Here is a long nice chapter to start off the New Year. It actually didn't take me long to write this, its just been crazy around the holidays and with me being on mostly bed rest from an infection. I really hope this chapter fill some voids, I did take some of your ideas into consideration, so thank you for that!
PLease Review, I really want your guys opoions on this chapter. I feel like I might have missed somethings, but I really tried to cover my bases.
-Moon
The ashes of an old fire pit stood at Shay's feet. Sign of horse hoofs was imprinted into the soil. The indent in the dirt showed there were about three horses.
"Whoever was here." Haytham addressed. "They are long gone now." Haytham examined the other side of the camp. He'd had hope the loyalty that Catherine's friends had towards her would keep them nearby.
Shay glanced about the dead willow. A hawk sat on one along of the dead branches. Its dark eyes stared him down from the winged creature's beak. There was a seething hatred radiating from the creature towards the man. The Grand Master brushed it off as the two men disturbing the hawk's home.
He studied the tree until he noticed a bag with a piece of parchment with Catherine's name. "Shay." He lifted the bag off the ground. He would allow Shay to glance inside the sack himself.
Shay stood up from the balls of his feet when he saw what Haytham held. He sped walk towards the bag to grab it from the Grand Master. He unlatched the sack and blinked in surprise at the articles inside. Next to supplies of food was a piece of clothing he hadn't seen in years.
"I thought you were at the bottom of the ocean." Shay dropped the bag to pull out his old coat. The grey coat was old and tattered. It brought back memories.
It looks like it had gone through a repair and hemmed it to fit the new wearer. In the bag was a red scarf. Touching the old tattered fabric, a flow of old memories all came at once.
The scarf was a gift he had given Rose years ago. It was a simple piece of fabric, he could only afford. The time before Assassins and Templars. He was a child before his father's death. The young lad wanted to get Rose a birthday gift and with the small amount of coin in his pocket. He managed to buy one that reminded him of Rose's hair. He could see the bad stitching that he did when he was a child. Shay could remember sitting by a single dying candle, cross-legged. His tongue sticking out trying not to prick his tiny fingers.
"What's that?" Haytham walked over to peek over his shoulder.
Shay blinked waking his brain up from the past. He shoved the scarf back in holding up the coat. "This was my coat from when I was a different man." Shay breathed.
He remembered the pride he felt as a younger man to inducted into the brotherhood.
Haytham raised her eyebrow. "and now your daughter has it? Passing on the torch I see." Haytham understood well what his comrade meant.
Shay laughed at the irony. "This must be Achilles version of a joke he wants to remind her where she comes from." It was one single empty laugh.
"You should of let me kill him," Haytham stated as he stared at Shay's back.
"We've been through this before. I stand by my decision about that Haytham." Shay shoved the coat back into the bag and threw it over his shoulder. He knew that Catherine would want these items.
A single cry crossed the sky before a large white drop landed on Haytham's hat. The criminal landed on a branch and had a mocking look on in his eyes between his beak. Haytham's face flashed to disgust on his face as he quickly took it off to try to shake the excrement from the hat.
"Cheeky bird," Shay chuckled, "You got to admit it was a good shot."
"That animal is lucky I don't shoot it then stuff it, place it on my desk."
The ship captain could see the distinct features of the bird. The sea captain remembered the bird clearly as night and day that this was Catherine's hawk.
Shay whistles for the bird's attention. "Are you looking for your mistress?" The bird cried out again as a heartfelt yes.
"That's wonderful, she has a bird too," Haytham grumbled.
The Grand Master of the Colonial Rite grabbed a handkerchief to wipe the rest of the bird poop. He placed the hat back on his head.
Shay glanced back around the abandoned campground one last time. "Whoever was here are now long gone."
"Agreed, I'd half suspect them to stay around."
"Catherine will know." Shay glanced around. "If we are not careful she might escape before I get a chance to talk to her."
Haytham walked back to the hose they got on loan. "I highly doubt it, she has been on bed rest for the last four days."
