Author's note: Chapter posted on December 3rd, 2023.
The move into the new Old City house went very smoothly aside from one final tiny delay that wasn't resolved until five days after the move in; it was fortunately only something minor that had to do with finalizing competition paperwork as the contact person had been on vacation and as such were out of the office until later that week. Ashley decided to keep her house in Toronto even though she would be primarily living in Old City for the foreseeable future. She made sure to change the door locks and garage passcode on her last day before leaving for the west coast of Canada.
There was a sense of fond nostalgia returning to Old City as the interior of the new building had a partially similar layout and aesthetic as the previous facility, however outdated structural features were obvious not recreated, it was better insulated, and the layout was drastically improved to increase walking efficiency throughout the building, including more straightforward corridors and more ergonomically placed stairwells to aid vertical travel between levels. More than a few times Ashley as well as Helen had to reprogram their brains to remind themselves to not automatically follow old memories, such as having caught themselves walking down a hallway and through habit attempted to turn a corner that didn't exist anymore.
Two things Helen did intentionally recreate were her cozy study that included a fireplace and bay windows in the upper southwest corner - this time with a small interior spiral staircase - which led up to a private reflection space on the roof directly above it, and a spectacularly elegant grand foyer with a double staircase.
The third floor (upper most floor) was a dedicated office level. Aside from Helen's study there were three other office spaces, both Ashley and Druitt claimed one each leaving a spare office for visiting Sanctuary employees, a briefing/conference room, and a filing closet. The featured decorations hung all along the walls of this floor were notably the many paintings Helen created during her time in the past. Also on this floor was a large library. Unlike previously, this library was only a quarter of the size, if that, and was used simultaneously as a museum showroom to proudly display all of Helen's historical momentos - no longer were the items stuffed away hidden in crates collecting dust in a catacomb. Instead, many items sat atop their own individual shelf inside a protective acrylic display case with an information placard. If the item(s) were too large for a shelf, they sat atop a waist-high pedestal that was strategically placed around the perimeter of the room, as a well as a few placed within the central area - one at each end of a reading table and in-between a nearby pair of lounge chairs.
During the evacuation of the previous facility before the self destruct, a key area that Helen wanted to preserve were all of her priceless first edition books. Though there were several thousands of books, the process of collecting all of them was fairly simple. In a matter of less than four minutes, both Druitt and Ashley were able to teleport everything out to a nearby local climate controlled warehouse (Helen built the warehouse on the giant empty commercial lot Will bought for her in the months following it being used to temporarily hold the refugee camp) by grabbing onto each individual bookcase wall section, and along with the entire bookcase came all of the books sitting on their shelves. The bookcases were then stacked standing upright next to each other. All of those books remained in storage at the warehouse until now. For the new house, the library was with filled with books pulled from this lot, though around seventy-five percent still remained behind. This warehouse was also where Helen had beforehand secretly moved out and stored her mementos as well.
Below this level on the second floor was the residential level (partitioned into a restricted family side containing six master suites and an open guest/visitor side consisting of eight regular single bedrooms that shared two full bathrooms and one half bathroom). In selection of bedrooms, Helen retained a south facing master bedroom suite with a view of New City (this time on an exterior corner located at the end of the central hallway) and though Ashley also kept a north facing view of Old City, she intentionally chose the master suite corner end adjacent to her mother - as opposed to before when as a teenager she had moved into a room far away from Helen as an act of independence. The suite on the same side of the hall next to Ashley's was reserved for Ashley's impending daughter. The suite directly across the hall from the baby next to Helen was Druitt's room. Next to both Druitt's and the baby's room were a spare suite on each side of the hall. Helen figured that Tesla could opt to use the suite next to Druitt if he ever stayed for an extended visit (though she doubted he would make much actual use of the room knowing he'd most likely be stuck in the tech lab for the duration of his time) and Henry could potentially use the open suite next to her granddaughter if he traveled over from London.
