't tell me you got dragged into all of this too."

Edward shrugs, apparently not at all concerned. "How far are you in your time?" he asks. "Have you switched with Connor yet?"

"A few months ago," Haytham says, and feels himself turn red. "You heard about that?"

"I heard five different versions of that," Edward says. "Alright, so a few months after the switch, but you haven't met me yet-"

"Only the normal way," Haytham says. "When I was a child."

"Right," Edward says. "That's what I meant. Is Desmond dead yet?"

"What?" Haytham almost chokes on the word. "He's going to die?"

"Haytham-"

He's not listening, though. For some reason, the idea of Desmond dying has him upset, far more upset than he should be. Not too long ago, he would have been happy to hear the news. After all, it's Desmond that links all of them- himself, Connor, Ezio, Altair- together. With him gone, maybe life can go back to normal. But that was while he wasn't looking at the face of his dead father. He's not ready for another death right now. Besides, he's spent the past several months in the body of his soon. Normal is looking more and more out of reach.

"Haytham!" Edward says again, and steps forward to take hold of his shoulders. "Calm down."

"No," Haytham shakes his head. "I'm going to save him."

"If you would just listen-"

And Haytham wakes up. Connor's standing over him, and for a second Haytham can't do anything but stare, because it doesn't matter how long they've been switched, he's never going to get used to waking up to see his own body. He groans and sits up, trying to ignore his pounding head. Probably a souvenir from his dream.

"You were making... noises," Connor says. "In your sleep. What's wrong?"

"I had a dream," Haytham says. "From the apple."

"What was it about?"

"I met my father," Haytham says. He can tell by his body language that Connor's almost bursting to ask for more information, but Haytham doesn't volunteer any. He's never talked about Edward with Connor, and he doesn't plan to start now. As quickly as he can, and avoiding all but the most relevant details, he summarizes the dream.

"Desmond's going to die," Connor repeats. "And you- care?"

"Don't even go there," Haytham says.

"It's not a bad thing," Connor says. "Listen-"

"We don't have time," Haytham says. "If he's going to die, and we want to stop it, we need to act fast."

"Neither of us has an apple," Connor says. "We can't do anything unless we happen to show up in 2012. And-"

"So you're happy with just standing here, waiting?" Haytham asks.

"And I wanted to apologize," Connor says loudly, speaking over Haytham.

"You- what?"

"For..." Connor's not much better with words than Haytham is. Maybe worse. "You know. Everything. We're on different sides of this templar and assassin war. But we're also in a weird... apple, time travel... situation. We can't afford to fight, and it ends with both of us in the wrong body. And... I'm sorry."

"Alright, then," Haytham says. "I'm sorry, too. I just... don't exactly know what to say here." He's still trying to figure out why he cares that Desmond is going to die. And then he realizes- he doesn't have many people he cares about left. And as much as he hates to admit it, every one of the people the apple has linked together- and he feels a lot better knowing that his father is, or will be, one of them- is as close as he's ever going to get to having a real family.

"So," he says, once the silence has stretched on long enough to get sufficiently awkward. "We've tried to kill each other. We've figured out how to live with each other."

"Now let's try and save a life together," Connor finishes.

-/-

Too many emotions in this chapter...

TIME TRAVEL NOTE: So in terms of Haytham meeting Edward. At some point, several chapters down the line, Edward's going to join the cast of this story. Stuff happens, and he meets Haytham who's slightly older than the Haytham in this chapter. Blah blah blah, more story, and eventually Edward meets Haytham in his dream (aka, this chapter). Hopefully this was clear in the chapter, and if not, hopefully this A/N was clear. And if not... um, sorry.