"I know," Shay could still see the image of Catherine laying in bed almost lifeless.
This was the second time in his life he had seen her on the brink of death. He didn't like to think about to that time years ago, she was so sick. So sick that her memory implemented from that time. If she only knew the truth behind it.
The ride back to the ship was swift and fast, they remain silent on the way back. When they made their destination to the ship after returning the horses. Haytham turned to look at Shay,
"I will be returning to my estate in Virginia. I already have my travel arrangements." He firmly stated as he stood still with his hands clasped behind his back. "I want those letters found as well as the pre-cursor box. I don't care what you must do, but find them."
"I will make sure, I can get Catherine to talk, I promise."
Haytham nodded before picking his next words carefully. "I will not give that girl a second chance. For your sake and hers, make sure she does not interfere with the Order again. I don't want to force my hand."
Shay felt his blood run cold. "Sir…"
"If she does I will not ask you to do it but I will handle it as well as my son."
Shay gritted his teeth before reaching out his hand to shake Haytham's hand. "I will report to you there then." He chose not to respond to his comment. It was an awful feeling to hear Haytham say it, as a parent, it was his duty to protect his child. A child he never got to raise himself because of his duty to the Templar Order.
"Shay! Your back." Gist called out over the railing of the ship. "She's awake."
The old sea captain turned his back to the grand master. "Go on then, I hope to hear from you soon." Haytham turned his back to Shay before walking off. Shay lingered for a moment to watch Haytham disappear into the crowd. A cry of dismay came from above, the hawk that had followed the two Templars from camp was circling above him. His cry song for his mistress.
Shay whistled for the attention of the winged predator. The creature dived into a swoop and perched himself on the railing above the captain's quarters. Shay paid no more mind to the bird as he walked up the dark wooden plank.
"How is she?"
Gist greeted him with a pat on his back, "Looks like she made it out of the woods,"
Shay stopped outside his quarters, he could see the latch was down. He listens for any sound of distress. "Was she angry? Upset?"
"She didn't look upset, just tired. Though, she tried to stand up on her own and leave. So, I locked her in. I made she had food, and she even asked for parchment and charcoal. So she had been feed and has something to do."
"Thank you for watching her." Shay thanked his right-hand man. "I will have a word with her now."
Shay unlatched the door before pushing it open. His first instinct was to look towards his bed, but all he could see was a pile of papers with charcoal sketches on them. Some were crumbling while others unfinished.
Behind his desk, he could see Catherine's red hair peeking. She crouched down looking through his personal effects.
"Damn it, does he not organize anything?"
Her father cleared his throat. "I could ask the same thing, sprout."
Catherine jumped from her kneeled position with a short gasp of pain. She gritted her teeth feeling the pain after the shock of her sudden movement. "Damn it, don't stretch." She reminded herself in a short breath.
Walking hastily across the room, Shay touched Catherine's shoulder. "Go back to bed,"
"Not until I find a comb or a brush."
Shay flashed a smug look, her once elegant curls was not a matted mess. "Hold on." He went into a small dresser next to his bed. "I don't keep my comb in my desk." He dropped her bag next to the bed. "I am guessing this is yours."
"What?" Catherine eyed as she walked back to the bed to have a seat. She pulled the strap and placing the bag on her lap. She took a moment to go through before seeing the coat. "Yes, Connor and James must have left it."
Shay didn't say anything to his daughter. He sat behind her to start picking out pins that held her hair in place. It was silence before Catherine piped up to asked a question.
"What are you doing?"
"Fixing this mess," Shay replied as he placed the pins on the bed.
Catherine frown, "do you know anything about fixing hair?"
"I've watched your mother once, or twice do it."
There was an obvious awkward silence hanging above their heads. The father and daughter duo did not speak as a single word about the events in the last week. "I have to wonder why you didn't just go with a wig?"
"They are hideous, besides I got clips in."
Shay pulled out a spare wig extension, "I see it," he tossed it in a trash can next to the bed.