On the first floor was the foyer, living room/lounge, kitchen (with attached walk-in pantry), dining room, media room, game room (which included a nine-foot tournament billiards table), music room (featuring a model D concert grand piano), and gym work out area. From this floor, occupants had access via a south central door that led outside onto a roofed elevated and furnished patio deck with stairs reaching down to a concrete footpath which led to the screened-in and heated saltwater pool, past it all the way out to the pier/boat dock, and over to the helipad/hangar. A door on the east end of the building opened immediately to a porch stoop with stairs down to a walking pathway that meandered through the sprawling gardenscape, connecting to a delightfully hidden octagon gazebo. A door on the west end of the building opened to a covered pathway to the semi-attached garage/storage building. What constituted as the covering was an elevated connector hallway between the residential level and the small attic loft above the garage. Inside the loft was a mini tech lab/repair shop if need be (as much as Helen loved Henry, she disliked the clutter associated with electronic equipment, and so relegated that space outside the house this time around). Running along the outside of the west wall of the garage was an enclosed soundproofed indoor shooting range; Helen originally wasn't going to add this space, but halfway through designing the property she tacked it on the more continuoisly she thought about Ashley staying here, as well as upgrading to an actual armory and not just a small weapons locker - knowing the younger woman liked her firepower.
Unlike the original building, the first subfloor of the new facility was intentionally styled as a daylight/lookout basement with special one-way windows that allowed light in, but not out so no one could see inside. This meant that the first floor wasn't on the actual ground level, but elevated above by a couple feet. This floor similarly remained a medical / science research floor which included an infirmary, an operating room, a lab space, a medical/science equipment walk-in storage locker room, and a few abnormal holding cells that had reinforced filtered windows. The second subfloor below it (and the bottom most floor of the facility) contained a wine cellar, an armory, an MRI machine room, a CT machine room, a shielded computer server room (found on the complete opposite side of the floor from the MRI machine), a small SHU (containing three cells), and a biohazard containment unit with a lab and quarantine cell.
Overall, Helen rebuilt the Old City Sanctuary with the majority of the same specialized rooms, just on a vastly smaller scale and in lesser quantity. Helen knew that more than half of these rooms and features would absolutely go unused with primarily just Ashley, her granddaughter, and Druitt living there, however Helen was a woman who's learned throughout her history to never go unprepared. If a patient were too ever one day stroll in, she'd much rather have everything on hand to treat them - for her to be teleported to them - and not vice versa, requiring the patient having to be teleported to her at the Underground Sanctuary, or to New York or London or items constantly teleported in from other locations. Worst case scenario, god forbid a patient walked in with an infectious disease, she certainly didn't want to it to unintentionally spread to other facilities and or get out.
After a month and half of settling in, it was now the first of March 2022 and Ashley was currently eight and a half months pregnant with two and a half weeks remaining until her projected due date on the seventeenth of the month. A low impact exercise Ashley took to daily was swimming laps in the pool. Not only did it relieve a lot of gravitational pressure for Ashley herself, but Ashley could sense that the baby liked the buoyant sensation as well. It was around three o'clock mid-afternoon as Ashley lazily floated around when she heard the back door of the house open and close and subsequent footsteps walk across the deck, down the stairs, then make their way along the concrete. It wasn't until the screen door to the pool's enclosure was opened when Ashley was interested enough to disturb her rest to actually open her eyes to see who had joined her. To her surprise it was Will instead of her father.
"Hey Will, nice to see you!" she greeted.
Will smiled as he looked down at her treading water. "Hi Ashley. It's nice to see you too. I see you're having a good time."
"I am," she agreed. Ashley then noted the time on a nearby outdoor clock hanging on the support beam of the screened enclosure. "You're early. I wasn't expecting you for another few hours until around dinner time."
"Yeah, so did I. Apparently, the plane that was intended for my original scheduled flight suffered a bird strike at take-off, causing it to make an emergency return to its departure airport. As a result, because that plane wasn't arriving anymore at my airport, the airline quickly bumped me to an earlier flight out. I had barely an hour notice to catch it," Will explained.
"Sorry for not being there to pick you up from the airport," Ashley apologized.
"It's all right. With such a mad dash to the airport, plus not being able to use my phone on the plane, I didn't expect a car to be waiting for me," he admitted. Will spoke again, gesturing towards the house. "It's a nice house. Are you the only one here? When I asked your mother a few days ago if I could visit, she gave me a temporary passcode to get in the gate, however I haven't seen her yet. Or your dad for that matter."
Ashley shook her head. "My mom is currently away in a meeting at city hall hosted by Mayor Franklin discussing municipal service upgrades for residents living in Uptown, though she should be back very soon, and my dad is upstairs in his office looking over my divorce papers."