He placed the comb in her hair and brushed it causing her to hiss at his hard strokes to get the knots. "You didn't think to try to take my hair down while I was out of it?"
The painful memory of seeing her unconscious in the sheets scared him. He was even scared to move her from the Shippen Manor. He held her close to his chest afraid she might break. "it was unnecessary," He untangled the last of bit of her hair. "Let me get ya a ribbon to tye it back."
"It's fine, I like it down."
Shay stood up from the bed. "How can you see if it falls in front of your eyes? What if you're running across the rooftop and you jump? It will get in front of your face."
"Because no matter how many times I tie the damn thing, it always falls out."
Shay didn't say a further thing about knowing they needed to talk about what had taken place. Catherine found it odd that the two of them were talking like there was nothing wrong. The Master Templar knight and the Assassin novice were speaking like they were a normal family.
"You feel guilty. You use to spoil me every visit."
Shay looked back to days of when they were a family. "I did, your mother told me not too,"
The two shared a soft gentle laugh at the day, though as light-hearted it was until Shay asked another question.
"Catherine, why were you at the party?"
Catherine dug her fingernails into her palms. "Do we need to discuss this now?" Hearing his words of defending Haytham and the Templar Order made her even angrier.
"Yes, you stole a compile of private correspondence between different Templars. On top of that, I need to know where the precursor box is."
Catherine became more anxious about the news of their discovery. How did he know that they had it?
"I don't know what you're talking about," she said above a whisper.
"Catherine."Shay spoke sternly, "you almost died. You are lucky that you weren't killed by the other Templars."
Catherine almost forgets that James was the only reason why she had ended up with a musket ball near her rib cage. "It does not mean I will give up my friend's location. I was scared he might actually shoot you. He's angry that you murder his da and framed the damn natives."
"I didn't want to do it to Richard, but he gave me no choice when he discovered I was alive. It would endanger myself and your mother as well as you."
"Uncle Liam wouldn't of let it happen. I doubt Achilles is in the business in murdering small children."
"Are you sure about that?"
Catherine shook with furry before standing up to glare at him in the face, "Aye, I am damn well sure. They don't murder innocent people in the street like Ma! I don't know why you are standing with them."
"Are you going to kill me?"
The sea captain turned to look at her with surprise, "Why the hell would you think such a thing like that girl."
"You're a Templar, you kill people who stand in the way of your order. I told you I was a going to become an Assassin."
Shay barked out a laugh and looked at her, it was almost mocking.
"Sprout, you almost died tried protecting me. Your 'training' so far is pretty poor. There is no reason for your death." Shay told as a lie. He had to admit her skills of hiding her true intentions were brilliant. Though if Haytham knew that if Catherine tried to fight the order again, she would be dead. He would have to protect her by reasoning with her. "You need to understand Achilles is wrong in this." He had to destroy the idea of the Assassin Brotherhood in her mind to save her from her own mission.
"I want to do what is right, not stand by and watch people die like my mother."
An expression struck Shay face, it was the emotion of sadness, "I was furious, I almost killed Lee with my bare hands. I never agreed to that barbaric display."
"Why did you agree to it?"
"I trusted Haytham's judgment. He is sorry for what has conspired, nothing can replace Rose."
Catherine only glared as she spoke, "Well, I am not surprised, your deep inside their pockets."
Shay couldn't believe what was coming from her. "Enough Catherine, "
"Or what? I am only speaking the truth! It makes so much sense why you were never there." Catherine spoke out loud to herself more than speaking to him. "What of what Haytham and Lee did? There will never be a fix. I don't care what Achilles has done, but I care what has I done to our family. And you don't seem to care about that."
"Just let me talk Catherine-"
Catherine stood up from her bed and poked hard into his chest on the verge of tears. "Were you so strongly set in your conventions, that you didn't want us? I watch my mother wait for you every day. I waited for you. Every single day until you came home." Her words rang true in her mind. She watched her mother miss her father every day. Rose Cormac had to raise their only child alone.
Catherine took a moment to breathe before speaking again. "I was excited to read your letters, all of them. Yet you never were home. It broke our heart. She told me to keep my chin up and told me you were doing important work."
"Catherine, I am here now." Shay tried to interject himself by holding her face to calm her down. "Just let me talk to you, lass."
"Let me talk!" Catherine shouted as she shoved his hands down. "If I am forced to be here, you will listen to me."
"You are the child, I am the parent-"
This upset the young woman even more from his statement. "You didn't raise me! She did! She loved me. She was the only parent that was there for me! You don't get to decide what's best for me." Catherine saw the expression of pain across Shay's face.
Catherine couldn't imagine how she looked. With a red face and bloodshot eyes. Her cheeks were stained with tears. She felt like she shrunk back to a child, who was screaming her pain and anger at her father. The girl wanted him to know the pain of him not being there.
"She made sure I was happy and loved. We were happy, but we missed you and you don't seem to care. You were blessed with the best family. A loving wife and a daughter who adored you. I hope to god that you never lose sight of that. I don't want to hear your reason why you choose them over us. "
Shay listened to every word that came pouring out of his daughter's lips. She was in pain from the shaking sob of her last sentence. He broke her heart, he knew that. He broke his heart, he broke his wife's heart. He let his family down, but he wasn't going to let Catherine believe he didn't love her.
Shay breathed deeply through his nose and tried to keep his own emotions in check. "I was protecting your mother and you at first. But it spiraled out of control over the race to stop Achilles and the others."
"How?" Catherine spat shoving her father roughly
Shay didn't let her continue before pushing her down onto the bed to calm her down. He had noticed one of her stitches had ripped from her reactions. She tried to sit back up, but it was a struggle. He had to pin her by her wrist to control her.
"You will stop your screaming. I know you are upset and in pain, but you will listen to me. Now you can either fight me or lay down to let me take care of your ripped stitch." Catherine stopped and looked at him dead in the eye. The girl closed her eyes tightly trying to stop her own tears.
Shay let go of her wrists, letting her curl up away from him. She laid on her side that was not wounded to allow him direct access. He took off his coat and hung it onto his wardrobe where an array of other coats were. He placed it next to his old black coat with red lining.
Shay rolled up his white sleeves ready to help Catherine. The girl stared at the wall, she did not realize how drained she felt until now. She was emotionally exhausted from yelling at her own father. She could only stare at the foggy colored glass window. 15 years of anger came all out in a 5-minute span.
Catherine felt the bed dipped as Shay pushed up her shirt. He placed a cool rag over her bleeding stitch.
He wasn't much of a doctor, but he would call for one in the morning. Possibly hire him to come to Boston with them to watch over her. Shay spoke as he went to work on her side.
"Achilles sent me to kill thousands with a precursor artifact." Shay started his tale. "The same one that your mother hid from me. I was sent to Lisbon back in '55. I was a much younger naive man about the power the device held."
"The box?" Catherine asked above a whisper. "How? " Catherine couldn't imagine the amount of chaos that was caused. She had brief read up on the destruction of Lisbon from years ago. The young lass was unsure if the city had ever fully recovered.
"It lead me to an ancient temple in Lisbon that brought this city into a pile ruble. I almost died myself trying to get out. ON top of the murders that Achilles had done he had a death warrant signed for you."
Catherine could not imagine Achilles ordering such a vile act upon a child. "What do you mean?"
"He may of not attempt to it, or order it, but he had a hand in it. One of his head Assassins by the name of Hope Jensen had you poison."
"I don't remember that!" Catherine sat up to see if he was lying, but his eyes told the truth. She would need to talk to Achilles. She could still hear him ask if she was there to see him to finish the job. Was he expecting her to kill him?
"You were little, so little when it happened. No more than 3 years old. If it hadn't been for Haytham finding the antidote in Hope's manor, you'd be dead. I tried to bring you and your mother to New York after your mother felt threaten by the assassins. Hope and Liam strike a plan to make your mother pay for betraying the Assassins. even though damn well knowing they had threatened her and you." Shay remember that awful day as he retold it to Catherine.