The last bit shocked Will and his facial expression reflected it. This was the first time he's heard of this news regarding Ashley and her marriage ending. As a psychologist he had knowledge of how devastating a divorce could potentially be, and the fact that Ashley was currently in the middle of a divorce from her husband while being pregnant with her husband's child was obviously most likely extremely emotionally painful. He was uncomfortable in finding the right words to say next, though felt saying "I'm sorry" with all sincerity was a safe bet.
"Thank you," Ashley graciously accepted.
"May I ask why?" Will thoughtfully asked, hoping to lend a friendly ear. In all the years he's tried, she has still characteristically never opened up to him about any of her troubles. Even still, Will characteristically offers his services even though she'll probably decline. He had hope for one day though. Maybe today would finally be it, but with a topic so deeply personal, he doubted it.
Ashley floated around a bit, leaning back to look up at the sky, her large rounded belly breaching the surface. "Irreconcilable differences," she answered.
Will thought that would be all that he would get out of her, but was pleasantly surprised that she continued.
"You're now the only person besides my parents who know of my divorce. I haven't even told Henry about it yet. It could have finalized as quickly as almost two months ago when David served me papers the week before I left Toronto, however due to my being pregnant, the courts can't process the request for the dissolvement of our marriage until after the baby is born." She took a breath. "It gave my father time to review everything." She then slightly changed the subject. "If you ever need a really good barrister, you can always ask him to see if he'll help you out. He's helped mom out of plenty legal situations over the years, some going as far back as the mid-late 1880s right after their time spent together at the University of Oxford."
Will hummed in acknowledgment. "I'll be sure to keep him in mind if I do," he replied genuinely.
After a short pause, Ashley decided to get out of the pool. She motioned Will to join her over at the shallow end then offered him her hand so he could help her step up onto the concrete patio. Ashley thanked him then walked over to a nearby lounge chair to pick up the oversized beach towel she brought out with her and began to dry herself off. After she wrapped the towel around her, she led Will out onto the path and headed back towards the house. "Care for a tour?" she asked as they reached the steps.
"I'd love to, thanks," Will accepted.
Once inside the house, Ashley had him follow her up to her bedroom suite. Will waited outside in the hallway as she quickly changed into clothes. After dressing, she began the tour; showing him one of the spare empty suites and then the guest bedrooms on the opposite side before going up to tour the third floor, saying hi to her father in his office.
Will was surprised at the change in Druitt's appearance. Not unusual to him was the casual business wear, however the inch and a half of dark almost black hair on this head along with a quarter inch salt and pepper goatee was certainly different to how Will had always seen him in the past; completely clean shaven and bald.
Continuing on, they returned down to the residential level to walk across the connector bridge into the garage loft. As she showed him around her mother conveniently arrived, pulling into the expansive garage below them. Though it could hold ten cars and at least three motorcycles comfortably, Will noted that there were (now) only four cars and two motorcycles present, leaving half the space empty. Ashley and Will walked down the staircase to greet her. Helen joined the tour, taking the lead.
The trio stayed on ground level as they walked back over through the west door into the first floor, exploring around every room. Helen and Will continued on to tour the subterranean levels as Ashley broke away, excusing herself to use the restroom. When the pair came back upstairs, they collected Will's bags in the foyer; Helen placing him in the empty suite next to her granddaughter's room.
Will stayed for the week, enjoying his time. On the second to last day, Ashley caught Will on a phone call with his father. After the call ended, she asked how his father was doing, to which Will thankfully informed her that his father's cancer treatments were working and was overall well.
Author's note: Though I originally thought of the idea of Ashley in a pool being approached by Will and a variation of the baby's birth several months ago (close to half a year ago now), I didn't finally start to write it down until the 19th / 20th of September, finishing it on the 28th. I also had difficulty in deciding what to call this chapter. Pardon the first half being this giant detailed description of the new house. I never intended for that to be the case, as it was originally to only describe the proximity of Helen and Ashley's bedrooms being adjacent to each other, but once I wrote about the bedrooms, everything else kind of followed, including the house tour.
I set this piece aside before continuing to work on the story on November 30th, 2023. I originally intended for this chapter to have a pool scene, a scene with Helen and Ashley in the kitchen late at night, and the scene of the baby being born, however, the chapter was getting long with everything else, and so I decided to split it, pushing the latter two things to their own chapter instead.
Reviews are welcomed