Rose had shown up on the doorsteps of the New York Templar headquarters, scared out of her mind. The others had found it strange she knew where the headquarters was. Though she was given the chance to explain.
Exclaiming Liam was going to steal Catherine himself if she didn't help them. As Shay recalled it was the first time Haytham had met Rose. Shay wanted them to stay with him at Fort Arsenal. For a short happy month, everything was fine until the Assassins went after the small family. Catherine had been playing in her room all alone. When an undercover assassin offered her a treat with a deadly ingredient. An awhile after Catherine collapsed in her mother's arms with foam at the mouth.
Haytham and Him set out to find Hope in what could have been Catherine's last hours on earth. He remembered suffering from Hope's poison as well. He kept running for his daughter, hoping Hope had enough for himself and Catherine.
He managed to find a vile swallowing whole, hoping Hope still had a second one on her person. When he found none, he ran back in terror. The Templar rushed back to the mansion, but Haytham came out Hope's small lab in her study with the antidote. After finishing his story, he allowed her to take it in.
For Catherine to learn this much information, it was a lot. All she could know that it was a lie, she would need proof. The only time she ever being in New York was when she was 7 years old. She felt her father pull down her shirt.
Shay grabbed Catherine's face with tender care before stroking her cheeks. "My darlin' girl, I love you. As your parents, we mutually agreed that I keep my distance after your uncle's death. After the horrid night, we wanted to dedicate to your protection. We didn't want anyone to hurt you. " Shay stroked her hair. "Your mother loved you so much. I am sorry she is gone, she changed my life for the better and I still don't understand how she chose a fool like me. Though, seeing you here alive and well, I know that she still lives on. From your curly hair and your angle kisses on your cheeks."
Catherine lost it before she sobbed at her father's words before he wrapped his arms around her. "I love you sprout. I just want you safe." He whispered. "I don't want you to be a pawn in Achilles revenge scheme."
Catherine had sat up on her elbows to watch him. He took her hand gently and squeezed it. "Get some rest girl."
A soft tap on the door disturbed the two with Gist opening the door. A large bird came swooping in and land on the old captain's desk. "Hey!"
"Aries?!" Catherine exclaimed pulling away from her father. "I am glad to see you, my friend."
"Aries? Like the god of war?" Shay went to reach to pet the animal, but it nip at fingers.
Catherine smiled, "When he came to me, he was sickly. So I thought if I gave him a strong name he would get better." Aries hoped from his perch on the desk and swooped onto the bedpost. Allowing Catherine to stroke her feathery friend.
"He's a strong creature,"
Shay patted Catherine shoulder, "You should rest." The Templar grabbed a wastebasket before reaching out for the crumble papers. "Do you want me to throw some of this away?" He glanced at the drawings to see women wearing elegant dress designs from the party.
"Aye, I couldn't figure out what to draw." Catherine watched Shay toss the papers into the bin. "When can I leave?"
Shay pushed her question to aside. "I want you to rest until we get back to Boston. We are going home for a while until things settle down."
Catherine was unsure, but she just wanted to rest until she could figure out a proper plan. "Fine, papa."
Shay sat the waste bin down before shooing off the bird from his desk. The bird landed on the edge of the bed to watch over Catherine. "Get some shut-eye, love. We will be setting sail now. If you are feelin' better in the mornin', you can come out on deck."
Shay helped her settle in bed by pulling the blankets over her, fluffing her pillow. "Don't lay on your side until its better."
Catherine just laid there too tired to think as she started to the cloudy glass window. As she drifts into a light sleep. Her dreams plagued with screams and gunfire. She felt trapped and guilt, maybe it was better off that it was her death then her mother's.
Shay sat at his desk watching his daughter sleep soundly unaware the horrors she was dreaming of. He felt as if Achilles had poison his own blood once more, this time it was the vile ingredient of revenge and hate.